Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans - John Lennon

Sascha et Philippe se connaissent depuis bien longtemps maintenant et forment un magnifique duo: simples, drôles et humains. Ça me semble tout naturel dans la progression des choses que leur amour grandissant depuis 7 ans ait récemment fait place à un petit bébé (un beau bébé en plus!) juste à eux. Je connais Sascha depuis notre CEGEP dans le domaine du Multimédia au début des années 2000 et je ne me souviens pas d’avoir jamais douté que leur amour tiendrait la route jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Nos années d’études collégiales avec notre groupe d’environ 30 étudiants s’est terminé en 2003 et chacun s’est retrouvé rapidement dispersé à travers la province. Quelques-uns ont trouvé un emploi et d’autres, comme Sascha et moi, avons continué nos études à l’Université. Nous ne nous sommes par cotoyées durant ces dernières années, mais il y a de ces gens dans la vie qui, peu importe le temps et la distance, vous ferons sentir comme s’il n’y avait jamais vraiment eu d’écart. C’est le cas avec Sascha et Philippe.

Sascha and Philippe have long known each other and make a wonderful couple: easygoing, funny and down to earth. It seems only fitting that the feelings they have shared for each other for the past seven years would bring them to giving birth to a baby (a wonderfully cute one at that!) of their own to cherish and love. My knowing Sascha comes from my College Studies in the Multimedia field in the early 2000’s and I don’t remember doubting for a moment that these two were made for each other. Our multimedia years with 30 or so other people came to an end in 2003 and everyone in our was quickly dispersed over the province, some started working full time and others, like Sascha and I, continued on with our studies through University. We probably did not see each other for the better part of the last 6 years, but there are people in life who no matter how long you have not been in contact with, when you do get back in touch it feels as though nothing has really changed. Sascha and Philippe will make you feel that way.

Lorsque Sascha m’a initiallement contactée vers la fin 2008, elle voulait avoir une session de photographie de maternité. Mais la vie étant ce qu’elle est, avec son lot de joies (heureusement) ainsi que son lot de peines (malheureusement), nos plans ont été reportés et le petit Olivier a fait sa grande entrée deux semaines plus tôt que prévu. Donc, la session de maternité s’est transformée en session de bébé! Nous avions pris rendez-vous un samedi matin du mois de mai, tenant compte du fais qu’Olivier est plutôt du type matinal. Par contre, cette année le mois de mai fut particulièrement froid et nuageux. Nous avons finalement décidé de faire la portion intérieure mais nous ne baissons pas les bras si facilement. Nous trouverons un moment durant l’été pour faire la portion extérieure, vous aurez donc l’occasion de revoir le beau Olivier (un peu plus grand!) dans quelques semaines.

When Sascha contacted me initially in late 2008, she was enquiring about maternity portraits. But life being life, with its many joys (thankfully) and setbacks (regretfully), our plans fell through and wonderful baby boy Olivier made a surprise appearance two weeks early. So baby session it was in the end! Our session was finally scheduled for a Saturday morning in May, keeping in mind that Olivier is more of a morning baby, However, this particular year, the month of May certainly has not been as sunny or as warm as we would like it to be. We settled for the indoor portion of the session and but we don’t give up that easily. We will be holding the outdoor portion later this summer so expect to see more of the cute Olivier (who will be bigger!) in the weeks to come.

I hear 3 months old babies are not exactly the easiest to photograph but you wouldn’t know it from these pictures. Olivier was very open to being moved around, having his clothes changed and indulging us in all of our coo and babble talk so he would look our way. A total trooper for whom I happily clicked my camera until my cheeks hurt. Stay tuned for more from this session coming shortly!

And just because it had been way too long since I had given in to the itch to do another one of those, here is the latest addition to my set of photographs of “what I see when looking down at my feet”.

May the new year be filled with love, friendship, health, joy and peace for you and your loved ones.

May you and your loved ones have a very merry and safe holiday season. If 2009 is anything like 2008 was, I think my heart will just explode. I’ll see you in the new year.

I could have left you with a photograph of my pile of boxes however, I picked up these little jewels at the grocery store this morning. They are simply delicious. And hey, if I can’t share them with you all to eat, at least you get to see how pretty they look in my white colander.

Here is my most recent one, mid October 2008.

25 months earlier

During our initial phone consultation I remember Melanie said she thought her belly was at its prime for portraits and she was right. Isn’t this the cutest belly you’ve ever seen?

After a little while I asked Steve to join in on the fun. Lovebirds alert! I told them to make-out and I was served!

I love it when my clients improvise on their own. It creates such wonderfully spontaneous and honest moments.

Daniel scouted out this wonderful fence for the shoot and it made for such cute photos if I do say so myself…

The way they are holding hands in the next two shots is killing me. At that point during the shoot I thought to myself “Just how much cuter can these too get? They’re already off the charts!”

A simple serene moment towards the end of the session. Melanie and Steve, I am so grateful to have met you both and to have been invited to share and document such an important and meaningful part of your life.

