Eating ice cream, fiercely

How you ask, can you eat ice cream fiercely? Keep looking and see.

I had the pleasure of photographing these wonderful children at Fort Edmonton Park a few weeks ago. Their mom won a coupon for photography at an Edmonton Twin and Triplet Club event.

Jonathon, Zackary, Nicholas and Kiera are awesome children. I had such a good day with them.

Getting four children together for a family portrait is tough!! Especially when two of those four are two-year olds! (I've decided that two year olds specialise in back-of-the-head shots.) But, here they all are.

In the interest of full disclosure, we did resort to bribery for this shot - "just a couple more pictures and you can have ice cream!"

Here we are a little earlier in the day. If you haven't been to Fort Edmonton Park and you have kid, for heaven's sake - go! It is a great way to burn A LOT of hours. I got some neat shots on the steam train, as the conductor was sharing his hat around.Once we arrived at the fort, we tried for a few family shots. I have "nicer" ones than this, but I love this shot of Jonathon and Zackary play-fighting. Its classic brother stuff.

A more gentle one of the brothers.
This is one of my favourite shots of the day. Jonathon is the oldest of the siblings, and what an amazing kid. He's smart and serious and thoughtful, and in looks (and in temperament) gave me a glimpse of what Gabe will look like when he's a bit older. Here's Nicholas. He's two. Lovely. Busy. Lots of shots of the back of his head :).
And his twin sister Kiera. She is adorable, and I can see a serious independent streak in her. I love her hair in this picture. Ice cream brought a short bit of quiet time, and a few more group shots.

Jonathon kept asking why I wanted him to take his shoes off. I told him, that, as a boy, his feet would only be cute for a couple more years, and his mom wanted to take advantage of this time.

And, finally, my fierce ice cream eater. SEE, I told you! I played with the post processing on this one, making it a little darker and more moody than I usually do. I was really happy with how it turned out.

Zackary and I got along great. We both hate children's music!

Thanks for the great day guys!

Olivia and Neil - the wedding

This was a great wedding for a really great couple. There were harps and cheers and even time for beer. Yeah!!!!

Here, Olivia shares a sweet moment with her mom, shortly before the ceremony.


The first wedding I photographed by myself was at Convocation Hall, and the U of A, and I was glad to be back. Its such a beautiful space.

After the ceremony, we did a short session of family portraits, and then wandered about getting cool shots. One of their friends had a great idea to use this zebra crossing (what is that in Canadian anyway?) Here are Olivia and Neil with their best people.
Having a wedding at the university is a great idea, because there are so many beautiful spaces to photograph in, and so many good backgrounds. I walked past this door on the dentistry building on my way to the wedding and managed to find the way back. More cool backgrounds.

The boys walking.
And, everyone jumping. I love this shot.


Olivia looked so lovely and classic. Is she not gorgeous?!
Her handsome groom.
Their great friends and best people. These guys were all so fun. At one point I got a cheer from them all :)

Having everything so close together gave us time to go for pizza and beer before the reception, which I think is a fabulous idea. Brides and grooms never get to eat much at the reception, so in place of the cake shot, here they are feeding each other pizza.

Olivia and Neil are so great together. Their friendship and love for each other shines through.

Off to the Royal Mayfair Golf Club for the reception, and we had time to get a few beautiful pictures with the sun low in the sky.
Olivia put a lot of thought into the decorations and details for their wedding. Each table setting had a silk gift bag on the plate, a printed menu and a name card. I love the orange silk she chose for the chair backings. All the flower arrangements had peacock feathers, which was a beautiful touch.
I think this is my favourite picture from the day. I love how Olivia and Neil are leaning into each other.
I hope you guys have a great honeymoon (France and Italy - I'm so jealous!) Thank you so much for including me in your wedding plans. I had a wonderful day with you.

M'kay

My new favourite picture

Ian and Louise - the wedding

First things first.

A huge HUGE thank you to this wonderful couple, without whom, I would have been in so much trouble.

I pulled up to Ian and Louise's wedding, put my keys in my backpack, got out of the car, hip-checked the car door shut, looked through the window, and there - well, there was my camera bag, with my keys, locked in my car.

(I said a few choice words.)

Then, I ran around the car park asking people if they knew how to break into a car (you know - the most professional thing you can be doing on a Saturday morning, 15 minutes before a wedding is starting.)

