in advance celebration of her landing a job helping you explore and enjoy yoga, she wanted to get some beautiful new images of her. you know, her love of ease, her love of sunsets, her love of yoga, and her love of her. maybe it wasn’t that in advance of, because she can now be found at balance yoga studios down on lively main street here in vancouver, lovingly eager to release resistance with you.

when she text me this morning, and asked if she won because she has eight mosquito bites from yesterday night, i laughed out loud alone in my apartment. i prepared with more than one bounce sheet, and then OFF! spray. and still i ended up with about double the bites she had. but hey, i can knock out a pretty sweet session in record time, with record bugs. seriously, check out image seven. just try and count them all.
i probably could have ‘healed’ the sky in photoshop, but only if girlfriends paid better ;) but even still, who doesn’t love a dozen mini-doughnuts after the camera goes away. enjoy this beautiful young lady, friends.

for more on jen’s yoga teachings, head over and get in touch with her on her website here.

as winter summer arrived last weekend, lyn and richard rounded up their growing family after a hockey tournament (gee, i feel like i might have had my share of those back in the day) and we wandered one of our favourite parts of the lower mainland as the sun went down.

no competitive genes here hey. i feel like my brother and i MIGHT have been similiar.

because our first trip up to yellowknife was barely six months ago, in february, in the middle of the deep freeze with temperatures consistently hovering around negative 25 degrees celsius, it wasn’t entirely natural to think about yellowknife when it was plus 15 degrees, open waters, and fall colours. i’ve always seen the aurora in the dark of winter, northern norway style, when the sun rises at 11am and sets at 1pm. it wasn’t unnatural to know we’d be watching it in yellowknife on frozen lakes with frozen nose hairs, eye lashes, and eyebrows. but to see the northern lights reflect off lakes, in just jeans, a t-shirt, and an unzipped jacket is still a little unfamiliar, so to see snow in the forecast for yellowknife early next week, has me again, giddy in a winter wonderland.

but until that time, jen and i are going to cherish being able to stroll out to the edges of great slave lake in summer clothes, surrounded by autumn foliage, and chill out watching the water crash onto the rocks with the sun on our backs. …until our next weekend up north, friends, enjoy.

jen, any feelings on being back up in yellowknife?!

we’re a top pilot’s monument for a look over to the sunset and twilight!

there is no real explaining it, but some nights, the aurora just doesn’t come out to play. leaving us for a long, long night watching cloudscapes pass through, and their perfect reflection on the most still lake i’ve ever seen in my life.

i get extreme visions. when i get an idea, and a vision, there’s no letting up. and it sucks sometimes, because things like sunsets are hard to control ;) HOWever, with a strong hunch in my tummy, i ran over to steveston with cates and jacob (for the eighty-third time) and knocked out another sterling evening with a small family i could not adore more.

christye sent me an email thursday afternoon welcoming genius, little luke to planet earth! and not a week before that, we created this beautiful session in queen elizabeth park together. timing is everything! all the best, friends!

there are a few things that are awesome. actually, speaking of awesome – seen those maxwell house commercials? i just discovered ‘the book of awesome’ from one, i think it’ll be in my home soon. there are a lot of awesome things for me. like working for an airline that has some pretty sweet flight benefits. a really cool girlfriend, who has amazing family, and also happens to be drop dead gorgeous. i also have infinite patience, which is great, because travelling standby requires it. sometimes you don’t really get to where you intended when you planned this trip 24 hours ago. like flying into campbell river to spend half a day with a friend, and then drive a half hour to your girlfriend’s grandparents. sometimes instead, you board the other plane that leaves 15 minutes earlier to comox, because there was one seat open on that one, and only a second one because someone mysteriously didn’t show up at the gate for their flight (thanks, friendwhocouldn’tgetyourselftothegateontime).

describing awesome isn’t easy. everyone knows it. we all have our little ‘isms’ that make our lives click. family, tea, bored board games, forest, weather, delicious food, new folks, creating, twilight skies. sometimes i wish i wasn’t so patient, but understanding follows close at hand, and with that comes making peace and enjoying. enjoying the awesome.

