My older sister and I resorted to reading, climbing trees, and playing make-believe in the bushes of the overgrown lot next door (aka: fairy glens, secret forts, and magic faraway lands).  Rarely a day went by without one of us  stepping in a gigantic puddle and running back to the house…

“Mooooommmmyyyy!!!!! I got a SOAKER!”

Yep, that’s what we called them.  ’Soaker’. You know, when you step so deep in muddy guck that it fills your ducky (that’s what we called our rubber shoes.)  :D

Long story short, this obsession of mine with overgrown abandoned places has transferred into adult life.   I love photographing clients in overgrown, wild, out of the way places.  So that’s where I met with Sheena and Tyler for their engagement session.  Within about ten minutes, I got a soaker AND Sheena got a soaker.   Good thing she’s awesome and didn’t freak out in the slightest.

Sheena and Tyler are getting married in an outdoor ceremony in Langley in June (I looooooove outdoor weddings!), and will be my last wedding before I take some time off to get ready for my own.  :)  They are super cool, totally laid back, and I can’t wait to hang out with them again on their wedding day.

Minus the soakers.  :D

P.s. I also made them climb trees.  :D

I love this one – according to Sheena it’s pretty rare to catch Tyler with a big smile.

Pretty ring!

Sheena and Tyler – thanks for being so awesome, and for putting up with my random muddy location.  :)  Can’t wait till the wedding!

I hope you’re all having a fantastic Tuesday.

The session may have started out a tad stressfully with someone locking their keys in their car (cough ALANA cough)  :D   but Warren and a coat hanger came to the rescue.

Sidenote to make Alana feel better – I once locked my keys in my car too.

In the States.

While it was running.

It was pretty epic.   :)

…on to the pictures.  Once Warren saved the car situation, we started shooting at the Vancouver Art Gallery:

And then made our way over to Kits Beach.  It wasn’t easy getting up in this tree!  Worth it?  I think so. Alana and Warren were a breeze to shoot.  Usually I have to direct a lot more – but they were so natural!

Instead of an engagement ring, Alana has an engagement pearl necklace and earrings.  I think that’s brilliant – why have two rings (engagement ring and wedding band) when you can have one ring + something else?  I’m thinking maybe I should have asked Adam for an engagement car.  (My little pontiac sunfire has seen better days.)  :P

The gorgeous pearls: Oh Vancouver.  You are so pretty. So cute. Aaaaand the sun goes down.

Thanks so much Alana and Warren; I had a blast hanging out with you, and I’m so excited about your wedding.

I hope you’re all having a super Monday!

Is everyone excited?  Awesome; you should be!  Sooooo I haven’t blogged for about two weeks, and I feel kinda guilty about it.  Yes, I was having a glorious holiday and some much needed time off, but I didn’t mean to neglect the blog!  :P

I had decided to gather up a ‘best of’ series of some of my favourite shots from 2009 to reflect on what I’ve accomplished this year, and to kick off 2010.   I was getting ready to post them a few minutes ago…. when I decided that was just kinda boring for a grand return from a two week hiatus AND the start of the year.   So…. I decided to turn it into a competition.  :D

To all the awesome, super cool couples that I photographed last year:  If you made it into my favourite engagement shots of the year (featured below), you are in the running.

PRIZE: A ‘Just Because’ photo session with me on or around your first anniversary.  The possibilities for this shoot are endless, and believe me – I have a ton of cool ideas.  The only limitation is that it takes place somewhere in the Vancouver /  Lower Mainland area.

RULES: Either leave a comment on this blog post with the couple’s names or a description of the image, or vote for your favourite here on Facebook. You can vote for as many couples as you like, but only once per couple.  YES, you can vote for yourself.  YES, you can get your friends, co-workers, cousins, cousins friends AND your mom to vote for you.   If your friend sent you here to vote for her but you don’t like her image the best, YES, you can vote for her anyway.  :D

Some lucky couples have two images included – votes from both images will be added together for those couples.

Voting ends Monday, **JANUARY** 11th at 11:59pm.  The winners will be announced to the world on the blog Tuesday morning.

Julie and Ryan at Queen Elizabeth Park:

Jessica & Jason in Fort Langley:

Jenny & Shawn at Westminster Abbey:

Tina & PJ at Peace Arch Park:

Colby & Steve at Crescent Beach:

Breanne & Ryan at Crescent Beach:

Emily & Paul at Vandusen Gardens:

Jen & Rob at Campbell Valley Park:

Brenda and Brian at their farm in Richmond:

Jessica and Curtis in a Port Kells field:

Kelly & Chad at Queen Elizabeth Park:

Wafa & Bilal at Stanley Park:

These last ones are from my sister’s and brother-in-law’s engagement session at SFU.  They made my ‘favourites’ cut, but her and Mike are obviously disqualified.  Sorry Kate!  :P

CLICK HERE to vote now on Facebook, or leave your vote in the comment box below.

I hope you’re all having a good Tuesday, and Good Luck everone!

Breanne and Ryan are actually pretty cool themselves.  :)  They are both professional water skiers, and are in Florida most of the year competing (I’d imagine it would get pretty cold if they tried to waterski year round up here in Canada.) :P  We chatted a bit about what they do in competition, and it sounded pretty fierce.  Like, you fall the wrong way and you break your leg fierce.  So I did a little internet stalking (come on, everybody does it!) and found this super crazy video of Ryan doing a jump:

Click here to see some craziness.

We met this Saturday at Crescent beach for their engagement session.  They were both in town for only a little while this week, so I was really happy we could fit in a shoot on a non-rainy day!  It was super overcast, so I could pretty much shoot anywhere – easy peasy.  Here are some of my favourites:

Breanne’s ring is awesome.

My favourite.

I like this one too.

Winter at the beach:

Breanne and Ryan – thanks again for making sure we could fit this in.  Can’t wait til the wedding!

I hope you’re all having a good Christmas Eve Eve.  :)

Jen and Rob are getting married next August at St. Andrew’s Church in Fort Langley (you know, the super cute little white one on Glover Road that is oh so perfect for a wedding!) This photographer is very excited about that. :)

These were all taken at Campbell Valley Park – this is a little historic schoolhouse there. Love it.

Love this one.

And this one. Have I ever mentioned that long grass is my fave? :P Pretty sure I gravitate towards it no matter what. :D

We went a little long, and I always seem to forget to do ring shots until the end. By this point we were rapidly losing light (ok it was pretty much dark out). Add to that a bunch of wind trying to blow this leaf away, and it made for one tricky shot. Pleasantly surprised that I managed to get a useable one! Favourite. This shot is so Jen – always smiling. :)

Jen & Rob – thank you so much, I had such a fun time! (Even though we were wet and cold.) :P Hope you enjoy these!