Rowell Photography

Iceland Destination Honeymoon

Erika Hanchar — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:00:10 +0000

This is the first year we offered destination honeymoon photo shoots. Couples have taken us to Mexico, Paris & Iceland, and hopefully more in the future. How it basically works is the couple chooses a few days during the honeymoon where they plan to either to go sight seeing or just hang out wherever they are and have some photos taken. Its not everyday we all get to travel to stunning locations and get movie star treatment, so why not have a professional capture this time in your life for you. Greg & Lisa chose something really unique, a 10 day drive around the Golden Circle in Iceland. Its a once in a lifetime trip! So when they asked us to capture their trip we said “yes” like 2 little children getting extra dessert. We mapped out 5 days of great locations for their honeymoon photos shoots, Lisa brought her wedding dress, and Greg brought a suit. And in front of Iceland, and hundreds of European tourists Greg & Lisa stood on cliff edges over looking waterfalls, mountain tops, icebergs, and beautiful black sand beaches.

10 days, 2 cars, 8 bed and breakfasts, and so many photos I am going to have to buy more hard drive space!

I am going to start with my favorite photo, it gives me goosebumps just looking at it. It turned out exactly how we envisioned it. This was taken at Goðafoss its like a mini Niagara Falls only there are no guard rails or cheesy tourists shops. You can stand on the edges, its actually a little terrifying, one of the best parts about the entire country is that all their natural sights are free, even their parks.

Greg & Lisa have a thing for waterfalls, so this was a must shot for them. There were at least 60-75 tourists watching this impromptu destination honeymoon photo shoot.

This next location is called Námafjall it is my 2nd favorite place in Iceland. The home of boiling mud pots! It smells like sulfur non-stop, the earth is bright orange and blue gray, and the holes in the ground make weird squishy noises as the mud bubbles. Steam is rising out of piles of rocks. It is like another planet! Its located in a town called Lake Mývatn. It reminds us of our Muskoka. Lots of lakes, tons of campers and even more flies. But its absolutely stunning.

The black sand beaches at Vík pronounced “veek”.

During our entire 10 day trip it rained only twice. Once in the West and once in the East. The first day it rained was in the west. We decided to go a local museum inside these cute, ancient Icelandic Turf Houses.

On the day it rained in the East we were on a quest to see Puffins. Now there is a place in Iceland where they say millions of Puffins live and you can see them. It was 1.5 hours of the beaten track. We actually found out later that Icelanders don’t even drive those roads we drove down because they are too dangerous. Damn GPS! The drive was brutal, white knuckle, face pressed up to the windshield in thick mountain fog, rain and cliff edges so close we had to drive 15 km/h. But we did manage to get to our destination. An old fishing village hidden behind mountains. In the rain we drove out to the look out spot, and as we climbed up the steps to the look out only to read a sign that said Puffins are here from April to August 15th, the date was August 14th. But they were gone, not a Puffin in sight, everyone was really bummed out. For a place that is supposed to be the home of millions had none.

Then suddenly in the distance we saw one last lonely Puffin. The photo below is really zoomed in.

If the weather gets too bad at the top of the mountain you can stay here. It has a little bed and supplies inside. Note: this was not one of the places we stayed at. At least the option was there. If it were dark outside I would have been cuddled up in this hut.

The lava field & church at Búðir.

This is the base of Seljalandsfoss you can walk in and behind this waterfall. It is the closest waterfall to the volcano Eyjafjallajökull. If you are wondering “foss” does mean falls.

Greg & Lisa in a trolls cave at Dimmborgir. From the outside this cave is actually shaped like a church or “Kirkajan”

Krafla Volcano.

This is my favorite place in Iceland Jökulsárlón, the glacial lagoon. We spent 4 hours here just shooting, looking and being an awe of natures wonders.

Lisa had some cute rubber boots on and she wanted to do a shot standing in the water. Greg did not have cute rubber boots on. He is bare foot. You should have heard the tourists all gasp when Greg ripped off his shoes and joined his wife in Arctic waters.

