I always have a great photographing this lovely family. I first met them at Gymboree when Aiden was just a year old…since then I have photographed them at least once a year. A few years later along came Damien, who is now 3! I feel a bit old 😉 Aiden and Damien are super cute and always are well behaved and listen – yay! They make my job super fun & easy. Their parents are super easy going too and always have great ideas for images. Arieanna does super cool things with the images, like art collages, Christmas cards and calendars. She also uses some of them on her blog, Active Mama. A great resource for all you North Shore Mamas 🙂
This shoot we met at Ambleside Beach in West Van to do their family pictures. A cool spot is over by the train bridge – it adds a neat industrial feel to the images as well as giving the option of pretty scenery images too. We lucked out and got most of the shoot in prior to the torrential rain fall 🙂
I love sessions with this family – I have been taking their pictures since little Oliver was a newborn. I love being able to capture a family as they grown and change, it is such a compliment to be trusted to be the one to save these memories for them. Oliver was the chattiest I have ever seen him and wanted to run and play and giggle…ok, twist my arm. His happiness shine through these images, just as how much he is loved does. Christine and Will obviously take such joy in him…and who wouldn’t. He is such a beauty. We met at a special little spot outside of town that I love to shoot at. (Thanks Beth & Rochelle for finding it with me) It is perfect light morning or evening and the surroundings cannot be beat. The Pacific, a slow river, train bridge, mountains and wild life – yes pls!! We met at about 9am and the sun was just cresting over the mountains, a great time for me as I really like to backlight my images….you may have noticed a few backlit images if you’ve looked at my blog before 🙂 Thanks for checking out this fun session!
I think I have the best job in the world..I am a professional photographer. I get to generally make my own schedule, I meet amazing people and create and capture their memories, I love what I do and it all takes place in this gorgeous piece of earth that we live in. I never lose sight of this and feel gratitude for it daily but sometime I make an image that really, really has all that in it. It has my love of my job, my creativeness, the beauty of BC and a little magic. This particular image is even more special to me because it is of my daughter and her best little buddy. It captured them in a moment of pure bliss, a moment where their little 5 year old minds could barely absorb the beauty around them and it captures them being them. Life unscripted. I like to shoot like this anyways, but this was totally them. Sticking their feet in the cold river, splashing and playing and being silly, forgetting that I am watching them with my camera and just enjoying themselves. I think these moments are so rare and even more rare is to have an image that we can hold and look back on and think, that was a wonderful day. I will be printing this picture for both of them and I will hang it on my little girl’s wall so she can see the magic in her and all around her everyday. I am seriously grateful that I can give her this and to other families too. Thank you to all my wonderful clients who trust me to capture their magic.
Last night I had a special shoot. The District of West Vancouver asked me to go and capture the last night and the last party up at Hollyburn Lodge on Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver. See, the lodge was built back in 1926 and has been home to many celebrations, music nights, parties and dinners, close to a centuries worth. What a compliment to be asked to shoot this special evening, where some of the original visitors of this special place were there to celebrate the history and stories that they helped create. We all hiked up to the lodge on Cypress Mountain as it snowed softly around us (bizarre for April 24th) and I’m sure everyone felt the magic of the occasion. The youngest visitor there was about 5 years old, and the oldest, 93; both were busting up the, albeit uneven, dance floor. The early stages of demolition have begun and part of what I was to photograph in West Van that night was the graffity, 20’s style in the wood. Simple carvings of peoples names and dates, the earliest dating back to New Year’s Eve 1928. 1928?! That means they boated across the water from downtown to West Vancouver and then hiked all the way up Cypress Mountain to Hollyburn Lodge to bring in the New Year. Amazing! I shot all the etchings I could find and then focused on capturing the final party. There was great music, food, drinks and dancing and I am sure the night was reminiscent of parties of the past. Mother nature seemed nostalgic too and she brought a fierce snow storm upon the night. The most snow fell last night then any night all season….seems unreal for late April, but it added the magic of the night. Before I left the lodge for the final time, I was sure to take a picture of one of the first visitors to the lodge and the one of the biggest supporters of its revival, Iola. Iola has grand plans for the lodge and last night as we said goodbye, we also said hello to the new plan. A new lodge, built by the people, built with love and care so it is sure to have to same spirit as the original Hollyburn Lodge. Thanks again for having me capture this special evening, I am feel so lucky to have this as my job. See below, a picture of Iola, my new hero. How I wish I had a photograph of her at the lodge 70 years ago to compare.
Iola, one of the first visitors to the Hollyburn Lodge in West Vancouver.
Family pictures at Ambleside Beach
