Here are a few more images from the Indian Engagement party that I assisted Lisa Novakowski of Aspect Arts Photography with a few weeks ago in Kamloops and you can catch the full story on her website. What a gorgeous event and so much fun!

My absolute favourite thing to shoot in the whole world, is stuff like this. Unscripted, quirky, funny, tender moments that
really tell the story. I love images that have multiple stories and I think this one has a few. I am constantly looking for
these unique snippets in time at any session.

I have had a very busy weekend and so far this week has been ridiculous as well. Planning a last minute trip to visit friends in Oregon with a baby and figuring out sleeping arrangements is proving to be tricky, but we are interested in seeing how it will all work out. So stick around for news on that trip in the future!

On Sunday, I had the great pleasure of shooting with Cathy Empey, a photographer specializing in boudoir work. Since I haven’t done anything like this before and have been interested in possibly entering this realm at some point, I thought what better to learn about it than to see how one of the best does it! To be honest, I find this type of work very intimidating ~ there is something so vulnerable and fragile about it but empowering at the same time. I didn’t know if this was something I could do as a photographer but now after seeing the process that Cathy goes through to make her clients feel at ease and the flattering poses that produce gorgeous images, I would be open to doing this type of work. It wasn’t as intimidating as I thought!

Here is one image from that session with our fabulous model. There will be a few more to come in a little bit.

Yesterday, my good friend Naomi came into Vancouver from her Pemberton home to do a creative shoot with me at the A Rocha property in South Surrey. I had been planning this session for quite some time and all the elements came together yesterday for a really pretty farm and social engagement inspired shoot. More details and images will come when my new websites are completed (just got the first glance at the new custom blog today from Flosites and I am so excited!). But for now, here is one from my favourite part of the day under the arbour in the garden courtyard.

I am pretty excited about today’s blog posting. It’s all about Tyler and Amanda. They’re getting hitched in October.

There are some pretty weird connections with these two and my husband and I. Tyler is Josh’s old friend from their Winnipeg days and I went to Columbia Bible College with Amanda’s brother a loooong time ago so how they found each other and how ultimately Josh and Tyler found each other again is nothing short of a very cool set of happenstance arrangements. I’m thrilled to be shooting their wedding and Josh is stoked to be a part of the wedding party. October can’t come fast enough!

Their engagement session found us nosing around the haunt where they had their first date ~ Zulu Records on Fourth Ave. I really appreciate and wholeheartedly welcome location suggestions that have special meaning and this one was certainly important. The owner of the shop, Grant, was so kind and we managed to use the entire store from their wooden spiral staircase to the loft right down to the vintage 60’s LP’s. We then headed outside to the Cypress Community Garden along the Arbutus Corridor for some fantastic portraits. As an aside and if you love gardening, I highly recommend visiting this part of Vancouver. Not only are there some stellar community gardens in this little neighborhood, the City Farmer headquarters are located here as well, showcasing a variety of things including a cob structure, a garden and a collected rainwater system.

Tyler and Amanda looked fabulous and after a few initial snaps, we all got into the swing of things and had a lot of fun. Here are some of my favourite images from our sun-filled evening. Enjoy!

I have been a part of something so incredibly crazy since Wednesday. It is blowing my mind daily.

And I am feeling quite overwhelmed by it all.

I’ve been following the creativeLIVE 5-day wedding workshop with Jasmine Star when I am able to, given that it’s been going on every day the past 4 days from around noon to 5pm. The first day began with discussions about branding and marketing, the second day delved into preparing for the wedding day, the third day was an actual live shoot of a full-on wedding, the fourth, a recap of events and workflow and today, the final day, is about client presentation. Before the whole session began, there was a contest for one lucky couple to have their wedding shot by Jasmine Star and also to have the entire day planned out for them from scratch. It took 4 weeks to put together a wedding for photographer Laura Marchbanks and her fiance (now huband), Billy Boucock in Seattle, WA. The whole workshop has been followed by 6 guest photographers, all at different stages in their business, getting hands-on experience from the in-class sessions as well as all the shooting engagements. And this is pretty much as real as it gets.

It’s something that hasn’t been done before, especially the wedding shoot ~ a live learning experience for photographers all over the world to watch some of the best on the globe do what they do best. Make people look fabulous on their wedding day. And Jasmine makes what she does look so effortless but with all of these elements combined, makes my head spin. She is just.that.good.