The Icebergs you see in the lagoon break off of the Glacier Vatnajökul. They hang out in the glacial lagoon for a while and then float on over to a mini waterfall which pushes them out to the ocean. Sometimes they get stuck in the shallow water and beach themselves. Here is Greg & Lisa on an iceberg!

That is the end for now of our trip and Greg & Lisa’s honeymoon adventure in Iceland. Greg & Lisa have had a nice stay here on our blog but it is now time for us to start preparing their wedding & honeymoon albums. Thank you so much for having us along for the ride, I don’t even have words to describe how much we love the images from this trip. This week Ryan put up a 20×30 print in the meeting space at our studio of 3rd image in the Jökulsárlón set of images from this blog post. It is so interesting and detailed, just to see it printed so large is captivating. You guys did such an amazing job!

Cheers

Thank you or Takk fyrir

E & R

Us in Iceland

Erika Hanchar — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:00:46 +0000

Its not too often that we fall in love, but sometimes, something just moves you and you can’t help but fall. That’s what happened in Iceland earlier this month, Ryan and I fell in love….. with Iceland. The land of fire and ice, a waterfall around every corner, so many sheep that they out number the human population 2:1 and mountains for miles. It is the only place (I can think of) in the world where you can chill in a natural hot spring, stand at the base of a glacier, hike to the top of a mountain and peer out into the ocean and look inside a volcano all in one day. We did all that!

10 days driving around Iceland, staying at bed and breakfasts and experiencing the culture and landscapes. We were traveling with Greg & Lisa (who you will see very soon again on our blog) for their destination honeymoon sessions. We had 2 cars, hotels and bed and breakfasts booked all over the country. We chose the best locations to visit together for photos, and the rest of the time we had to just explore.

Here are some portraits Ryan and I took of one another along with a a bunch of our travel landscapes and cityscapes.

This is us at the Glacial Lagoon called Jökulsárlón. These icebergs break off of the glacier Vatnajökul. It is the most magical place I have ever seen. Just driving up to it took my breath away. It is one of those moments I will remember for the rest of my life.

Icelandic Horses and sheep roam free for half the year. We often saw them hiking up mountains.

Búðir is a small hamlet surrounded by lava fields. The first time I saw a photo of this church over a year ago I knew I had to shoot a wedding, or a couple there one day. The colours of the mountains and volcanoes around it are so intense, and even though they skies are overcast, the clouds are always a blue grey colour.

I love this photo below, this whole park was really interesting, it is called Dimmuborgir. Dimm meaning “dark” and borgir meaning “cities”. It is said to be the home of many trolls. We didn’t see any. But there were tons of rock formations to climb around in.

This is Ryan standing right outside of Krafla volcano. It erupted in 1989. The smoke you see is not it erupting now, that is just gas escaping from the ground, it seems to be happening everywhere in Iceland. Ryan hiked all the way through a lava field to get there.

Sometimes we would just be driving through a beautiful mountain range and all of a sudden we turn a corner and it looks like we are on another planet! Lava fields they are everywhere. The older they are the less black rock you can see. The one in this portrait of us seems to be pretty old because moss has grown on all the rocks. These volcanic rocks are really sharp and pointy so walking on them is pretty dangerous. In this pic we are standing in front of the highway with our camera rigged to the car with a clamp.

These next few are taken in Akureyri, the capital of Northern Iceland.

I love these 2 pics, first the one on the right because the red light is shaped like a heart. All red lights in Akureyri are. Then the left photo. I am really proud of Ryan and I for learning so many Icelandic words and city names, but that top word is just crazy! Can you imagine saying “Meet me at Uppysingamiðistoði” ? (Oh and the funny “d” is pronounced like a “th” sounding like “the” in english) Good Luck!

Now these next photos are straight out of the camera, I only edited fly away hairs on my face and bags from Ryan’s tired eyes. The sky really did look like that. It was that blue.

My feet in Reykjavik & at Vik the black sand beach.