Lucky for me (by the way - I was entirely prepared to break the window of my car to make the wedding on time) this couple had driven from Utah, and had a bag of tools in their car, and Louise's dad donated the hanger from his suit so we could get into the car.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I don't even know your names, but thank you (and if you would like a print of this picture, please, email me - its yours!)


Ok, so after pulling my heart out of my throat and the rock (to break my window) out of my pocket, on with the ceremony, which, I have to say, was one of the most beautiful, peaceful and mellow ceremonies I have ever attended.

Louise is Cree/Italian and Ian is Cree/Blackfoot and they had a traditional ceremony, which was held in a circular ceremonial lodge. The bride and groom, along with the elder who performed the ceremony and their families and close friends sat on buffalo rugs, while the guests sat on blankets and in chairs. When I first entered the room, I thought it was full, but more people kept coming in, and more room was made, and more people and more room . . .

The first part of the ceremony was the Pipe Ceremony, which is equivalent to exchanging the vows in a western ceremony. No photographs were allowed during this most sacred part of the ceremony. Next was the anointing with red ochre on Ian and Louise's temples, wrists and ankles (the dots you can see in the next photograph). The couple was presented with moccasins, which can only be used on very special occasions. Sage is sewn into the moccasins to help guide the couple through their lives together. Then they were presented with two eagle feathers that were tied together in a way that could not be taken apart. Both Ian and Louise asked family members to speak during the ceremony, and finally, a special blanket was draped over the Ian and Louise. In Indian culture, people's most prized possessions can be given away, but the gifts they were presented with during their marriage must be kept.

I am extraordinarily grateful to have been invited to witness Ian and Louise's marriage - thank you to you both, and to Wilton and your families for including me in such an important part of your lives.


After the traditional ceremony, Ian and Louise had a civil ceremony, with the white dress and tuxedo. They decided to have their photos before the ceremony. Initially, we were going to go to Hawrelak Park, where they had their engagement photos, but it was Heritage Days (kind of ironic!) and there's no way we could have got into the park. Instead, we went to the Commonwealth Stadium, where Ian and Louise first met in at the 2001 World Games.

While we waited for Louise to arrive, I got some shots of the guys. Is the ring bearer not the cutest buddy you have EVER seen?!

Then, I made Ian stand in a corner while Louise was approaching so we could get photos of their first look in their dressed-up-ness.


They look so happy, checking out each other's finery for the first time.

The lovely Louise, just after Ian made her laugh off her wedding day nerves.

I think this is one of my favourite shots of the day. Ian's dad was his best man, and it was clear from his speech at the morning ceremony how proud he is of Ian, and how much support and love Ian derives from his father, and I really wanted to capture that energy between them.

Louise and her mom.

These are the best, most meaningful (and sensible) wedding shoes I've ever seen! And pretty.

A couple of the bride and groom.
Thank you so much Louise and Ian for inviting me to be a part of your special day, and another big, big thank you to Tammy at Divine Weddings, who co-ordinated the whole affair. She did a spectacular job with the details of the day. Check out her blog for a few more pictures.

Mama is a jungle gym

Gemma, that brave, brave woman, is a single mom of three. Three boys. I want to give her a medal. Her boys are amazing, smart, funny and (again!) busy little creatures. And she adores them.

Sweet Tadeo. Independent Bernabe.
And baby brother Gamaliel.

Here they all are.
This is the third time I've photographed Gemma and her family, and it is such a privilege to watch her children grow.

So good looking!

This is the second time I've had the pleasure of photographing Melanie, Lauren and Ben (and the first time I met Chris). We met at the university and when I saw them walking up, I thought "who are those good looking people?"

Yeah, they're people for me to photograph.

Ben is a lot like my boys. Busy! (My kids are great training ground for photographing other people's children.) I really don't know how some photographers get "traditional" portraits of families with children. However, not being such a fan of traditional portraits, I love these kind of pictures of families just hanging out and being silly.

Here, we got Ben to sit still for two seconds.
Is Melanie gorgeous or what? I love these two of her with her children.

Such a sweet picture of Lauren and Chris.
And finally, more playing.
Thanks for letting me photograph your family Melanie and Chris, and thanks for all your trust and encouragement of my artistic vision. I really appreciate it.