Now to follow-up with Stefanie and Nick’s engagement session with images from their actual wedding day.
As has been the case for what seems like most of the summer, the weather was umm, “ify” to say the least. Just another standard overcast summer Saturday in Vancouver. With an afternoon outdoor ceremony right on the dock next to the Burnaby Lake Pavilion, it was important that the rain hold off and allow a dry ceremony.
Well of course about an hour before the ceremony, the rain came pounding down. And of course, 15 minutes before the ceremony was to start, the rain stopped. There had been a mad scramble to rent some tents to cover the guests, the bride, and possibly the groom (though it was getting a little tight in there so he may have been pushed out) but with the rain stoppage we took the risk of removing the tents. All worked out well and the images turned out far better than had we needed to work under cover of a few party tents.
After the ceremony we took off to take some more urban gritty images in New Westminster. Aside from a few sprinkles, we managed to do pretty well and captured a lot of really cool stuff.
Back to the pavilion for the reception and party, we later stole the two of them for a few more shots right on the dock. It can be tough on the bride and groom after a long day, the stress of the weather, always having to smile, the continous click of the camera shutters and then to have the photographers whisk them away from the party, the guests, the drinks for yet more photos because the photographers have a really cool idea and can they please trust us and yes it will all be worth it.
And yes it was….
We thought we’d include an image of the guys getting ready for change…
This is the groom…
Stef, a brief moment of introspection and anticipation
There’s that sexy look of hers…
Hey, kids and puppies sell, so our marketing department says we have to include them…
Well, clearly we’ve established who wears the pants in this relationship…
Ahhhh, very picturesque (and no rain in sight)
Just strolling along a New Westminster parking lot (above Front St).
In fact, this is now a ritual for them. Yup, we heard every Saturday they just like to find parking lots, walk down the middle of the lanes holding hands and pretending there’s a couple of photographers catching every glance between them. Sometimes Stef makes Nick dress up (she can do that because, well, as we said it appears she wears the pants….)
One of our favourites…
We like this one too…
Nothing inappropriate is being done or said here. Move along people…
Now for some more romantic stuff near the courthouse
OK, so we’re back on the dock at Burnaby Lake. This is Nick’s “she wants me” look.
Finally we end with two shots on the rowing dock - the kind of shots where the bride and groom have to put their faith in us because it looks silly and feels silly to them. And besides, they had unfinished drinks back in the pavilion.
But seriously, these ones are our true favourites.
Congrats guys!
P.S. We’d like to do a special shout-out to Natalie. Natalie has made an astonishing three appearances in wedding parties we’ve photographed in the last two years. She’s always smiling, cheerful and helpful to the bride. We look forward to the day we photograph her wedding (cause she’ll be a great bride, and we’re expecting her entire wedding party to be former brides of ours - not that we’d want to influence her bridesmaids choices or anything….)
November 25th, 2007
As we continue to catch up on some of this year’s sessions, we move on to Nick and Stefanie with whom we had a July engagement session at New Brighton Park near the Second Narrows bridge. It’s a picturesque park with a great view across to the North shore mountains.
We actually started out in one of the parking lots. Naturally being a dog-friendly park we had to include the dog as part of the session (a common request - it seems lots of our couples get parenting practice by owning dogs first. Or budgies. But it’s hard to include a Budgie in an outdoor session. They tend to fly around and get confused, invariably then getting lost only to be eaten by a wild possum or some such creature.)
Here’s Nick with his best bud..
Stefanie teasing the camera
Posing on the steps, cause that’s what normal people do
One of the great views
A mix of the tough and the tender
Stefanie giving us her best supermodel look
Dogs get thirsty during summer evenings
These next couple are really cool.
We call these the “CD Cover” shots. Either that or Nick is just playing the role of bodyguard.
November 25th, 2007
Welcome to our new and improved blog. What’s that? It looks the same as always you say?
Well, yes, but it’s running on a different machine now. And I’ve upgraded from an older Wordpress 1.5 to the new Wordpress 2.3. And the machine it is running on is upgraded to Vista.
And I had to endure 2 hard-drive failures (it’s ok, they were older drives. They’ve served us well. RIP my loud little spinners).
| There’s always tons of in-the-background work that goes on in a photography studio just to maintain all the computers. |
 |
| All those images need to be redundantly backed-up. Each person needs their own computer. Each computer needs to be configured in near identical manners. Each monitor colour calibrated to ensure the images print out the way we expect them. There’s the website. The constant backups to DVDs. The hard-drive failures that have to be accounted for. The computer upgrades to get more done faster. The newer software versions to upgrade. The management of the lone MAC Laptop in a PC world. The printers that won’t print. The odd network glitch and the 100’s of feet of networking cables connecting everything. The new SATA DVD burner that works fine in one computer but won’t be recognized in another. |
But I love it all……
Jeff
November 14th, 2007
When Shannon and Keith hired us, they were living in Coquitlam but the allure of Toronto (and cheaper housing) beckoned - so before we could get to their engagement session they had moved.
But of course they came back. Maybe it was for the non-muggy weather, the kinder-gentler people, the trees, the beaches, or more likely it was ’cause they needed to do the engagement session.
So they flew back just to spend some time with us (hmm, now that we think about it they may have also visited some family to kill two birds with one stone).
At any rate, here’s a selection of images from White Rock beach on a rare sunny Sunday this past summer….
November 4th, 2007
You remember Lisa and Ben from the previous post. He’s from Australia, she’s from Vancouver but they were living in Melbourne. After their wedding this past July, they moved on to England to continue their world adventures, only this time with a little additional weight on their fingers…
The ceremony was a quick drive away for us, being that it was held in Port Moody at the St. John the Apostle Anglican Church. After the ceremony, the wedding party and immediate family drove up to Burnaby Mountain. A beautiful spot to take family photos and capture some fun and intimate moments of Ben and Lisa.
Back into the cars we went for the quick zip over to the reception held at the SFU Diamond Alumni Centre where much fun and laughter was had by all. (except the part where we misplaced a lens, hunted around for it, couldn’t find it, chalked it up to one of those things that happens, phoned the Diamond Alumni Centre the next day, and they said they found a lens when they were cleaning up - it always works out 
)
Here is a selection of some favourites of ours from their wedding day.
The family dog always has to steal the spotlight, even if it is for just a couple of quick poses.
A quick drink of courage at the St. James Well pub in Newport Village
A very proud pappa
November 4th, 2007
OK. The world is a small place. We have proof.
Lisa’s father attended (the MC actually) a wedding of ours a few years ago. When his favourite daughter snagged herself a man, he immediately recommended us to her. The catch was that she was living in Australia with her Australian hunk and everything had to be arranged through her Dad.
Now it just so happened that we had already planned our Australia trip and hey, they happen to be in Melbourne - one of the cities we were visiting.
We had hoped to actually shoot the engagement session in Melbourne, but the timing of our coming and goings didn’t mesh with their comings and goings, so instead we had to settle for a quick very late-night get-to-know-you meeting. You know it’s a small world when the hotel you are staying at is a 7 minute walk away from where Ben was working.
We got along famously, did some planning stuff and later co-ordinated when to shoot the session - which turned out to be earlier this summer near Canada Place.
November 4th, 2007