What stemmed from riding the Tramway up Whistler’s Mountain working as a tour guide looking out the window, taking photos of the view is turning into a full-time gig for local photographer Mike Gere, who has his work on display at Coco’s Café.

The Ottawa native, who has been living in Jasper for eight years, has Through These Eyes, a display of canvas prints adorning the walls of the café and available for purchase starting this week until October 5.

“Some of them are photos that people have seen before, but they are mainly going to be on canvas this time. I sort of experimented a few at the galleries I had at La Fiesta and the Tekarra Dining Room,” says the self-taught photographer. “There are canvas prints there, but just small ones. I’m actually putting together right now several larger ones that are going to be up at Cocos. Some of them are from Quebec City, Montreal, from Cuba, and there’s a bunch that are local photos.”

Gere attributes his photographer start to Hugh Lecky for whom he shot rafting photos for at Jasper’s White Water Rafting, where he learned lab work and says he still helps him out today.

When he’s not taking photos, Gere is a raft guide, but says in the next couple of years he hopes to make it a full time job.

“I started shooting weddings, and I’ve got a fair few bookings through the summer, this is only my second year actually promoting it,” he says. “Probably in a couple of years’ time I will be self-employed. I pretty much am at this point, but a little while longer and it will be a full-time job. It kind of almost is already.”

Being a photographer in the mountains is something that Gere says goes with his way of life in Jasper. “The thing that I like is that it just comes hand in hand with my lifestyle. I like getting out there and playing, I like hiking, I’m a raft guide for a living, and just scrambling up a mountain or going out on a river or a lake. Wherever it is I go I have my camera with me all the time. I think that is what I like the most about it, it’s just a hobby that I can take everywhere I go.”

Mike Gere’s photography work can be seen until October 5 at Coco’s Café in Jasper. For more information visit www.geresgp.com.