Picture Perfect by Mary MacKay permission for reproduction has been granted by the Charlottetown Guardian

Waldron Leard of Kingsboro stakes out the streets of Souris to capture the photo of the day, the Matthew McLean building to post on the website created by him and his 17-year-old daughter, Susan, to showcase the natural beauty of Eastern Kings. (GUARDIAN PHOTO BY MARY MACKAY)

One daily diary is an open book to the people of Souris and an international Internet audience. In fact, the website, which is entitled Today in the Life of Eastern Kings and features a new photograph depicting scenes of the area each day, has drawn responses from across Canada and as far away as Norway and New Zealand.

"There's a guy out in British Columbia (who) wants to see pictures of Main Street in Souris with snow in winter so we're going to go to Souris to see what we can find," Waldron Leard of Kingsboro says of the day's photo target.

"If there are no cars in front of the Matthew McLean building that will be the shot of the day. But if there are too many cars in front of it, I'll have to find something else."

For the past 80-some days, Leard and his 17-year-old daughter, Susan, have been adding to the photo montage that shows the scenic vistas and local landmarks of Souris and surrounding area.

The website concept actually started with Greg Kent of Priest Pond who telephoned Leard last year asking for advice on creating a photo-laden website for the Eastern Kings Community Council.

Sadly, not long after that, Kent passed away unexpectedly.

"I felt really bad. Greg was a great friend to everybody up here and a real community guy and everything. So all summer we were wondering how to do this," Leard says.

In the fall, when Canada World Youth participants came to Souris, the idea started to take shape.

"I met two or three of them from Ghana and they wanted to know what it was like here in the winter," Leard says.

"It was kind of hard to describe when it's commonplace. You're trying to describe it to people who have never experienced snow."

So he and Susan, who started learning about web sites and how to create them as a way to kill time during storm days a few years ago, thought about sending photos to the youth. However, they realized the process was too cumbersome so they chose to post them on a specific website.

It went online in October and featured one local photo shot in the area each day.

The images quickly built up. The father/daughter duo was on the verge of removing the backlog when someone requested they archive the pictures to track what the weather was like on a particular day in the past. Archived photos are now condensed to thumbnail size to contain the mounting numbers.

There is no stockpiling of photos so every picture that is taken is a visual diary at that point in time on that particular day.

"And the reason why is the weather. There's such an interest in the weather. The weather is very, very important to people. And so if we take a picture today, this is what the weather is like (for this exact date) and they see it online, when they go into the archives they see this is what Souris looked like that day."

Leard is unable to drive due to health reasons, but there's plenty of help from people in the community, the names of whom he lists on his website.

"We've got so many little nooks and crannies here that are drop-dead gorgeous," Leard says.

"It's actually become fun, it's not a chore. It's a thought process, you're trying to think what time of day that something is going to look its very best. There are some spots that you see, you've gone and taken a photo of it and you say, 'Oh, "I like that, but I'm coming back to this in August and I'm going to do it a slightly different angle at a sunset, for example.' "

Leard avoids including people in the photos, with the exception of someone who might be integral to the scene such as someone fishing in a river scape.

People photos make it into events and review section of the website.

"There's a bit of fun with this until we can get the formula down. And we are reacting to what people say to us in e-mails."

Some pictures have triggered memories. One man in Ontario wrote a long e-mail about a pond that fed into the Souris River that was his childhood fishing spot.

"I thought if I find that pond sometime and we get that picture and get it online sometime and he sees it, then he's going to have some happy memories," Leard says.

"If people see this for the first time and they're not acquainted with P.E.I. or the area, perhaps they'll see a photo and there's a bit of magic to it and they may say I want to go see that for real."

Leard is concentrating his photographic efforts on the Souris regional high school district to contain the possibilities to one particular area. But he suggests this genre of photo display might be a project for someone else in the Morell, Montague, O'Leary or Tignish areas, for example. He is also willing to share the details of how to do it with anyone interested.

"It's just a way to express my love for the place," says Leard, whose family has lived in the area for more than a century.

Once he reaches home, within 10 minutes the image is online. The Leards also include a map pointing to the area where the photo was taken for geographical reference.

There has been response from all over Canada and internationally.

For example, a United church minister and his wife who used to preach in Souris more than 40 years ago who now live in Saskatoon, Sask., have taken the time to write.

"So in a way that's giving them a little bit of magic, too," Leard says.

"Their three children were born here in Souris and I see from time to time they're looking in because they're Islanders. They live in Saskatchewan and Alberta and that but they're Islanders."

Mildred Ehler, administrator for the town of Souris, says the whole online venture has been very positive.

"A number of people have already contacted me to express that they watch it. They're from people who are from off-Island and following what's going on in their area back home."

The website has also captured the interest of people who live in the region, she says.

"I think it tends to project the area as a whole, the one Eastern Kings area as one unit. It's a huge credit to Waldron. He's so knowledgeable about the area and is open to use his time and talents to promote Eastern Kings."

Leard hopes the diary of photographs will serve as a visual record of the area in years to come.

"It's the extension of our history.

"We are preserving the history of today because we're taking a photograph, we're labeling it on the precise day that it was taken, and somebody 30 years from now or 70 years from now may taken a look at these pictures and these pictures may become valuable to them as a historical document."

The website is located at Today In the Life of Eastern Kings . . .

Copyright
Waldron H. Leard