Akech

By Photo, Portrait
I randomly met Akech while I was walking past Science World in Vancouver, on a rare vacation I took after photographing the wedding of Caitlin & Jesse. We hit it off right away, and I ended up meeting her friend. The three of us made a spontaneous decision to visit Acadia beach for fun, and so I could see the area. I offered to do a shoot, just because they were so nice. These are the images of Akech alone; for privacy reasons I haven’t made the pictures of her friend (and her friend’s daughter) public. Anyway, it’s hard to put into words how special this encounter was, but it was a highlight of an entirely amazing week. I also love how pictures these turned out, using some editing techniques I haven’t employed in the past.

Caitlin & Jesse

By Love, Photo
Jesse was one of my best friends as a kid, so being invited to both be his guest as well as photograph his wedding was a special opportunity for me. I arrived a day and a half in advance of the wedding day at Salt Spring Island, one of the Gulf Islands between the mainland Vancouver and Vancouver Island. This gave me the opportunity to both participate in and document the entire day of preparations, done by family and friends from both sides of the soon united families.

It was a really beautiful thing to see all these people working together to cook the all of the food as well as decorate and set up the hall. I felt that the prep day ended up being just as valuable as the wedding day itself. The groomsmen and bridal party got ready in two different rented cottages on the island, and the ceremony and portraits were done in nearby Ruckle National Park, near the hall.

Ordinarily, I feel conflicted about working a wedding of someone I know, but the overall experience and the warmth from the people I met and seeing those that I knew already made this one of, if not my favourite wedding/event that I have ever had the privilege to document. And then I took an amazing week-long vacation in Vancouver and North Van right after!