Icelandic Turf Houses

Here we are at the base camp of Vatnajökul Glacier. Its covered in ash because it is right beside the now famous volcano Eyjafjallajökull (which I still cannot pronounce). They had sherpa’s for hire to take you up the glacier. We were so close to the volcano, but because it was so deep in the mountains and underneath a glacier there are no remnants of the explosion except for this ash.

This is a panorama taken from the top of a rock fortress in West Iceland near Grundarfjörður. (Pronounced Groon-dar-fee-your-thur)

Finally the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik. I love this city, its about as big as Barrie, with only 200,000 people, and more places to buy Pylsurs than anywhere else I’ve ever been to. Pylsurs are an all beef gourmet hotdog with no filler. Tastes awesome, although their idea of mustard is a bit different. It is the most popular restaurant in Reykjavik.

This church on the right towers above Reykjavik and is quite stunning at night. Its called Hallgrímskirkja. Kirkja means church.

Anywhere and everywhere you go in Iceland you can find someone who can sell you a traditional Icelandic wool sweater. Seriously you can get them at gas stations, book stores, coffee shops, hotels and any major tourist attraction. They are expensive, but they are all made in Iceland and mostly by hand. The last photo below is us wearing our cool new threads. People of all ages wear these traditional sweaters. We also treated ourselves to some fun North 66 hats. North 66 is like our The North Face company but better.

This photo was taken on our last night, we wanted a night time shot of us over looking Reykjavik. The sky that night was unbelievable, the colours, once again were amazing. We walked up to one of the highest points in the city and started taking photos of the night sky. Since the sun stays up until almost midnight, the sun sets take a lot longer. People started gathering from side streets up the hill where we were to watch the sun set. It was a pretty amazing night. Our trip was so surreal, Ryan and I just look at these photos and we can’t even believe we took them, or believe the things we have seen. Seeing this much beauty is almost overwhelming, but I am definitely not complaining. I am just thankful that I have been able to experience it.

Erika & Ryan

Capitol Theater Wedding- Toronto, ON

Ryan Rowell — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:28:25 +0000

A few weeks ago we photographed Greg & Lisa’s wedding at the Capitol Theatre in Toronto. You may remember them from their engagement session last year in Muskoka or even the time lapse wedding video just a few posts back. Greg & Lisa’s wedding was the most colourful wedding we have ever seen. Every detail from the decor, to the linens, the cake, even Lisa’s shoes matched their hawaiian theme. Of course in order to have a wedding this awesome you have to have a team of awesome vendors: Crystal Adair-Benning from Distinct Occasions Wedding Planning & Design, Designing Trendz for decor & floral design, and Lori Hutchinson The Caketress.

Greg & Lisa are teachers who get to work alongside one another everyday (much like Ryan and myself) they are fun, adventurous, best friends and so much in love. We had such a great time shooting this wedding, and getting to know this amazing couple over the last year. We can’t wait to share their destination honeymoon photos from Iceland with you all very soon.

Congratulations Greg & Lisa !

Thank you for choosing us to photograph your wedding.

Stay tuned to the blog over the next week to see images from our trip to Iceland!!

Erika & Ryan

The Inn at Christies Mill Wedding – Port Severn, ON

Erika Hanchar — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:57:27 +0000

The summer is just floating on past us this year, we still have not gone swimming, camping or hit the drive in theater for dusk till dawn movie nights. Wedding season is really keeping us on our toes. This past weekend we were back at The Inn at Christie’s Mill photographing a beautiful Muskoka wedding, and to us, that means beautiful scenery, and amazing food! Its one of our favorite Muskoka wedding locations.

Tom & Andrea were married on the back yard patio, and had a full Greek wedding ceremony in front of 85 close friends and family. This was the first time we have ever seen a Greek ceremony outside of a church, and I think I’d like to see more Orthodox ceremonies outdoors, having great scenery alongside these beautiful wedding traditions makes for some great imagery. Afterward we photographed Tom & Andrea’s very relaxed portraits on the docks. If you are looking for a real Muskoka feel to your wedding, Christie’s Mill is an awesome choice. Its almost 3/4′s surrounded by water, boats, docks, and cute cabins. But above all the food there is to die for. We are such fans.

