Life & Work with Terri Shattuck of Kalamazoo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Shattuck

Hi Terri, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My photography journey has been both long and short. The long part is I’ve always been interested in photography since a teenager, but I have had short stints throughout my life. I would say that my journey started in high school when I took a photography class back when there were dark rooms. I had always been in art classes, but I loved the challenge of seeing the everyday world in different ways that photography brought to me. But the hobby ended once I started working full time and hanging out with friends well into my 20s.

My second stage of my photography journey started when I moved to Michigan to begin my environmental studies at Western Michigan University. I was very lucky that my college research provided me an opportunity to present at a seminar in Hawaii. I didn’t have a camera, so I bought one while there. I couldn’t be in Hawaii without a camera! My mom, who loves and instilled my love of travel, took advantage of my opportunity, met me there, and we spent a few days traveling around the islands after the seminar. Anywhere I went after that I had that camera on me. Once social media took off, I started posting and people really started commenting on how good they were, especially the composition. Unfortunately, that camera was stolen a few years later and my photography journey was on pause once again.

My third, and present stage, started once I met my future husband. I told him my story, how I missed taking photos, and to my surprise he bought me an intro Nikon DSLR. I was so excited! But I admit I was a bit intimated to learn new settings and it sat on my shelf for a while. But my passion for travel and capturing what I saw was still there. During the pandemic, I picked up the Nikon, determined to face my fears, and headed out in search of…well, it turned out to be barns. They were an easy subject, and it brought me back to my childhood of summers living on my grandparent’s farm. During this time, I also captured my love of nature during my hikes into the woods and along the beautiful beaches of Michigan. I shared my barns and nature photos on my personal page, but I felt like I wanted something more to do with this hobby that turned into a passion.

I didn’t plan this, but it was on Earth Day, April 22, 2022, when I decided to start a photography business and created my Wilder Roads Photography pages on Facebook and Instagram. I remember being so nervous and excited. It has been nearly 3 years since I started this current phase with my Wilder Roads Photography business, and I plan on continuing well into retirement. My Facebook and Instagram WRP pages continues to grow, and I had some good runs as a rising creator and being a featured artist. I started doing art fairs last year and will be expanding into an Etsy shop or some type of online shop for passive income. My not so far future entails me being retired, RV traveling the wilder roads throughout the US, and taking photos along the way.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Besides the struggles mentioned above? Lol I don’t know if my family struggled per se, but we never had much money. My parents divorced when I was young and living on a nurse’s salary was pretty limiting. But mom always found a way to expose my sister and I to the bigger world. Whether that was taking us to the free Philharmonic Orchestra events, the zoo, dance and piano lessons, or traveling 15+ hours by train to see family in Colorado, I never felt like I was missing out. When the consumer age of the 1980s was in full effect, I turned to the skater and punk scenes, the antithesis of the Reagan and Valley Girl era. I felt like a misfit kid. I hung out with the street kids rather than people from high school. I met so many different people from schools across the city and different backgrounds but we all got along. Finding my path after high school took a while, but life has a way of leading you where one needs to be. And that was going back to my love for nature and travel that brought me to Michigan to get my geology degree which combined both of those loves.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I graduated Western Michigan University with my geology degree, with an emphasis in hydrogeology (how water moves within the earth) and had plans to work in the environmental consulting field. I did for a while, but life eventually led me to working for the State of Michigan. Instead of drilling holes in the ground and collecting soil and water samples, I work in the environmental compliance department. I don’t get to travel as much as I did as an environmental consultant, but I do get to see what people do for a living in my corner of the state, see the industries, and what they make.

One of my proudest career periods was when I worked on a large oil spill in southwest Michigan. People from all over the United States was here to work very long hours. I especially remember the folks from the bayous of Louisiana who came up with their air boats and made crawfish boils in crock pots on the banks of the river. I could not understand them at all but they were a lot of fun. While the spill was a disaster, the work done to remediate the miles and miles of land and water made the river cleaner than it ever had been. A dam was removed to allow for better fishing and recreation opportunities for other nature lovers like me. I worked years on the project and missed it when it was over, but I was glad I was no longer needed as the work was finally done.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite times as a child was when my cousins and I spent a week each summer at Grandma’s camp. Our grandpa was there, of course, but I guess it had a better ring saying Grandma’s camp. I had a lot of cousins, and most were girls, so I thought it was great. We had the run of the farm, the pond, and the creek way down the road past the pig farm. Boy did that place stink! Riding on the tractor as my grandpa plowed the fields was always a special time for us kids. We’d catch fish out of the pond and watch as he would filet them for dinner. We’d play croquet, baseball, climb all the trees, and swim for hours. At least once we would all go to the grocery store in the nearby small town in Ohio. Seeing so many kids at once always created a scene in town. I remember we were written up in the local newspaper about all the kids who came to Grandma’s camp. It was the best time, and we all have so many fond memories of that time.

Pricing:

• $10 for 5×7
• $40 for 8×10″
• $60-80 for 11×14″
• canvas and metal from $100-$400

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/wilderroadsphotography
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/wilderroadsphotography