Vancouver child photographer
Last September, we were very brave. We took our 2.5 year old on a three-week road trip, from Vancouver all the way to Joshua Tree National Park, and back. And we lived to tell the tale.
It's a very pretty tale. Portland, the Redwoods, Inverness, Venice Beach, San Diego, Joshua Tree, the Sequoias, Yosemite, and the Oregon Coast: here it all is.
You know that thing I do, where I photograph a session and blog it a few years later? Yes. Well, I'm not doing that today. This wintery, hot chocolatey, Christmas Gastown family session just happened a few weeks ago. And I love it.
November isn't usually my favourite, because it's a little bit like Narnia, when it was always Winter and never Christmas (except in Vancouver's case, it's always Rain and never Christmas). But occasionally, this month startles me with beauty, and this time the combination of winter & fall, with colourful leaves and blustering wind and thick winter coats, was completely magical.
(Side note, because I know you love it as much as I do: Averi's little outfit is from Leuie, which is very possibly the most adorable children's shop ever.)
Until a few months ago, we lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment next to the beach in Kits, and we loved it so so much. We decided we wouldn't leave until we found a place we could love just as much. So when I saw the rental ad on craigslist for a tiny white and red house with a backyard and windows everywhere, my heart jumped just a little bit, and we spent weeks dreaming about it before we finally signed the lease. This little house is everything we were looking and praying for, and yes - we love it so so much.
I decided to document our new place from Matthias' perspective.
In October, some friends and I had a little unofficial photographer's retreat. As in, we left our husbands behind and took our kids along and all ended up in a rambling old Airbnb home overlooking Shawnigan Lake in Victoria. It was full of furniture that looked like it belonged elsewhere but had somehow ended up here, and creaky hardwood floors, and little handwritten notes from the owner on everything, nicely requesting that we touch nothing at all. (We're still not quite sure why we couldn't hang our coats on what was clearly a coat-rack.) But huge windows overlooked the lake and the fog, and occasional pieces of sunshine found their way inside, and we had fun. For a few days, we barely slept (because the kids were up most of the night), drank copious amounts of coffee, and took SO MANY PHOTOS.
P.S. You can find Jamie's work here, and Katrina's work here. Such lovely talented photographers :)
Katrina is a lovely photographer friend, and this is her sweet family. It seems a little ridiculous that one family could be THIS ADORABLE, right?! That's what I think too.
As probably happens to many photographers, we both realized we hadn't done family photos in a while. So we had the crazy idea to do our two family sessions...at once. We arrived at Jericho Beach at sunset, with families and cameras in tow, and took turns snapping photos. Thanks to our cooperative husbands (and less cooperative children), it was actually a lot of fun. (For us. Maybe not for our husbands. Sorry, darling.)
This is what happens when I get to photograph stylish, happy, carefree clients in beautiful light. Katrina had on the same dress she wore for her engagement photos (I know - after two kids!) and Katrina's mom made the flower crowns for herself and Aletheia. They weren't overdressed or stressed, they didn't mind that the kids smeared blackberry over their faces, and they didn't feel that they had to smile at the camera for every photo. They tickled and laughed and loved on each other, they interacted with their environment, and I was able to capture their real moments - which is always a gift for the photographer, as well as for the family.
So much loveliness.
