In November I had a session with The Fretless. They’re a brand new string quartet comprised of super-talented members Ivonne Hernandez, Karrnnel Sawitsky, Trent Freeman, and Eric Wright. They were meeting in Victoria to record their debut album, and since they come from Vancouver Island via Boston, Saskatchewan and Los Angeles, it made sense to have their promo photos taken while they were all in the same city. It was a freezing day, but we managed to stay warm with hot soy beverages and laughter…lots of laughter. If you head over to their website, you can hear a few tracks they recorded. I was sent three tracks to preview last evening, and it’s really good so I’m looking forward to hearing the whole album! Don’t be confused when you see the name Mile Zero…that one was on the drawing board for a while, but they are now officially ‘The Fretless‘.

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 a session yesterday with Ivonne Hernandez, Trent Freeman, Karrnnel Sawitsky, and Eric Wright. They’re a newly-formed string quartet, recording soon, and you’re going to want to hear them! More to come down the road once I get caught up on these family sessions.

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.