{iona beach maternity photographer} - expecting Ashe

Tina & Jim are the sweetest.  That is all you need to know.

But I'll tell you more, because I like talking about this session, and because they're just so beautiful together.  Little Ashe was soon-to-be-born when I photographed this session (now he's 5 months old!  Which is crazy.) and his adorable parents were brimming over with happiness and excitement and, well, the fact that they are head over heels in love.  (It felt a little more like an engagement session than a maternity session - their love for each other was so tangible.  And I think that's absolutely awesome.)

This was February; no, you wouldn't think it to look at these photos, but yes, we were freezing the entire session.  And yet - that winter light!  It's entirely unlike the saturated summer light.  It's almost translucent.  A little bit magical.  It shimmers when it touches my lens.  I love it.

The blanket they wrapped themselves in was handmade by Jim's grandmother, and Tina's sweater belonged to Jim's dad.  It's my favourite thing when these small items have real meaning.

And not too long after this maternity session, their little Ashe was born!  HE IS VERY VERY CUTE.  I can't wait to share his newborn photos with you!

{tower beach family photographer} - sunflares & pebbles

I love this family session.

A November day dripping with magical, translucent winter light & filling my heart overflowing with happiness.  A day in which the sunflares found my camera & we lost our breath with the colours of the sunset.

This family is beautiful together; we picked berries & leaves, ran down forest pathways, gathered smooth handfuls of pebbles and watched pink-stained skies drift into yesterday.

{vancouver family photographer} - spring mini family sessions

I've had lots of requests for mini sessions now that flowers and springtime are here - sooo... I'm very excited to let you know that I'm now offering Mayflower Mini Sessions*!

Send me a message through the contact form on this website, or an email at hola[at]emmylouvirginia.com if you're interested :)  Can't wait to hear from you!

*Valid for children & family sessions, from now through the end of May; only at locations within Vancouver; 5 people maximum per session.

{vancouver photographer} Elle et Lui

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.

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{vancouver photographer} euphoria

I can't quite help it, the euphoria that springtime brings.  It sprinkles my street with magnolia petals, stacks my bookshelf with poetry, and fills the vases up with flowers, until there are no vases left and instead I use leftover baby food jars.  

And here is one of my favourite poems, and here are some pretty pictures that I took this morning.  (Don't worry, darling - I didn't leave the flowers perched precariously on top of your guitar.)

   "It is not the tilted buildings or the blind alleys 

that I mind,

nor the winding staircases leading nowhere

or the ones that are simply missing.

Nor is walking through a foreign city

with a ring of a thousand keys

looking for the one door the worst of it,

nor the blank maps I am offered by strangers.

I can even tolerate your constant running

away from me, slipping around corners,

rising in the cage of an elevator,

squinting out the rear window of a taxi,

and always on the arm of a tall man

in a beautiful suit

and a perfectly furled hat

whom I know is carrying a gun.

What kills me is the way you lie there

in the morning, eyes closed,

curled into a sweet ball of sleep

and that innocent look on your face

when you tell me over coffee and oranges

that really you were right there all night

next to me in bed

and then expect me to believe you

were lost in your own dreamworld,

some ridiculous alibi

involving swimming through clouds

to the pealing of bells,

a transparent white lie about leaping

from a high window ledge

then burying your face

in the plumage of an angel."

-Billy Collins, "Jealousy" (Sailing Alone Around the Room)