Here are some of our favorite moments from Tom & Andrea’s Muskoka wedding.

Congratulations Tom & Andrea, thank you for having us as a part of your day!

Cheers

E & R

Glendon Hall Wedding Sneak Peak – Toronto, ON

Erika Hanchar — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:00:46 +0000

Enjoy this sneak peak from Paul & Leanna’s Glendon Hall wedding photo session in Toronto, ON.

Elegant Wedding Magazine Feature

Erika Hanchar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:00:43 +0000

Elegant Wedding Magazine recently featured Charlotte & Steve’s wedding at Toronto Botanical Gardens we photographed last July, and also an image of a bouquet we shot for for Eventdecorator.com. Steve & Charlotte just celebrated their 1 year anniversary, and are welcoming twin girls very soon!! We are so excited to share this with you and so excited for Steve & Charlotte.

Happy 1 year anniversary.

Erika & Ryan

You can pick up the latest issue of Elegant Wedding Magazine at Chapters, and pretty much where ever magazines are sold in Canada.

Capitol Theatre Wedding Time Lapse – Toronto, ON

Erika Hanchar — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:51:55 +0000

Check out our time lapse from Greg & Lisa’s wedding this past weekend at the Capitol Theater, Toronto, ON. Stay tuned to the blog for images from their Honeymoon photo sessions in ICELAND!!!!!!

Wedding Day Time Lapse Capitol Theatre Toronto from Rowell Photography on Vimeo.

Family Photo session – Innisfil, ON

Erika Hanchar — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:50:00 +0000

Family season is starting early this year, usually in the autumn we get a lot of inquiries for creative family portrait sessions. Meet the Langer family, we photographed them last week in Innisfil at their summer cottage. These kids were a ton of fun! Every time we meet new kids we are always surprised at what talents they hold. These kids know how to drive boats, as soon as they hopped in the boat they turned into little adults, and got down to business. It was actually quite impressive to watch the kids back their boat out of the dock (parents not far away of course). But for most of the shoot they were just kids, and because everyone was relaxed and having a good time we were able to capture some truly relaxed family portraits.

Thank you to the Langer family for having us over for the afternoon.

Erika & Ryan

P.S- If anyone out there would like to schedule a family session with Ryan and I, please send us a message via our contact page. Our next available dates start the weekend of September 10th, 11th & 12th. We look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Séance de fiançailles – Vieux Montréal, Québec

Erika Hanchar — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:57 +0000

Anytime we get to travel for a destination engagement session its a treat, but when we get to visit Old Montreal and wander down old cobblestone streets and explore hidden corners of this romantic city, its really the icing on the cake!

Its been 2 years since our last destination engagement session in Montreal, and even though we have spent days walking around Vieux Montreal, we are still finding brand new (to us) locations to shoot and inspire us. Its one of our favorite Canadian destinations. Here are images Laura & James, who will be back on the blog later this year when we shoot their wedding in Toronto. These two were so adventurous, and were up for any creative ideas we had. We started their photo shoot around 5pm and with dinner and all the walking around we didn’t end until 9pm, so we were able to get images at the most beautiful parts of the day; sunset and early evening. We are so in love with these images, and we hope you all enjoy them too.

Thanks to James & Laura, we are so happy we have gotten to know you both, and we are so stoked for your upcoming wedding!

Cheers

Erika & Ryan

Weddingbells featurette

Erika Hanchar — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:43:15 +0000

We were so excited to see that one of our images was published in the latest issue of Weddingbells Magazine. Weddingbells is one of our favorite magazines, and we have been featured on the Weddingbells website a few times before, but this was our first time in print with them!

The image was from Jonathan & Emma’s McLean House wedding last October. Jonathan & Emma are now expecting a baby girl in September. Congratulation to you both!

You can pick up the latest issue at Chapters, and pretty much where ever magazines are sold in Canada.

Erika & Ryan

You & Me

Erika Hanchar — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 21:52:20 +0000

Hello Everyone!

