portraits

jericho beach love story / Lorel & Sean's Wedding

I don't often photograph weddings, but this one was special.  

Lorelei and I met a few years ago; we were both working at Earls.  I was living with my sister in an attic and missing my boyfriend who was working in Los Angeles.  She was studying acting, she lived just a few blocks away from us & we became friends over slices of pizza.  Throughout the course of our friendship, we have eaten lots of 5-cent sour candies and avocado tempura and Denny's Tsing Tsing Chicken (which they don't make anymore - WHAAAAT?!) & God has given us many crazy adventures together.  

A few years later, I got married and started my photography business; Lorel graduated and became a full-time nanny before going back to school for nursing.  And somewhere in there, she realized that a tall guy who had been her best friend in school (and who, incidentally, loves 5-cent candies almost as much as she does) was the love of her life.  This is the story of the day they got married.

Because they were planning a wedding in Mexico, this was their legal ceremony.  I was pregnant and due just before their Mexico wedding date, so I knew I wouldn't be able to make it for the real ceremony, but this gathering of their Vancouver loved ones was perfect for them: impromptu, delightful, and filled with laughter and hugs and red converse shoes.

It was a little miracle that I was able to photograph this day, because the very next morning, I was at the hospital, giving birth to our son!

 

2 months later...

Hello everyone!  I haven't updated my blog in a couple months, and here's why:

(Yes, he looks like Tintin.)  Matthias is almost 3 months old, and right now, he's smiling happily at the stuffed monkey dangling from his activity gym. 

I've started doing shoots again & have finally sent off all the sessions from before this little guy was born - which means I have many photos to share with you!  I've even got sessions from LAST July that I haven't posted yet.  (I'm not kidding.)  Apparently being pregnant & becoming a mom is time-consuming?  Who knew!

(Matthias just noticed his reflection in the activity gym mirror.  This will keep him occupied for a while.)

While I try to figure out which session to begin with, I'm going to put up a few photos from sessions over the past few months.
 

vancouver portrait photographer // iona beach sunset

September has the best sunsets.

(Yes, I'm blogging a session from September.  Yes, I'm very behind on my blogging.  Yes, I plan to catch up.  Sometime.  Hopefully.  Yes.)

This beautiful lady is also a photographer & she brought along her old camera to Iona Beach.  We wandered around the beach as the ocean dripped golden from the sun & the greens were so very green & the pinks so very pink.  Looking back at this session made me excited for warm sunsets that cause everyone to sparkle and glow.

vancouver photographer // and this was 2013

So before you start - this post is packed with photos.  I don't even know how many photos it has, that's how many  there are.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

It made me smile to look back over all my 2013 sessions - so many amazing people I met and laughed with - families & couples & babies & moms & dads & stories, and each were beautiful in their own way.  I feel so blessed to have met them and been chosen to document their stories.  

I was recently doing a maternity session for a couple I've photographed before, and as I asked her to pose in some strange and uncomfortable position, I said, "I'm sorry - I bet you didn't come here expecting to have some crazy photographer tell you to do this!"   She looked at her husband and laughed and said, "Actually, it was the same last time..."

:) So thank you to everyone who let me photograph you & who put up with all of my crazy ideas.  Here's looking at 2014!

vanier park family photographer // pretty in pink

Amy and her beautiful daughter Averi (I love that name!) were such a joy to photograph.  It was a soft, overcast summer day and they were both wearing pink & the light was gentle and beautiful as we wandered around the beach at Vanier Park.