Last but not least, the wonderful parents-to-be you see the these photographs are, as of yesterday, officially mommy and daddy to a wonderful little girl. Maika was born on October 31st at 2:54pm weighing in at 6 pounds and 6 ounces. I wish the entire family nothing but continued love and happiness.

Considering we shot the most intimate part of the session first (we wanted to keep the golden light for the outside shots), I did my best to reassure them. I told them I would direct them if I thought there was a need, I would give them instructions or ideas or prompts and we would go from there, making sure they felt at ease and liked everything we did.

After only the first couple shutter clicks, I was simply and completely astounded by how comfortable and natural they were in front of the lens. The whole time I felt like I was cheating doing my job because I had little to no instructions to give to them. They posed and kissed and hugged and smiled in all the perfect ways and during all the perfect moments.

Ladies, don’t we all wish to have someone look up to us with this very same expression at least once in our lives? Love, trust and pride at its best.

I don’t think the next few require an explanation. I simply adore them. Can you feel the bond? I had shivers down my spine that afternoon.

The next two are a little bit different and more edgy but I love how they turned out so much I almost wish I’d thought of this idea for myself before.

And last but not least, this post couldn’t possibly end without mention and thanks to my lovely and wonderfully supportive boyfriend who let me transform his dining room into my own tiny studio for this particular part of the session. The light that he gets in that room during the afternoon was exactly what we needed.

I shot this session in Cookshire in the Eastern Townships, about three hours from the Montreal region, on Jacynthe’s father’s gorgeous land. It was the perfect location for a shoot smack dab during the fall season. When I woke up that Sunday morning, I quickly noticed we were going to be graced with great weather but it did not take us long before we realized the traffic gods were not going to be as gracious as mother nature.

The trip took us approximately five hours and I say approximately because at that point counting is too difficult to do. But we did get there. Seeing as Jacynthe is eating for two, we took a lunch break as soon as we arrived and started shooting right after we had finished the last bit of the wonderful chicken salad her mom had so nicely prepared for us both.

Between the driving and the eating, we barely had an hour left of sunlight to shoot. So we got right down to business and my girl meant real business. Every photographer knows at least the first ten shots are almost always going to be discarded (you’re nervous, they’re nervous, not a good combo) but I think this first one turned out great!

Jacynthe had told me just a couple minutes earlier how unsure she was of herself when pulling all-teeth smiles. You wouldn’t know it from this picture!

Her mother was sneaking up on us and Jacynthe saw her from the corner of her eye so of course I had to snap this shot. The expression was too good to miss.

The light was quickly vanishing but we managed to get a couple more shots in before the sun was completely gone.

Texture, rust and a beautiful girl. What more can a photographer ask for?

Balloons maybe? Congratulations Jacynthe, you make a wonderful momma.

I can’t even being to say how delighted I was to shoot their portraits that day. The setting Lise had chose was beautiful, the light was gorgeous and both Lise and Fabien were up to do anything for the camera.

I always try to sneak in a couple shots when they think I’m looking somewhere else and giving them a break. It often gives very relaxed and true-to-nature shots.

Details. I loved their hair!

How proud does Fabien look to have Lise as his wife.

I love that I caught them mid-kiss in this one. Also, you can see the gorgeous bridge over the pond from the previous kiss shot.

I was so grateful to be able to be a part of their wonderful wedding day. I left them to their family and reception dinner feeling completely hopeful and joyous for their future, as well as mine. True love always shines onto other people.

Lise and Fabien chose to hire me for the ceremony, group shots and portraits. Fabien got ready at their own house and Lise booked a hair appointment and even found enough time as to pick up her bouquet on the way back! Thank god for brothers who are willing to let you borrow their car with AC. It was a very very hot day but everyone proved to be troopers. Nobody complained under the harsh afternoon sun and I certainly got a good workout

Since the church was so close from their house, it was hard to justify renting a limousine for a couple miles but their family transformed the family van into a really cute transportation mode.

Because Fabien and Lise rode the DIY limo from their house to the church, they’d already seen each other before the ceremony and opted to walk down the aisle together, preceded by their wonderfully bubbly kid.

During the ceremony, the priest cracked a couple jokes, which everyone seemed to appreciate. Even though he made it short and sweet, I had more than enough time to cover many different angles and details.

Throughout the entire day, Lise and Fabien would took their turns to glance at each other lovingly. It was evident that these two were very happy with their day.

I loved the church and its unconventional layout. The huge windows on each side and chiseled ceiling made for wonderful lighting and shadows.

Their son who acted as the ring bearer was perfect.

After the ceremony, everyone headed outside for some group shots. I think everyone in this group shot looks just smashing.

I snapped this one of the little cutie right before Lise, Fabien and I ran away for an hour so we could take their portraits, which will be the second portion of pictures I post from their wedding later on this week.

Right at the entrance, there was a tiny animal farm and I couldn’t resist snapping a couple of shots of the furry (and feathery too!) animals.

The apples were delicious, the sun was shining. It would sound a bit cheesy if I said it was everything we had hoped for, but it really was. And we ate quite a few apples before heading home. Just because that is what you do when you go pick apples. You eat nearly half as much as what you bring back home.

