Connections, Miracles and Christmas Minis....

November 21, 2020

2020 has been hard on everyone. The disruption to all of our lives has been unprecedented, but sometimes it takes being able to see what someone else has gone through to bring things into focus…

We’ve known Andrea and Kevin for years. Kevin has been our trusted mechanic for ages. The number of connections is too long to accurately note in this post.

And I will bet that their 2020 has been the most trying of their lives. It’s certainly been more trying then ours.

Kevin missed the summer of 2020. His cancer treatment this year was difficult; more difficult than the previous ones. He has no real memory of June. None of July. None of August. He spent those in a coma. On a ventilator. And the professionals taking care of him didn’t think he would survive.

But he did.

I phoned his shop when the first snow flew. Of course, in Canada, at the first sight of snow you call your mechanic to schedule your tire swap! I figured I’d leave a message. We’re not really driving anywhere, so it wasn’t really a rush!

Well, you can imagine my surprise when Kevin picked up the phone.

During that phone conversation, he spoke of miracles. Most people have a hard time believing in miracles, he said, but that all his doctors and all his nurses, with all the science that they’ve learned over the years, could only come back to that one word - miracle.

It is truly a miracle that Kevin is still here with us.

We were shocked when Andrea sent in the booking form for our Christmas Minis. It arrived with no warning, little fanfare, just a form that explained that they would be coming for photos without their kids. Photos of just the two of them. She realized that they really hadn’t taken any professional pictures of the two of them together in a very long time, and wanted to make that effort to celebrate the miracle that they could.

Thankfully, they booked a session time with nobody afterwards…cause if you’ve spent any time with Kevin you know that you are NOT getting out of his presence without a very long conversation!!!

And I am very, very glad that I was able to have another long chat with him. And Amy and I are very, very happy to be able to provide these memories for an awesome couple who have endured a dealt hand that most would be hard-pressed to overcome.

(had to get in a poker reference for Kev!)

Christmas Mini Photography Sessions for 2020 are on now! This year, our mini sessions will be Socially Distanced, OUTSIDE, using the ravine just out our backyard. Snow or no Snow. They’re held on ANY DAY YOU WANT THEM TO BE. (as long as there is daylight.)

More info, sample images and Booking Details can be found on here.

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For the love of a special family pet

March 11, 2020

Anyone who has ever had a pet in their family does not require any explanation to understand the love that one has for an animal. And as a member of the family, we quite often have the family pet join in on the family portrait session…most of the time, we see dogs because they travel well, but we have had some cats brought into our studio!

Now, imagine the love that a service dog elicits when you factor in that not only does this animal live with a family, they also provide an invaluable service to keep a family member safe.

Crusier lived with his family for almost a decade. He worked to keep an autistic child safe and sound, warning whenever he attempted to wander away from the family home. He provided comfort to everyone in the family - comfort to the parents knowing their child was looked after at all times, and comfort to all the kids in the family in the way that only a loved dog can do.

He grew up with a young child and helped him develop to be a senior in high school, becoming a recognizable figure in the hallways. He helped him grow to be a confident young man ready for his post secondary school life. And he was a member of the family…as all our pets become.

We were honoured to be asked to photograph this special family pet in his final days. He wasn’t very mobile - and probably wasn’t very happy being forced to model for the camera! - but we hopefully managed to provide some precious photographic memories of Crusier for his humans.

Replicating Photos Taken Many Years Previously...or trying to!

September 23, 2019

You’ve seen the photos where siblings - many years later - get together and try to replicate photos from their youth? Where they try to match the outfits, the decor, the posing…all with hilarious results due to the fact that they’re all much bigger now, the decor is outdated, and polyester is no longer an option when it comes to clothing?

Well…this isn’t quite like that!

Last fall, we got the opportunity to photograph Caroline’s crew again; the first time was 14 years previously, almost to the day. It’s always amazing to see somebody that you first had in front of your camera a long time ago, back in front of it again! Except for the fact that it makes one feel old, it is one of the intangible benefits of the job - and the process we’ve undertaken lately of looking back after #15years of our business has given us so many examples of people that we’ve seen grow up that we’ll be sharing a few of them in the coming weeks…but back to this family!

In the process of photographing all large family groupings, we always do a bunch of combinations of people - and especially when dealing with multiple generations. We had the whole family positioned in a field and did a bunch of these combinations, breaking it down to the point where we got to just the kids set up. One of them said “Let’s do that picture from when we were kids!”, so they all sat down and tried to recreate the shot - who was on what side, where the hands were and whose expression was what - was all earnestly discussed for quite some time between them.

Mom jumped in there, too, and started positioning them!!! No one could quite agree on what was right…

And I was no help at all! I really wasn’t sure what was going on while it was happening, and I couldn’t remember the photo in question, even though I took it! But we just kept taking pictures. It wasn’t until after we got back from the session and saw the original that it all came flooding back.

Thankfully, the 2018 version did not include tears like the 2004 one did!

Here’s some of the other shots we did from both sessions. Enjoy!

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