sometimes, i make sacrifices to keep in alignment. to keep my little seaniverse in order and running smoothly. there are things i’ll go out of my way to do, and others, not at all. if i decline your offer to go for a jog, and stay home with a pumpkin pie, it’s just because i feel better with the pumpkin pie than i do out of breath resenting my body. but, i can’t eat dozens of pumpkin pies and maintain a high level of stress for my body to thrive. so, instead of doing something stupid like giving up the pumpkin pies, i’ll give up the stress. for short time.

and that’s why kim, easton, and i all got together on the night of game 5 of the canucks and hawks. it had very little to do with kim getting in touch about some photos right around when easton turns one year old. it was more, very selfishly, about me needing to find something to do that wasn’t vancouver canuck stress oriented. but, when we drove to the beach after a wonderful time at granville island, i mistakingly checked my iphone which let me down big time. 3-0 hawks, at the end of the FIRST. shoot me now.

but no one did, so instead, i shot kim and easton. and loved every second of it. they’re adorable, and so fun to hang out with. it warms my heart and fills me with joy to share with kim and easton, what they share together. it’s magical. easton, buddy, today is your first birthday on planet earth. happy birthday! you rock big guy, and you’re born a fan of the good guys.

enjoy folks. kim and easton, round two. exactly where the canucks will be late tuesday night.

“yellowknife?! you know it’s february right…?”

we knew. in fact, it was another driving force behind our (my) desire. wednesday morning, jen and i woke up and scrambled to get downtown early before work because in 48 hours we would be touching down where arctic clothing programs aren’t just a fashion, but a way of life. the forecasted lows hovered around -31 degrees celsius with winds of 20-30 knots a constant over the few nights we’d be outside standing still, creating neck pains you can only understand from personal experience. we both needed to outfit ourselves for winter, and a mid-weight jacket and jeans weren’t going to cut it. unless your name is jason pineau, and you live in yellowknife flying for air tindi. just sayin’, jason.

when we touched down on a snow-packed runway in yellowknife, i felt my heart sink immediately. visibility was maybe two miles, there was blowing snow, and it was overcast at less than a thousand feet. but we were going to see the northern lights. the forecast on my iphone said so. i had eight weather apps on my iphone, and one of them was calling for clear skies in the evening. so i deleted the other seven. i saw what i wanted to see, and we believe it.

well when the dull grey overcast skies started to crack just before twilight, and there were now defined clouds, i jumped up and down in front of jen, pumping my fist telling her ‘i told you! i KNEW IT!’. i was even certain that the sky was cracking so much so that the patches of clear sky were growing a hundred fold with every passing second. and as much as i wanted continue to define my gimp dance on the frozen lake, our tummies were grumbling over the sound of five feet deep ice cracking, so we spent $86 (ask what the market price of arctic char is before you order) on fish & chips at bullocks bistro. and when we came out, ohh, when we came outside again… wait until you see what’s in store next…

jen’s eyelashes froze. as did both of our nose hairs. and we try not to tell the story of the wind blowing snot out of my nose, and onto my jacket which it froze instantaneously to.

i’m thinking now, while i’m sitting here eating gummy bears with half a glass of grape fanta at 03:12am (i know, quite a life i live), that it’s ridiculous we didn’t turn the camera around on the two of us once today. it would have been cute. mostly because in line at starbucks, an adorable little girl whispered something into her mum’s ear, that as it turns out, said with laughter was that ‘i was just informed that you two had kissed’. ;)

complete with, a kiss, yes, but more importantly warm tea lattes, jen and i eased into a photo like shoot. turns out, as i officially stated on twitter, that it was negative forty-seven degrees. and it doesn’t matter if you’re in fahrenheit or celsius at this point, so not to worry american friends.
sweetheart, thanks for being patient while i remembered how to take photos of something other particles coming crashing down into our atmosphere at the poles, or those beautiful metal tubes that fly at 900km/h across the sky ;) you’re the absolute best. and the most ridiculously beautiful. definitely.

p.s. if this is your first time to this post, well lucky you, you don’t have to deal with my on going, never failing, posting-too-soon-beforei’vealreadyeditedeverything… habit. i’ve told myself lately, despite my overly enthusiastic eagerness to share with the world what i’ve created, to sleep on it because i ALWAYS, ALWAYS find a few more hidden gems i want in the blog post. no exception here. except a new record of an additional SEVEN. bet you can’t find which they were. unless you hover over the images for the image title ;)

so enjoy. again.

