Meet Shane Turgeon | Photographer & Multi-discipline Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shane Turgeon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shane, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have four businesses, some with multiple brands associated with them. Each one was born from different ideas, needs and points in my life but ultimately each come back to the singular idea that I could no longer work for someone else in a wage or salary-based system that seems designed more to stifle living than encouraging it. Working 5 days a week, having the same 2 days off as everyone else, only getting 2 weeks vacation a year – if that – is not an appealing way to live for me.

My first businesses were side-hustles to my full-time career in television long before side-hustles became as popular as they are now. I launched my first business, a small toy and comic book show, twenty years ago this year, way back in 2003 simply as a need to fill a void left by a similar event that had temporarily stopped running. I had organized a handful of punk shows previous to that and figured a toy show would be a lot easier to do (and it was!) By all accounts it was a success and became an annual event that grew larger and larger each year. During that time I was also deep in the online Star Wars collecting community and building a name for myself highlighting what was, back then, an incredibly niche and underground area of fandom – Star Wars tattoos. In 1999 I started a website dedicated to the subject, in 2003 wrote my first article on the subject for Star Wars Insider magazine, in 2005 started doing related projects with Lucasfilm and co-wrote a Star Wars collectibles book and in 2007 I wrote and self-published my first Star Wars tattoo book: The Force in the Flesh. All of these endeavours were successful in their own ways and gave me a confidence in myself (and with the clarity of age and hindsight, perhaps a misplaced confidence) that I could turn whatever I set my mind to into a success. While each had significant elements of risk, there was a fearlessness behind those ideas and businesses that came from knowing I had the comfort of a full time job behind me as a safety net.

That heady recipe of fearlessness and a modicum of success and notoriety culminated in 2010 when I decided to throw the comfort of my TV job to the wind and combine all of my successes and passions into one central hub: a tattoo, toy and comic shop called Shades of Grey. And while actually quite successful in its first year, cracks soon began to form in the business and with the people I was in business with. I won’t get into the dirty laundry of it all but after the first 18 months, what seemed at the start to be my biggest, most life-changing accomplishment was now in tatters, on the verge of bankruptcy and something that went from feeling like flying to feeling like cement shoes after being tossed in a river.

Some may say necessity is the mother of invention but at its very root is the need to survive and, knowing full well I didn’t want to go back to the wage-slave life, I did everything I could to shift, pivot, and re-invent what I was doing to keep being my own boss. Life, at that time, was a rollercoaster of insane highs and devastating lows. The state of the business and challenges in my personal life had spiralled me into a major depression which culminated in a nervous breakdown in 2012.

While doing everything I could to keep the shop open, I had also been approached by a production company in New York about having my own TV show based on the brand I’d built for myself in the “nerd world.” It was optioned by the SyFy network and we filmed a short pilot for it in Peru in June. By November of that year, I had recognized the growth potential of my not-so-little toy and comic show and joined forces with another promoter to bring their established and monster comic convention brand, the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo here to Edmonton and in the spring of the following year, had co-founded with them the Edmonton version of the same event. Also in 2013 I started work on the long-awaited followup to The Force in the Flesh which I published in 2015. By this time, the shop was somehow still alive and everything seemed to be firing on all cylinders.

But I was burnt out beyond belief. I was still barely getting by financially. My stress levels were through the roof. And my depression was still overwhelming. It was at this point I made a concerted effort to focus (no pun intended) on myself and on something I’d discovered a passion for after my nervous breakdown: photography.

During that three year period, one of the only things that kept me going through the depression was my dogs. While on my daily walks with them I started to pay attention to small elements of nature that we all take for granted in our day-to-day lives. The dew on the grass, bees in flowers, sunsets, sunrises, etc. And I started taking pictures of these moments with my iPhone 4. Having a background in television meant I already had the fundamental elements of composition, etc, even if I had no real concept of using a proper camera or what photography was as an art form. I was simply taking pictures of nature that resonated with me, sharing them on this new platform called Instagram and finding other photographers whose work was inspiring me to be outside taking more and more pictures. In 2015 I purchased my first DSLR and embarked on a journey that not only changed my life but in many ways saved it.

Over the past eight years, I’ve pursued photography as an escape from my many business endeavours. But of course, I also started to see financial opportunities in photography as well. Having learned hard lessons from my previous missteps in turning my passions into my business, I approached doing this very carefully and methodically and in a way that would allow photography to remain something pure and deeply meaningful to me first and foremost.

