vancouver photographer

{vancouver photographer} Elle et Lui

in ,

This is the story of how ze internets make crazy things happen.  (You have to say it like that. 'Ze Internets.'  Using a heavy, unidentifiable foreign accent is a bonus.)  

One early spring day, I took a photo of two friends who were crazy in love, as she jumped into his arms on the cobbled streets of Gastown. I sent it to them and I put it on my blog.  And that, I thought, was that.

Suddenly, it exploded and was reblogged thousands and thousands of times.  It was a little exciting, but mostly just an amusing social experiment, and occasionally I would do a reverse image search to see where the photo had ended up.   (A few examples: a dating website and a Huffington Post article about the power of hugging.  Not to mention numerous tumblr blogs devoted to teenage love, longing and despair, in equal quantities.)  

A year ago, I was asked to use it for the cover of a self-published e-book.  Then, a  few months ago, another author emailed me asking if he could put my photo on his book cover. Since I am clearly not up-to-date on French novelists, I googled his name.  Turns out Marc Levy is the most-read French author in the world.  GULP. And Steven Spielberg made a movie of one of his books. GULLLLP.  So I said yes.

This week, I received copies of the book and saw the cover in real life!  I can hold it in my hands.  My name is there in tiny print and everything.  And if you search under the #marclevy hashtag on instagram, you will see numerous photos of the book lying next to cups of coffee or delicate china plates holding muffins lightly spread with butter.  (You know how it is.  On instagram, you can't simply post a photo of the book you're reading.  There must be food involved.  And latte art, if at all possible.  These are the rules.)

So that was it.  The crazy story of ze internets.  And here is the photo, and here is the book cover.

stanley park portrait photographer / paper airplane dreams

in

Rachel has modeled for me on many occasions in the past.  Most of the time, she had very few good things to say about her appearance in my photos.  So you will understand that when I tell you that this time - THIS time - she had no complaints, I felt, in some small way, that I had arrived.

I spent an afternoon tearing out pages of an old Narnia book (I had two copies - don't worry) and folding them into paper airplanes.  (I did have to google "how to make paper airplanes", I will admit.  And yes, the fact that I couldn't remember how to do this made me feel a little old.)   I then attached red yarn directly in the center of each plane and we set out to the forest, where we tied them onto trees.  

I wanted to create a make-believe world where travel simply involved will-power; where merely wishing you were in Paris could take you to Paris; and where paper airplanes could actually fly.

These are paper airplane dreams.