In the beginning.......
The journey begins...actually, where does it really begin? A young boy watches “Adventures in Paradise” as Adam Troy sails the schooner Tiki III, a young girl reads Thor Heyerdahl's “Kon-Tiki”- and the flicker of an idea to discover the world blooms. Reg tells his mother “I’m going to do that” and she replies “of course you will”. Teri watches her father’s travel slides every year with great anticipation and thinks someday that will be me. Reg watches his father build a boat and Teri stands with the wind in her face aboard her fathers Chris Craft “Kismet”. It’s no mistake that our website is called “The Journey Is Our Destination”.
Teri GilmanLooking back on choices that formed my life, there were serendipitous events and deliberate choices that led me to my career, my husband and Canada, my home. In 1972 my father returned from Japan with a Minolta 35mm camera. His first week back, I borrowed it. The direction of my life changed and he never got the camera back. Having decided that I wanted a creative career that would allow me to travel - being a photographer seemed to fit the bill.
Creativity has always been important to me, and I have always enjoyed it more when it was combined with commerce. “I do what I do for love and for money” was always my mantra. At age 18 I had already achieved, what was then, my life’s ambition (to create and sell clothing in my own store). In the 60's, I may have thought of myself as a hippie but I was certainly an entrepreneurial hippie. I opened the Odyssey Boutique in Morgan Hill, California when I was 16. It was a successful venture but going to college was always on my horizon. My next stop was Berkeley as an English major and then onto the University of California, Los Angeles. I graduated with a BA in Design from the UCLA School of Fine Arts. I was a professional photographer for over 30 years. My work has appeared in People magazine, the opening to Hallmark Hall of Fame’s after school special “Growing Older”, the PR firms of some of the best known movie stars and ads for the 1984 Summer Olympics. The last 15 years of my business, I specialized in annual reports and corporate capability brochures. I am best known for my work with Fortune 500 corporations and institutions such as: Bank of America, Walt Disney, Ford, IBM, United Way, UCLA and University of Southern California. I’ve photographed on five continents and have, for most of my career, worked on location. To get the right shot: I’ve hung out of a helicopter over a volcano, traveled to the interior of China where few foreigners had been, was surrounded by a herd of elephants on the African savanna and photographed windmills in the desert at dawn. It wasn’t all glamor and excitement. I’ve worked for 10 hours, on a mountain of fertilizer, the “s**t” literally up to my knees - to get the right shot. I have been fortunate to have my work recognized by my peers and the industry. I have received the Kodak Award for Photographic Excellence and awards from the New York Film and Television Society, International Association of Business Communicators and the International Society of Public Relations. When my husband (Reg) and I stepped out of the fast lane to see the world from the deck of our sailboat, our clients thought we were crazy, family and friends scratched their heads but still cheered us on. My career couldn’t have been better preparation to embark on the current chapter of my life. Photography is about relationships, logistics, control and serendipity. Location photography is about the unknown, the unexpected and being prepared - so prepared that the unexpected is anticipated. Successfully traveling off the beaten path depends on this. At the beginning , I could not have imagined how exciting and rewarding this journey is proving to be. I am still exploring the world though my photography (now I do it just for love), enjoying other creative pursuits (now that I have the time) and, with Reg, exploring living, loving and other small revelations. |
Reg HutchersonBorn and raised in Detroit, Michigan; I grew-up within walking distance of the: Fisher Theatre, Detroit Institute of Arts and Wayne State University. I am a graduate of Highland Park College and Western Michigan University. My continuing education and professional development took me to Stanford University School of Medicine, Baylor University College of Medicine and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
Following university I moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada where, I worked with socially and emotionally disturbed children, followed by a brief stint as a model, actor and dancer working in Toronto, London, Paris and Munich. On my return to North America, I took stock of my experience and started planning for my future professional life. Following an evaluation of my skills and experience, I decided my future lay in business. I entered the business world as a pharmaceutical sales representative for Norwich-Eaton Pharmaceuticals. With time and hard work, I became the marketing manager for several companies in the medical products industry. And, in 1986, I opened my own consulting firm; Hutcherson & Associates, specializing in “Strategic Business Planning”. Our client list grew to more than sixty high profile North American businesses, governments and organizations. To name a few: Colgate Palmolive, Hewlett Packard, Scott Paper, SPAR Aerospace and the government of Canada For many years, I have been fortunate to be able to take time out of my business life to travel and see the world. When my wife, Teri and I moved aboard our schooner “BlueTopaz” our objective was to experience the world by spending enough time in a place to immerse ourselves in the culture and become, in some small way, part of the community. Our travels have taken us throughout Canada and the U.S., the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Europe, Egypt, Madagascar, Ecuador including the Galapagos Islands, Guatemala and the Pacific Coast of Mexico. We have lived, at sea-level, in the crystal blue waters of the Bahamas and at 8,300 feet in Andes in a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We have travelled: the “Avenue of the Baobabs” in the remote reaches of Madagascar, the “Avenue of the Volcanos” in the Andes and the length of the Egyptian Nile. We’ve: swum in “Thunder Ball Cave” in the Exumas, hot-air ballooned over the “Valley of the Kings”, climbed the temple pyramids of Tikal and Yaxha in Guatemala and camped in the Redwood forests of California. In all this time, our enthusiasm for adventure has only sharpened. There’s still lots more world to see! 
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....and the story goes on.
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