Jill was my roommate at university. We were sort of forced together a few weeks into the first month of school. For some reason, I was put into a French residence…meaning I had to speak French 24/7. I can’t speak French. I had to request a residence transfer, and as it turned out, so did Jill’s roommate. We had a basement room in our residence and were thick as thieves within hours. When we were roommates off-campus, we would skip class (sorry Mom) and meet at home to watch a really terrible soap opera, while drinking really terrible Irish Cream flavored instant coffee…and it was absolutely wonderful. She’s still the one person who beats me to sending an email when I’m thinking of her. Today, I sent her a link to the gallery of her images and the first line of her response was, ‘I was just thinking of you.’ It never fails.

This year, my Jill married her Kris. They’ve known each other forever, they’ve traveled and taught around the world together, and they finally had a surprise wedding in March. The distance made it difficult for me to attend, and I missed their wedding celebration party this summer as I was shooting another wedding in Victoria. My present to them was this rainy day session at one of their favourite places, Melmerby Beach.

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.

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.

Liz and Seamus were married on September 26th at Craidelonna Ocean Edge Lodge in Sooke, BC. The lodge was a beautiful setting for the entire wedding and situated high above the Pacific, the backdrop couldn’t have been more beautiful. Ritchard and his staff worked tirelessly and created a stunning ambiance for the day. I first met Liz at the beginning of the year, and she said she heard about my work from their friends, and my past clients Kristy and Jeff. When I first met Seamus on the wedding day, I asked him if he was at Kristy and Jeff’s wedding last summer and he replied nonchalantly, ‘No, I was actually over competing in the Olympics in Beijing.’ Turns out, humble Seamus is a two-time Mountain Bike Olympian. We had a good chat about that while he was getting ready that morning, and if anyone could battle a case of wedding day nerves, I’m positive it would have been Seamus. Liz was full of laughs while she was getting ready as we needed a collective effort to get her into her dress…I was shooting and helping to tie it up with her bridesmaid at the same time. One additional image from this wedding is featured over on the Photographer Network blog as Photo of the Week. A beautiful wedding, a genuine couple, and great guests.

Jess contacted me for an engagement session for herself and Dusty. They got engaged on Christmas Day and are in the process of planning their wedding for next year. We started out on top of Mt. Doug and then made our way to a quiet little beach that they like to visit with their dog. Jess and Dusty were completely laid-back and were willing to do absolutely anything asked of them….even heading into the chilly ocean while looking fabulous the whole time.

I had a ‘just because’ session with Amel and Pierre this week! They’re celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary this year…well, their 3rd ‘Lebanese Anniversary’ and their 2nd ‘Canadian Anniversary’. I photographed their Canadian wedding in Victoria almost a year after they were married in Lebanon during the war and we patiently awaited Pierre’s arrival to Canada to have the celebration here! Talk about a beautiful couple!

I get many emails and comments about folks wanting to see an actual photo of me. Well, here’s one. Yesterday, we went to the beach after getting our favourite super-charged-hot-caffeinated-bevvies at Caffe Fantastico and a treat at the best bakery in town, Pure Vanilla. When I’m not shooting on the weekend it’s just part of our routine, and I love each and every second of it. We went to Willows Beach sipped our coffee, ate our snacks (truth be told, mine was finished by the time we even reached the beach) and I hauled out my camera to take a few photos in the wind. Jamie’s behind me standing on a piece of driftwood.

A few weeks back I had a session with singer/songwriter/musician Paul O’Brien. Many of the images were taken at Maarten Schaddelee‘s studio before finishing up our session at the beach near Paul’s house. The images are for his upcoming album which was recorded during March in Germany with Stockfisch Records. With August as the anticipated release of the new album, Paul is heading back to Germany to tour in September. Until then, you can catch him playing at the Irish Times Pub!