Today it was grey in Victoria, but I edited this set of images from Nova Scotia in August and it felt like summer all over again. This was my last visit with my best friend Jill before she gave birth to her awesome daughter Gretchen. I wanted to take some maternity photos for her, showing Jill as I know her. Jill is fun, she laughs, she loves her family and dogs, and she loves being at her cottage. This hot August day, we drove to the cottage to hang out with her family and swim. Jill didn’t know I was going to take her photo, I sort of sprung it upon her. She started killing herself laughing because she was in her bathing suit for the photos with her hair messy from the salt water, and just a few weeks away from having her baby. All I could think of was while we were university roommates at Mount Allison, how she said she loved the smell of sunshine on your skin after a day at the beach. To me, the images sum up Jill and Kris, and now they’re one person better with Gretchen. Love these guys.

Following my session with the McKinnon Family, I had a session with the Lake Family. Emerald is one of Angela’s highland dancing students. Emerald’s mom (also named Angela), wanted to get some photos of Emerald in her highland dancing outfit before we started the family portion of the session, and you wouldn’t even be able to tell it was freezing outside. Emerald was an absolute trooper in the cold!

I had my second annual McKinnon Family portrait session during my trip East. I drove to Lunenburg to meet Angela, Matthew and Maria and we spent a few blustery, cold hours taking some photos around some fishing shacks and downtown Lunenburg.

When Finley got a new little sister, it was time for another family session with Shoshanna and her family. This year I went to their home in Balls Creek, Cape Breton for their session, and we had a bit of a warmer day than our last session a few years back. It was pretty neat walking into their home and seeing giant canvas prints of my images all over their walls! Hopefully there’s some wall space for some more images, because Isla needs her own wall of giant prints!

Kent was a grade ahead of me in school. I think Sara and her sister were the first set of twins I ever saw as a little kid, because I can still remember the day clearly along with the confusion of seeing two of the same person. Kent and Sara got married and now have the sweetest little baby boy named Lawson. When I went to their home in Baddeck for their session, Lawson was just a month old and he was pretty sleepy …it’s hard work doing all of that growing! Alexander Graham Bell’s boathouse is on their property, so they dressed Lawson up in his warm bear suit and we went outside for a few photos. He stayed awake for about five minutes and then passed out again for another nap. It was really great to finally have a session with Kent and his family as it’s been in the works for some while. I’m really looking forward to seeing Lawson grow up through the years…he’s pretty lucky to have such cool folks.