This summer is going by so fast, today someone mentioned to me that it was already July 20th!!! We have so many weddings coming up, and engagements to blog about, plus some really exciting adventures we will be heading out on this summer. Lately we have been very busy, not only with weddings and engagements but with our One on One Mentoring sessions. We have been teaching for 6 weeks straight, 2 times a week with our latest student Alexandra. Not only is she a cool chick, but she’s got some serious talent in the photography field, I can’t wait to watch what she comes up with in the next few months. On Canada Day she took some long over due couples photos of Ryan and I, and it has to be said… these are my favourite images of Ryan and I ever!!!!!! They really show off our personalities, and I finally know and understand what it means to connect with your subject. It makes for better images, and an awesome experience.

We are so proud of how far Ally has come in such a short time.
Alexandra gave me some images to post on our blog. You can view more of her work on her Sealed with a Kiss Photography facebook fan page (website coming very, very soon.)

Happy Summer everyone!
Erika & Ryan

Dusk Till Dawn shoot out

Erika Hanchar — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:47:08 +0000

Last Thursday was our annual Dusk till Dawn shoot out in downtown Barrie. Its a great event that connects models and photographers for one night 7pm-7am for some night shooting. Photographers from all industries, and skill levels attended. At one point we had 27 attendees out shooting in a dark tunnel at night.

We got rained out by 2am, so our next event, (maybe this fall) will have to make up for that.

Thank you to all the models, and the photographers who brought their creative game which made for some great imagery.

Here are a few images Ryan and I took, enjoy!

E & R

P.S- to any photographers and models who attended, if you would like to leave a link to your images in the comments section of this post, please feel free to, we want to encourage more models and photographers to come out to the next event.

Geoff 4 Ward 4

Erika Hanchar — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:59:03 +0000

Long before we had a blog, we photographed weddings, and one of our first weddings was of Geoff & Trish Ball. Geoff is from New Tecumseth, ON and is running for his local Ward 4 councilor position. We were extremely honored when he asked us to photograph some images of him for his campaign. It was so nice to reconnect with Geoff and Trish again, having them hang out at our studio in Barrie was a blast.

If you are interested in getting to know a little more about Geoff Ball check out his Twitter & Facebook group, he is very active online. The municipal election is October 25th 2010 so get to know your Ward 4 candidate!

Thanks again Geoff, Trish and the boys!

Erika & Ryan

Canada Day Engagement session – Barrie, ON

Erika Hanchar — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:00:33 +0000

View of the Barrie waterfront + hot couple + fireworks = some seriously stellar photo opportunities! When we suggested Canada Day fireworks as the backdrop for Jessica & Neil’s pre-wedding engagement photos they were game, when we suggested that they meet us on a rooftop in downtown Barrie, they were still all for it. We are so lucky to have couples who trust us, and don’t even question our ideas, they just ask “What should we wear?” Jessica and Neil are such an amazing, and fun couple, we can’t wait to shoot their wedding next year. These are by far our best fireworks photos to date, we have been dreaming of the day when someone would let us onto their rooftop for a photo shoot.

We hope you enjoy these images from Jessica and Neil’s pre-wedding engagement session, feel free to leave us a message below we would love your feedback.

Cheers

Erika & Ryan

P.S- we would love to thank our friends at Sorlie Arts for the sweet location hook up, we love you guys!

P.S.S. – We would like to wish all our friends across the border a wonderful Independence Day!

Engagement session – Bala, ON

Erika Hanchar — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:06 +0000

Its finally summer around here, and it starting to get really busy. Its wedding season! and we have so many amazing weddings coming up. Jen & TJ’s wedding will be this August in Bala at Jen’s family cottage in the Wahta Mohawk Territory. They are going to have a traditional Native wedding ceremony. We are so stoked for their event, and to share with you some of their engagement photos from last weeks session in Bala.

Thank you Jenn & TJ for coming all the way up from Vegas for your destination engagement session, your guest signing book is going to look awesome!

Cheers

E & R