Growing up, there just wasn’t any other way of describing it – my dad loves to brag about his two kids. A lot. When I was young and knowing I’d be a starting goaltender in the National Hockey League, he was there to tell the world right along side of me. When I was 18 and backpacking Europe alone for two and a half months, he was back home proud of his oldest kid, although I know he was worried to death because I’d never e-mail more than once a month to let him know I was alive. Today, if you’re going to buy a Ford in Vancouver, expect to see my business cards all over his desk and my blog on his computer. He’s just a proud man.

Entre Kim – she braves the dealership with him. Apparently when he’s not – and these are Kim’s words now – ‘a hard-ass on the floor’, they’re outside havin’ a smoke together talking about Kim wanting photography of her seven month old son, Easton. And dad, the next time you throw my name and e-mail out there, can you also throw out there that any phone calls executed to my cell before noon generally begin in that uncomfortable ‘Crap. I just woke you up, but I can feel how hard you’re trying to act like you’ve been awake for a few minutes and you’re just really tired but this is embarrassing and awkward because I KNOW I just woke you up and your acting sucks!…’ kind of conversation. Thanks, dad.

But Kim, thanks for trying so hard to make me feel normal for being fast asleep at 10:30 in the morning, I appreciate it. Future clients, 10% off if you take note. Just kidding. Maybe. Seriously though, I wrote Kim just a few sentence e-mail about an hour ago as I was culling through what I wanted for this post because I caught myself in love with the images as I edited, and in love with life as they were sharing it together. What a beautiful family.

Who closes a slide in a playground?! Really, Vancouver? Must’ve been that six inches of snow that shut down the city for a day ;)

Hahaha. Doesn’t he look ADORABLE all tuckered out from the outdoors?!

Friends, forgive me on slow replies to your mails. My bedroom at home is in boxes, my mattress is the floor and my bedframe is downstairs in the living room. An empty apartment awaits my arrival on December 1st. Good times are before us! Stay tuned – the move, and more of the black sea are upcoming!

It’s one of my least favourite holidays. I hate scary movies, I don’t frequent loud parties, and I’m not a real drinker. So yeah, I’m pretty boring, but that’s your problem – not mine ;)
What I do love about Halloween is pumpkin picking. I’m still undecided about carving, because Jen kicked my ass and wouldn’t admit it the entire two/three/four? hours we were carving on the floor in the living room, but it was fun. And fun moments are what I live for.

P.S. I’m home. And I brought one thousand and sixty seven images with me. Get ready.

yeeeeaaaah. this is the ‘sean, you’re awesome forgetting your house keys and all’ look.

Seriously, look at Jen’s pumpkin up top! AND! She free handed it! Here I was trying to do the fancy stencil thing for Jack & his dog, Zero. Not so much eh? Haha.

On Saturday evening, I met up with Catherine and her one year old son, Jacob. We’ve connected a few times together during Jacob’s journey so far, and every time he’s been the most joyous and curious soul imaginable. It took all of about 15 seconds for him to warm back up to me this time, and within a few minutes he was off and running (literally) all across Garry Point, in Steveston. He didn’t want or need a hand, he was keen to take his steps and tumbles all on his own. Hard to believe he’s barely a year fresh in this world!

On a side note – I’ve got a light work schedule upcoming, so it looks like I may be able to get in some short travels on days off, but nothing is set in stone yet. If you don’t hear from me, I’m probably off camping in freezing temperatures away from the interwebs again ;)

I HATE commitments, to-do lists, time frames, must-dos. They don’t fit my life. There’s nothing worse than having to do something you are the furthest thing from inspired to do. And I did actually try to flip this and find the equal & opposite positive/wanted, but the words didn’t flow as well ;) For nights of inspiration and just all around perfection, there is that equal and opposite. The wanting to keep finding more, to laugh harder, to smile until you’re hunched over because your cheeks hurt so much, and that’s just what we did. It’s nights like with Sarah, such a beautiful, fun, hockey loving, life appreciating, joy seeking kindergarten teacher that make me thankful for staying away from commitments and time frames.

When life feels good, keep creating. The better it gets, the better it gets. Spontaneous decision making about location included ;) Since Sarah & I both admitted to otherwise staying home, probably in front of our computers, Saturday night spent working? WIN!