I am so so glad to have been a part of this (thanks Mikaela for posting the link on your blog!) and am feeling really overwhelmed right now with all these new considerations. Jasmine’s workshop has been forcing me to look at my little business and ask some hard questions that are quite frankly scary. But she has also inspired me to work harder and work smarter ~ and I have lots to do before I get to where I’d like to be. I know it’s not going to happen overnight but every once in a while, I need a really good kick in the pants and some inspiration along with that to force me into a realm of drastic improvement. It’s easy to coast along and I don’t want that.

Anyways, here is a screenshot of Jasmine working her magic on the wedding day. Seriously, this woman is beyond multi-tasking. She can talk, take pictures, meanwhile taking in the whole scene and what needs to get done all at the same time. Uh-mazing.

A small view of what’s to come….

Today’s posting is about my behind the scenes caretaker ~ my husband.

He’s my fun-loving,
wise advise-giving,
money-accounting,
Fin-sitting,
laundry-making,
dish-dirtying,
beach-walking,
long drive-loving,
heat-hating,
big-dreaming,
car-tooling,
soup-eating,
gluten-free,
best guy.

He is the only person in the world I can spend days upon days upon days with and not get sick of. Ever.

He is the only person in the world that knows the right things to say at the right moment. Even if I hate to hear it.

He is the only person in the world that can make me feel better. When it feels like everything around me is spinning out of control.

I couldn’t have found a better match for me.

Last weekend I had an opportunity to go to Kamloops to not only visit our good friends, the Novakowski’s but also help my friend Lisa with an Indian engagement party (posting on this one yet to come!). It was such a lovely visit complete with a visit to Tranquille, a day full of ethinic foods (Indian and Japanese) and a morning of exploring in the hills.

The day I was leaving we drove out into the vast wasteland that is the Lac Du Bois Grasslands Protected Area. I love the landscape around Kamloops, it is so different from the majority of BC ~ there is certainly something to be said for those treeless, grassy hills that surround the city. It would be easy to get lost on those dirt roads leading to nowhere.

This completes #77 on the 90 in 2010 list!

One from the grasslands….

I’m not quite sure where this interest in folkart owls has come from.

Perhaps it has something to do with Etsy and drooling over everything being sold on it.

Yes, I blame Etsy.

Fin has his own room, although being a temporary living space, is not really his own. Half of the random items in there are not my own and not things I would personally choose to decorate with. Needless to say, his room is more functional than anything and really, does a baby care what colours are on the walls? Probably not.

But I do. I would love to give him a space decorated with vintage boy things and simple, clean colours. I’m starting with these 8×10 prints from Love Sugar Design. One day he’ll get his owl room.

And so completes #63 on my 90 in 2010 list.

I like Kamloops. There is something so stark yet warm and inviting about this interior landscape but there is also a sad piece of history in the city’s outskirts called Padova City or rather more commonly known as Tranquille. I have wanted to go here ever since my good friend Lisa did a posting on her blog about this place a number of months ago. I am a sucker for old things, especially ghost towns. And this is a really good one.

It’s a real short drive from the North Shore in Kamloops and once you get there, your skin already begins to crawl just a wee bit. Old places like this don’t really disturb me but this one is a bit different ~ originally a mining camp, it opened in 1907 as a provincial hospital for Tuberculosis and became known as the Tranquille Sanatorium. Once the TB ended, the town turned into a mental health institution. After doing a bit of research online for the history of the place, you can find a basic background of it here. And legend has it, Tranquille is very spooky.

The property is currently owned by Wilderness Tours Inc. and will eventually be demolished and turned into some sort of resort. It’s a real pity because after nosing around the site for a good hour, you quickly begin to realize what an important piece of history this place is and how much work and finances it would take to restore it to some sort of usable state, even just for historical preservation. Tranquille really was a town  and far larger than I was expecting. There were large hopsital buildings, a school, houses for on-site nurses and doctors, a gymnasium, laundy facility, a power plant and it even had it’s own working farm. Back in the day, the town was completely self-sufficient and today, a lot of the surrounding farmland appears to be leased for use.

We didn’t go inside any of the structures, but for some really amazing images of the indoors, go here.

Mural on the side of one of the hospital buildings.

One of the hospital buildings.

How’s this for a lift? I can’t imagine something this clunky actually working!

A Prosperity clothing press sitting outside of the laundry.

The school.

Only one for now until Lisa gets her blog posting up.

Gorgeous couple celebrating their engagement with family and friends in Kamloops.