Castonguay soon took a welcome hiatus from the chaos of photojournalism. Hired on contract in Montreal and trained in Northern Ontario as a contract glamour photographer, she hit the highway on a 182,000 km trans-Canada tour. It finished up in Fort Nelson, BC, where she parked her broken-down car, opened a studio and ran a photography business in town. Nine months later, with limited commercial opportunities in the viewfinder, she left the small town behind. She struck out for Calgary, Alberta in search of new contract work.

Castonguay’s hunt in Calgary initially left her starving. Contracts – without contacts – were hard to find. She was not eligible to receive employment insurance or welfare. But the Calgary welfare office pointed her in a promising new direction: The United Way-funded MCC Start Up Program.

With an initial $2,000 MCC loan, Castonguay got down to work in Calgary. After much hustle and guerilla marketing, she paid off the loan and successfully landed another $4,000. This netted her some financial independence and a new studio in Inglewood. It wasn’t long before she earned back-to-back Parents’ Choice Awards in CALGARY’S CHILD Magazine. And four years after setting up in Inglewood, Brenda Castonguay Photography was incorporated.

In the six years since landing in Calgary, Castonguay has shaped a career and built a company on hard work and determination. Today, Brenda Castonguay Photography Inc. has grown to serve a diverse clientele. Brenda Castonguay Photography Inc. offers three distinct specialties:

• Intimate and Interactive studio sessions offer black and white portraits of newborns, infants and children with their families. The portraits have won awards as a result of Castonguay’s unique eye for human beauty and emotion.
  
  
• Vogue Women studio sessions offer black and white 40’s-style glamour portraits. They are shot using artful and innovative lighting techniques.
  
  
• Array of Lights stock collection captures the surreal beauty of light through changing seasons of Coastal Oregon, northern British Columbia rainforests and Rocky Mountain National Parks. This new commercial collection is for stock agencies and private collectors. Brenda Castonguay Photography Inc. is currently seeking an agent to publish the collection as a book.

In the words of Henry Gordillo - "Spend all of your life on the real thing".

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