My Da is in the process of building himself a house. He’s an amazing carpenter and has finally, sort-of, settled on a design for his home…or ‘shanty’ as we like to call it. He’s building it all by himself in between building homes for other people. His backyard is the Atlantic, and he’ll be able to blast his Celtic music as loud as he likes and the roar of the ocean will cover it up! While he was working on the house, I would take walks up the hill to see the progress and hear a few stories here and there.

One last post from all the photos I took of my sister Shannon during my trip home. She was a good sport and a willing subject and was pretty much game for anything I suggested…even if it did involve getting absolutely soaked in the Atlantic mid-session.

Shoshanna Fraser is a Cape Breton photographer who contacted me after I returned to Victoria last fall from my visit East. She was pregnant at the time and was hoping to have some maternity photos taken and since I usually head home for my annual visit in October, that shoot wouldn’t work out. We managed to make plans for a shoot during this trip and planned to shoot rain or shine. Her daughter Finley (in Shoshanna’s words), is a ‘tough Cape Breton girl’ and at 7.5 months old, she tolerated the wind, rain, and chilly temperatures on our early morning shoot at Little River Wharf. Thanks to Merrill’s shack, we were able to still shoot and get some shelter from the elements.

Bhreagh and I met way back in the days when we were both students at the Gaelic College. She’s a great fiddler and played many gigs with those of us in the Gaelic College Pipe Band at the time. We met for our session at her Aunt’s house in St. Ann’s, just around the corner from the College. Bhreagh’s brother and sister came along to the session, and although everyone was pretty tired from the Celtic Colours Festival Club the night before, we had a pretty good time kicking around the property. Speaking of kicking, Bhreagh’s daughter Ainsley is quite the Irish dancer and showed us some moves on the shed step (aka trying to stay warm). Stay tuned over the next while for another post featuring Bhreagh and her band, Woven.

It makes sense to put the past two blog posts back to back. Not only were they shot on the same morning, the moms in these two families are sisters. Kelly’s sister True contacted me to take some photos of her two kids, Owen and Olivia during my visit home. We met at Petersfield Provincial Park on the Northside and Kelly and her family met us at the end of True’s session for a few photos of the cousins together.

I have been coming home for three consecutive years in October, and each year Kelly is the first person to book her portrait session. It has been pretty special for me to see her daughter Drea grow up and compare the photos year to year. This session turned out to be a bit different since it was the first time I was able to convince Kelly and Michael to hop in front of the camera with their girl for a few frames….it’s pretty clear that Drea loved that idea! We lucked out with sunshine for their session, lots of wind, and even a heart-shaped cloud. Quite suitable if you ask me!

There’s just something about kids from Cape Breton that make me laugh…I guess we just ‘get’ each other. Roblyn contacted me a long while back about taking photos of her 5 year old daughter Erin. As soon as I arrived home on the Island, so did the rain…and the freezing rain, hail, and snow. With a few tweaks in our schedules, we managed to arrange a session for Erin on the only day the sun came out from behind the clouds. Roblyn went to great efforts to find some really super locations and Erin did the rest. She had me in stitches the whole session and is quite possibly the funniest 5 year old I have ever met.

Still enjoying Cape Breton….a few images from my backyard and the view of the Atlantic I had while growing up on the North Shore.

Kimberley Fraser and I go way back to the days when we were both instructors at the Gaelic College. She’s an outstanding Cape Breton fiddler and a student at the Berklee College of Music. While I was visiting in March, I met with Kimberley earlier in the week when we played together for Berklee’s International Folk Festival and we decided then and there that we’d spend an afternoon together to take some photos. She was playing tunes during our session and I was having a really hard time keeping still and not tapping my foot the whole time…she’s such a great player! If you’re a lover of Cape Breton fiddling check out this video of Kimberley playing at the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou, Cape Breton.