DON’T tell me how gorgeous her teeth are. And stop looking at mine in comparison. STOP IT! And yes, I had braces back innnnnnnn… grade 7?
Yeah. Sorry about those thousands of dollars, mum & dad. Love you. Ha!

Get ready.

Saturday the 14th – inspiration peaks in creativity at Granville Island with Sarah for our shoot.
Sunday through Wednesday – 40 something images edited for my blog, uploaded & ready to go.
Friday the 20th – my iphone4 from apple arrives.
End of my week through now – productivity FAIL.

So this ISN’T where I ask what your favourite, must have apps are, because I’m not about to hijack (it’s okei, I’m not at work – I can say that word out loud) Sarah’s blog post.
So folks, drop down below, scroll through some of my favourite images to date, tell Sarah how VIBRANTLY beautiful and radiant she is …how can you not adore her eyes closed, nose crinkles genuine laugh?! …and tell me your favourite apps. Via the email button on the menu of course, and not in the comments so we aren’t hijacking this post. (Read this blog post out loud at an airport. I dare you. Ha!

28 more of my favourite images in part two coming right up. And by right up, I mean when I stop playing Angry Birds.

“You are so beautiful, and perfect as you are. Don’t you ever forget that.” They’re not words that are going to change the world, not that this world needs changing – it’s magnificently perfect in all of it’s diversity, but you know… so, every now and then I’ll hear something that just sends thrill bumps down my spine, and Mika’s words were it. In fact, while I was visiting the beautiful & talented Marissa Rodriguez just the other day (online, not in person – since when I read this over it sounded like I met her in person, but nope, just over at her blog. Anyway…) – she was talking about documenting meaningful little moments to her, and it was exactly what I had done when Jax’s mum spoke those words to him. Surrounded in the joy and eagerness of both little Jax & Ellie, I was easily and gently reminded that we are all perfect just the way we are, and beautiful just as we are, and none of that has to change as we gain more life experience.

What is always changing though are some little touches here on my blog, and if you are half observant – I’m sure you’ve already noticed a few of them ;)

meet six month old ben, the cutest young man on the planet! he should’ve made his appearance on my blog a few months ago, but for the last three months life has sort of been happening all around me. i actually work with both his parents at the airport, so if it wasn’t ellen’s texts lovingly telling me that ben was just starting grade school because it had been so long since i was supposed to come see him, then it was tom at work filling me in on his engagement & graduating of university!

ANYWAY! dramatics aside, ha! ben is adorable, and was incredibly excited to have a new face around his place, if only for a few hours, and until tom, his lovely dad, would sing & play the guitar for him… ha! much love, guys! you’re a wonderful family!

during the olympics, we couldn’t have been in more different places. i wanted to get out of here, and flew half way across the world to chase the lights while tanya worked her rear end off for a couple weeks straight, all day every day. then, i came home and tanya headed back to ukraine so we were playing tag for some time until we managed to get together after her work one day, and we shot for about 20 minutes before we got entirely rained out. i think this was the day they had some wicked thunderstorms out in the valley! shame i was in the city. it’s about time i got a good thunderstorm. anyway! photos! enjoy!

we were supposed to have a little shoot together about a week earlier, but it slipped my mind entirely that i was supposed to work at the airport that day until late the night before, so we had to reschedule and just about cancelled in fear of those vancouver rains but things turned up perfect – warm, and a little sun. summer in vancouver is arriving, and certainly it was great getting together with mandy, even as she’s half an hour late or fussing over her hair. so mandy & i met down at one of my increasingly favourite locations, beautiful granville island where we walked in circles with fruit smoothies and her cute though slightly chatoic dog, punky.

mandy’s a genuinely fun, good natured young lady, and she has a ridiculous amount of creativity! if you haven’t yet found your way over to her incredible boudoir focused blog – it’s a trip worth making, her photography will blow you away!

I love this family. There just isn’t another way about it. We connected, and we laughed between fun conversation during our entire session together. The Chavarker family actually is from the Bay Area down in the States, but were up for Sylvia & Parag‘s wedding the very next day. We got up nice and early to meet for the morning, 10a IS early for me – end of conversation, and wandered around the English Bay area in Vancouver. I’ll admit I enjoyed rediscovering a little part of Vancouver I don’t often frequent. It’s not so bad here afterall ;)

Equally enjoyable was absolutely the company of this loving family. They have the warmest hearts, and within an hour were offering me a place to say down in Freemont, CA! Their 6 & 1/2 year old is much like me already in the sense he’s a little anxious about sitting still in front of a camera, but again much like me, does he ever love the ocean. And as he found himself on the rocks overlooking the Pacific, countless questions flowed to me from him about everything Vancouver, and in no time he’d forgotten about the camera.

