British Columbia Magazine

Just try not to say awwww! This photograph of an adorable seal pup comes to us from reader Brenda Johima, a photographer and artist living in Vancouver Island’s Fanny Bay. She was exploring Tofino’s Long Beach recently when she happened upon the animal. Armed with a telephoto lens, Johima plopped down in the wet sand a good distance away, so as not to disturb the animal, and composed several shots.

“I LOVE wildlife, and as a photographer, it is always exciting to find something totally unexpected,” she says.

Have you had a close encounter with B.C. wildlife? Submit your experiences to www.shareyourbc.com for a chance to win a one-year subscription to British Columbia Magazine.

At British Columbia Magazine, we spend a great deal of time thinking about you, Our Readers. Would Our Readers prefer to see this stunning scenic photograph, or that one? Would Our Readers enjoy an article on Topic A—or is Topic B the better choice? Will this caption (or headline or sentence) be clear to Our Readers? Have we provided all the information Our Readers will require to fully understand the topic? And on it goes.

So when we get letters from you, telling us that you’re enjoying the magazine, it makes our day! We share them around the office and then get back to work with renewed vigour. Your constructive criticism is just as valuable as your praise—we take all feedback seriously.

In each issue, we include a selection of letters we’ve received from Our Readers, but there is never enough space to run them all. That’s where our website becomes useful. To see a full array of recent letters to the editor, visit www.bcmag.ca/issue.

While you’re online, click to our Contact Us page and take a moment to let us know what YOU think of the magazine. Include the subject line “Mailbox” and we might include your comments in an upcoming edition of the magazine.

Each time a new issue comes out, readers send a flurry of messages to our editorial e-mail box. “Loved the photography!” “What an amazing story!” “I can’t believe you didn’t include my small town on your map!”

Sometimes, we “behind the scenes” editors get to hear from our readers firsthand, as both Jane and I have in the past week. I was visiting my optometrist’s office (not time for bifocals yet, ha-ha!) when Nancy, one of the medical office assistants, waved me up to the front counter.

“Anita, I just wanted to tell you how much I’m enjoying the latest British Columbia Magazine,” Nancy said earnestly. She subscribes and always enjoys the magazine, she said, but the historical photo essay marking British Columbia’s 150th anniversary had really grabbed her.

“When my new issue came, I picked it up just to have a quick look, and an hour-and-a-half later, I was still reading it!” She particularly liked that our essay included stories from the entire 150-year period, from 1858 right up to present day.

Jane, who is visiting family in Toronto this week, found herself seated next to a reader on her outbound flight from Victoria. They introduced themselves and shared what they do, and when Jane told him she is the associate editor at British Columbia Magazine, he exclaimed, ““I just read the most amazing essay in that magazine!” He, too, had been wowed by “Our history in pictures.”

I asked Jane if the man had realized that he was speaking to the very researcher and writer of that article.

“Yes,” she admitted, “I did tell my seatmate, proudly, I might add, that I wrote that feature. He was all excited! I am famous! (In my own mind.)”

Grin! (She’ll choke me for publishing that.)

Positive or negative, we welcome our readers’ comments. And if you would like to share your feedback more formally, I encourage you to join our Reader Panel. Our research department periodically sends out surveys about the magazine, and you can opt to receive these. (No junk mail, ever; we promise.) A new survey will go out this month, so sign up now to take part!

Amid the many press releases, random advertisements, and spam e-mails that flood our electronic editorial in-box, we occasionally receive a true treat. This snowman family shot, sent by Pamela Ostensen of Norway, brought a grin to my face on a blustery spring morning.

(Just click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.)

It also reminded me of the fun our British Columbia Magazine editorial team had putting together the Winter 2007 “live-action snowmen” photo essay, “Frosty escapes,” and receiving entries to our recent Snowman Photo Contest.

Ostensen writes, “The snowman family was made around 11 years ago by some kids in the area where we used to live. The family is really cute with all the leaves on their bodies. I thought the challenge you gave to your writers was very amusing—so I got the photo out of my old album and sent it to you.”

Thanks Pamela!