These past few years also brought about more challenges to the businesses and that pesky ol’ global pandemic forced the most recent shifts and readjustments in my multi-discipline entrepreneurial-ship. But I’m pleased to say that 20 years on, I’m still running smaller toy and comic shows three times a year, that 13 years on, the tattoo shop, while different than it’s original incarnation, is stronger and better than it’s ever been, I’m still hustling toys and comics and I’ve recently launched a brand new nature photography conference called Lightchasers that just wrapped up it’s very exciting second annual event.

All because I just don’t like working for others. I always say, if I’m going to work for an idiot, it might as well be the one I know best – me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a nature photography generalist and enjoy taking photos of landscapes, wildlife, abstract and small scenes and have a deep passion for photographing the night sky and storms. I started taking pictures of nature with my iPhone 4 between 2012 and 2015 during a severe depression and bought my first DSLR in 2015. Because the night sky was the one thing I couldn’t take photos of with my iPhone, it was the first thing I went about photographing with my camera so I effectively taught myself photography with the night sky, which is a bit of a backwards way of getting into it. But doing so taught me to use my camera in manual mode right out of the gate and set me up for success when I started branching out into other areas.

While initially a welcome distraction from a busy professional life and severe depression, photography began connecting me to myself on a deeper level. Nature has profound ability to heal us and I soon found myself desiring to be outside more and more, camera in hand, chasing new scenes and adventures as often as I could. My depression began to wane and my life started changing to reflect this passion and reconnection. And I enjoyed sharing my experiences with others. I now give talks and lead walks extolling the benefits of nature photography for better mental health and it’s become an underlying theme of the Lightchasers Nature Photography Conference I founded two years ago. Photography can be a powerful vehicle to helping us get into nature, engage in true mindfulness and forget about our troubles, if only for a short while.

Despite my many successes in photography, I don’t currently work as a full-time pro, nor do I have any desire to do so. I do some commercial work from time to time and am the house photographer for a local concert venue but I still try to pursue photography purely for myself first and foremost. It’s part of a greater balance of business and quality of life I strive for both personally and professionally as often there is little distinction between these aspects of my life.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Edmonton has a nickname – Deadmonton. It’s seen by many as a bit of a cultural wasteland with little to do. And truthfully, when friends come to visit, the first thing I do is take them away from the city to the beautiful natural areas and national parks a few hours away.

But this is a very limited view of what is a vibrant city full of amazing people doing amazing things. It’s a vibrancy that I myself don’t explore or enjoy as much as I should. We have a lively music scene that supports both local and international acts, we have a world-class art gallery as well as other places that showcase local artists, tonnes of great eateries and coffee places (or so I’ve heard, I’ve never actually tried coffee (gasp, shock, I know!), a great vegetarian scene and a bunch of fantastic comic book stores. Edmonton is a place that seems to embody a DIY and independent ethos more than a lot of cities I’ve visited. It has it’s problems (and some might say those problems are worsening like most big cities in the West) but for all those problems, it really has a lot of great things going for it as well.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Given the breadth of my story and businesses, there are a lot. But these are the most important.

My dogs, Kwinn and Kneesa. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have had a reason to get up every day when I was at my lowest point. Kneesa sadly passed away in 2020 but Kwinn is still going strong at 13.5 and is my best adventure buddy.

My parents. For everything.

Curtis Comeau, Tammy Slater, and Brandon Best.

Mark Jinks for being an amazing photography pal and adventure buddy.

My IBK jujitsu family.

And shoutout to those who tried to break me. Real success, growth and discovery only come from adversity and challenge. Being in business for yourself, particularly in industries rife with ego, narcissism and big personalities, means you’re going to encounter an awful lot of adversity and challenge. Some days it may break you. Some days you might not want to admit that it does. Some days your disdain for challenging people can be overwhelming. Some days you might not want to go on. But negative feelings and emotions can also be powerful motivators for change and positivity. Without the people who caused me pain and heartache in life and the lessons they each taught me, I wouldn’t be who I am. I wouldn’t have discovered photography. I wouldn’t have the life that I do…a life I can honestly say I love and that I’m very grateful for.

Website: https://shaneturgeonphotography.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shane_turgeon/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-turgeon-9422a8124/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShaneTurgeon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaneturgeonphotography

Yelp: Yuck

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClHgPYwo-8AYTKhxTpR2whw

Image Credits
Wendy Oor