Guys, I can’t wait to do this again soon – except down in beautiful California!

If you’ve met Tanya, you’re as delighted to know her as I am.

She’s one of those people you watch move through life with incredible ease, not because she isn’t wanting very much – in fact, it is the absolute opposite to be true. She left everything she knew to be her back in Kiev, Ukraine and arrived in Vancouver days later. It’s no sooner that she says she would like to have that, and you see her living it. She walks, she speaks, it happens. Plus, she rarely stops smiling. Hence the magic.

You know those shoots… in fact, you know those moments where everything feels, and is, life giving and just so easy. I would love to give you a sense of that, but I think labelling it as the emotion of life giving is as accurate as I could ever give to you through words. You just feel life pour through you on all levels of your beingness! You know when you get it, when you have goosebumps up & down your entire body because there is nothing more exhilarating than lining up with a desire and then taking inspired action and watching it unfold before your very own eyes. I’ll admit, I’m more often one to turn inward for this lifespiration (Yep – life-inspiration) but certainly Kayleen inspires it within me, without exception. This woman is glorious.

Now I have to tell you, I wasn’t going to share this but I feel like I want to and since it’s my blog and I can be as selfish as I want… I’m going to :) When Kayleen & I had got the images we knew we wanted (It took about 20 minutes through three, was it?, locations, we headed back to Waves Coffee in Steveston and she insisted I transfer the files to my Macbook right away because she was so dying to see them. I was nervous.. straight out of the camera images = butterflies. But I did it, and she browsed through them, tearing right up in front of her favourite images while trying to point out how her they were, she held such appreciation that I cannot even tell you the warm, certain feeling I had in my tummy. It moved me, and for this K, thank you.

This is pretty cute. Believe me. The other day I stopped by Catherine’s place to drop off the images from Jacob’s shoot and I thought I’d time it so Jacob would be having his nap and I could snap just a few more images of her adorable little one fast asleep, all cuted up (Yep, new word… cute-ed). Jacob must’ve sensed me on the bus rocketing down their street, because about five minutes before I arrived.. Catherine text me to say Jacob was wide awake!

Well, I couldn’t just walk in, hand over the images, and walk out like maybe a lot of normal people would’ve done. Catherine & I chatted about life, about their trip back to the Netherlands upcoming in a few weeks to join Efran. I’d give Jacob the odd little tickle, and he’d grab onto my finger and not want to let go with his entire little hand. The changes in him in just the couple weeks are unbelievable! These young, eager ones sure moving forth quickly, and as always, with complete and utter cuteness. Then, about three minutes after I left – Jacob was back asleep. …Sneaky little bugger.

Life is for the joy of life, isn’t it? To experience joy, to live joy, to discover joy and to be that which is joy. As I was about to meet Mandy outside Yaletown Skytrain station, I sent her a text just as I arrived outside… “Blue jeans, blue coat & terrible hair.” So when she text back and said “Ditto on the hair”, I knew two things – she was more than likely a liar, and that we were going to laugh. A lot.

Despite her flat out lying to me before we’d even met, I couldn’t help but to love every second of this shoot. It was like getting together with an old friend you’d hadn’t seen in a few months, and picking up right where you last left off. If you’re here with a spare moment, I encourage you to go take a peek at her wonderful blog where there’s maybe one of the sweetest series of photographs I’ve ever seen. Seriously… right here. Go ;)

This girl has such brilliant style, I love it. Love it, love it, love it. Today we were supposed to spend some time together, take a few photos and perhaps have some dinner downtown to top things off, and I thought that if we were going to be downtown anyway – I’d love to pick up one or two more scarves for my beautiful Winter wardrobe. Fast forward 5:30pm on Robson Street – Sheeta & I are dancing in and out of stores like it’s nobodys business! Less than an hour later, this photoshoot has transformed itself into yet another shopping spree (and apparently this blog post has now too), so let’s just say I’m a little excited about some new fashions now sitting at the end of my bed!

Love this girl though. Sheeta & I just click… we just get one another and are both incredibly weird! Hah! Lots of frost on the ground in Vancouver and freezing temperatures outside – so really, who can blame me for wanting to add another scarf or two. Plus a few other things I couldn’t resist. So here goes my first real edits on my Mac… in other words, who knows of and/or is using an excellent colour calibration tool for your Mac? Please!

I have some very exciting news! And it is even more exciting if you have been close to me for the past few years… Are you ready? I may find a great deal of joy in socialising! I know! I told you it was exciting! I love getting to know people, and I especially love those people who flow that same ridiculous energy I do! Sherry, definitely does. She’s certainly someone who can keep pace with my randomness & laughter outbursts! She’s got an awful lot of energy for a girl who’s in her final year of university studying nothing to do with photography, but Sherry, thanks for getting together today despite the fact you were up at 07:30 (because apparently not everyone has the luxury of sleeping til noon).

Life is a funny thing. While I was single working at the airport about two years ago, our crew would always come up on our breaks to the area just outside domestic departures to chain smoke themselves into a grave, and I had to get my two packs of second hand smoke in a day so I happily obliged. Night after night, I’d look across the doorway and there was this cute girl standing in her CMA uniform alone. Never a word spoken, never a move made. After a couple of months, I finally left that company behind and disappeared from the airport life for some time until eventually I found my way back to a small little company – CMA. The very same company that cute girl was working for. So about another year passed before her & I actually spent any time together talking really at work or outside of work, until recently and now have found a close friendship. Oddly enough, it wasn’t until we were sitting having dinner together after this shoot that I realised just what had happened in the way we stumbled into one another after a desire launched, literally, years ago. And about that, we laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and got mildly embarrassed while having a delicious sushi dinner.

Having been in Helsinki for no less than two days, Anna & I had our first portrait shoot booked with a stunning young lady, Päivi.  It’s hard to really plan shooting in gorgeous light here because the sun doesn’t set until past 10:30pm, and twilight is (apparently) lingering right through to sunrise as I’m finding out while writing this.  Nevertheless, we basked on the beach into the late evening and soaked up quite a few delicious rays of that amazing light.  We had a tremendous time together, so kippis to a cracking evening together!

It’s hard to know what to say about Kayleen, because she’s one of the greatest inspirations in my life, and has been for nearly two years now.  Effortlessly, I could write paragraph after paragraph about all the positive aspects of her, but in the interest of this staying a photography blog, we’ll keep the focus around just that.  Kayleen is extraordinarily energetic, full of life, and optimism.  She was rockin’ the flip flops today, and was actually rockin’ them… through ivy forests, blackberry bushes, and wood chunk trails!  She just bought this most amazing bicycle, and couldn’t resist bring it along – thank goodness!  It was like that scene from The Secret when the little boy is given his first red bike – Kayleen was charged with a whole new energy, not that she lacks any to begin with!  You can bet she’ll be back on my blog again soon!

Catherine is SO much fun!  I’ll never forget meeting her at the airport as I’d come up for my evening bagel & hot chocolate with the guys during the Winter, and she’d always be there happy to comply.  If I recall correctly, I actually deviated from the hot chocolate one night and got a tea and I asked for English Breakfast, and she thought I wanted three lemon or something?  Long story short, I’ve never seen either of us laugh as hard as we did then still to this day.  Regardless, ever since she told me she was pregnant nearly five months ago, she was certain I’d be the one to take some photographs for her – and to a woman as her, how could I ever say no?   

There is never a dull moment when our family comes together from across Western Canada, and thank goodness for that!  It would take far too much effort to even begin to convince me that family gatherings are supposed to be boring & dull, so forget it!  Apparently the story behind this Easter get together is something of the following:
Auntie Brenda (Vancouver): Hey guys, it looks like there’s a seat sale on YYC-YVR.  Wanna come out for Easter long weekend?
Grandma & Grandpa (Calgary): Hey, that sounds terrific! We’re in!

I know eh, brilliant isn’t it?!  I love spontaneity.  And so the weekend was born.  Saturday – Canucks clinch Northwest Division title (Flames finish 5th? Can anyone from Calgary confirm this?) …this is really the most important part of the entire weekend.  In all seriousness, we laughed until we cried through about the entire three dinners ending tonight.  Personally, I haven’t cried that much since I watched The Notebook for the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth times.  Much gratitude to our family from Kamloops & Calgary (Flames finish 5th in the West) for making the journey out here to Vancouver this weekend for such an amazing time!  HUGE kudos to our hosts BBC (No actually, it’s the lingo and not the British Broadcasting Corp.) for the food was fabulous, and company a hoot!  And I said hoot, not toot, for those of you with the iFart app. on your iPhone!  Did I really laugh until it severely hurt listening to that at the dinner table on Saturday?  Thanks, guys – very mature.

Okay, so I totally see her as a teenage girl in the one on the left!

Wow, I’d been looking forward to this shoot all week since it became an idea last weekend!  Meet Ayda – one of Naz’s closest friends and a true sweetheart.  Wow, did we ever laugh a lot through the few hours shooting today – these two are a blast together!  I can’t say enough about Ayda for getting in front of the camera, she absolutely rocked this shoot for us today and it was a shame she had to get going after dinner!  Speaking of which – sunny and 14°C, so we decided on dinner out on the patio at Milestones – absolutely delicious!  I had my mental lapse and forgot to take photos of the food, but it was amazing!  So good!  Naz, has photos though – so lets all get on her case for being too lazy to get a blog online and post them!  Huge kudos to her again today for helping with the lighting, creativity, and doing a little documenting along the way!  Days like these couldn’t make me feel more blessed!  Hope you enjoy!

And courtesy of Naz, some behind the scenes of me looking professional. As ever.

I think a lot of people are in the belief that flare is nothing more than a recent fad, and will be on the way out faster than it became popular.  I don’t think so.  It’s natural light, it’s only a shooting style with natural light – it has nothing to do with post processing, it’s about our surroundings.  Saying flare is heading out of style is like saying natural light is on it’s way out, and until the sun disappears in five billion years from now… forget about it.  This shoot had a lot do to with nature actually for us.  Naz in her flats, I in my leather dress shoes, hiked up into a lightly forested area and really just made our own place here.  Apparently I forgot my creative hat at home though because was I ever struggling to get going.  Sushi after, as always.  Naz & I decided to act mature and dare one another into eating a chopstick full of wasabi, and now I’m paying for it with an upset tummy while I publish this online. :P

I love days away from me usual life at the airport, it feels good to escape sometimes.  Not all can be eluded though, like the terrible Translink trips.  An hour and fourty-five minutes on two buses to SFU, yeaaaah… I’m pretty thankful I don’t currently school there coming from Richmond.  I met up with Naz, again, at Burrard to make our way out there.  Cold, cold, cold!  Vancouver was warm today, but climbing up to SFU revealed, yeah, more snow.  What a surprise, and what also came as a surprise was my inability to dress appropriately and perhaps actually bundle up to keep warm for a change. 

It’s hard to say enough about a friend like her though.  Brimming with confidence infront of a lens, even when it’s five inches from her forehead.  It’s just effortless being with her, I feel like the luckiest photographer in the world to know someone so well where everything comes naturally.  Literally, everything… feet placement, facial expressions, walks, hysterical laughing, adventures into poses where yes, her jeans may get dirty.  What a gift! 
We endulged in a little sushi back on Robson after the shoot.  Ohhh, absolutely delich!

Dear, oh dear.  I figure the reason Naz makes such a brilliant model is her own ability to connect so well with people while holding the camera herself.  Wow, do I feel awkward on that other side of the camera. 

I feel like it’s been forever since I had a good outdoors portrait shoot, so we braved some cool temperatures and a stray hair blowing wind to get what we could!  Fortunately for me – best. model. ever.  It’s always nice to have a season fitting drink from Starbucks on location, but the warmth of a hot chocolate was short lived out on the water.  God, I can’t wait for the summer warmth.

A little stroll around the block down the snowy sidewalks, and glow of the Christmas lights followed by the most deliciously fabulous, spectacularly, extraordinary dessert in the whole world.  A sort of ginger muffin with a carmel, brown sugar, & rum sauce accompanied by vanilla ice cream.  Did I seriously forget to take a photo?  Mmmm.  Did I have seconds?  Of course not, because when have I ever overindulged in desserts?