So last Friday on my way back home from work at about 4h45pm, I was feeling particularly great even though I was stuck in traffic (as usual). Although I would lie if I said I didn’t mind the high level of negative energy that seems to come rushing at me when I am confronted to traffic, it seemed as though the action of driving was something I enjoyed more than usual. So I call D from my cell (hands-free speakerphone, you thought you were catching me there for a moment didn’t you?) and mumbled something I fear was more than 90% incoherent about last minute decisions, road trips and far away cities.

After only a couple minutes we settled on NYC as a destination of choice (D had never been!) and went to bed for a quick power nap before leaving. We slept from 9pm until midnight on Friday and got up at around 00:04am - what can I say, waking up with an alarm is brutal at this hour. We packed up and headed south for the border, which we reached at about 4am.

The customs officer had many questions up her sleeve for us. I guess crossing the border in the wee hours of the night does look suspicious. Nonetheless, after a quick check of our papers off we were, Starbucks coffee in hand, roaming free through the Empire State.

We made it to North Bergen, NJ at about 10am and set sails on the Days Inn, which we loved. It was very cheap but the service and room was top notch. And it is only a bus ride away from Manhattan. The bus dropped us off at Port Authority Bus Terminal and we spent a bit of time walking amongst the hundreds of people in Times Square.

After that, we headed to Chipotle for a good food fix and energy boost. I already wish I could eat some more.

We walked to Central Park and wandered in the park for so long I can’t recall the timeline at that point. I didn’t have enough time to fit Central Park in my schedule during my last two visits so I was exceptionally happy this time around. Especially since I got to experience it with D, walking hand in hand. As romantic and as cheesy as you would expect it to be, but also as refreshing for the soul as you would expect it to be.

The following is possibly my favorite picture of the whole trip. I stayed there for a couple minutes while D was checking out the map and I was never able to figure out who her parents were. She never left her spot.

The rest of the day comprised of walking, seeing the Central Park Roller Skaters visiting various stores, seeing Naked Cowboy, and more walking.

We met a very nice fellow named Mo on the R train who had a woman in Montreal years ago and told us about places he’d been and seen and how much he loved us because we were from Montreal. We talked for a good twenty minutes with him between waiting for the train and sharing the ride with him. When he left, he said “I’ll see you again kids, the vibe around you is just too good, it is going to happen, I can feel it. I know it. God bless you”. And off he was. Meeting Mo was my favorite part of the trip. I wish I’d thought of asking to take his picture.

We took the ferry to Staten Island and then took the ferry back, walked some more, took the train again, got off in Times Square and ate a ridiculously overpriced salad at Maxie’s. But we loved it. We walked some more in Times Square and I took a couple hip shots just for fun with my Nikon and also with my Holga.

After that we took the bus back to the hotel and went to be around 1am. We’d planned to go clubbing but we were beat. We came back home the next day and I’m already thinking about when I’ll get to go next and where will I bump into Mo.

I had the best of times this past Saturday with the bride and groom and their family. Everyone was very easy to work with and they all put on their best 1,000 dollar smiles (although I must admit the ring-bearer had by far the best smile of the bunch).

My good friend Tyna tagged along as my assistant for the occasion. I have her to thank for the composition of the first shot in this sneak peek. I don’t think Fabien could look any more proud of his wife in the second photo, and Lise is ready to be completely swept off her feet by her man. More to come at a later date!

We made Sahar and Aidin do the ever popular “dip” during the hour for the simple reason that they were so good at it. They were naturals!

At the end of the cocktail hour, white release doves (also known as homing pigeons) were brought outside. The couple first released two birds by hand and then, from a wooden cage, a larger group joined them in the sky. It is commonly believed that doves do mate for life or until one of the partners dies which makes this lifelong commitment one of the reason why these beautiful white birds are a popular symbol for marriage.

While cocktails were held outside, the dinner portion of the wedding day was carefully and beautifully set up inside a dining area with a mezzanine and dozens of white lanterns. The overall effect was stunning and might I add, the dinner (especially the salmon) was simply delicious.

Speeches occurred throughout the duration of the entire dinner and tears were abound, to say the least. I caught this little gem during the Maid of Honor speech.

After dinner, everyone was brought back in the ballroom were the wedding ceremony was held earlier that day and Sahar and Aidin had their first dance. People like these two make my job the easiest and greatest job on Earth. Their love just transcends the lens and their connection in present in every glance, every move. It is a beautiful thing to witness.

At some point during the evening the bride got tired of holding on to her bouquet (rightfully so!) and the groom put it up there in the chandelier. They retrieved it moments before the bouquet toss at the end of the day.

Right before the couple got to cut their cake, the Raghseh Chagoo took place (a dance we could refer to as a “knife dance” in English). It was a very entertaining part of the evening and I highly recommend you check out this YouTube video to get an idea of what the Raghseh Chagoo dance looks like.

The purpose of the Persian Knife dance (Raghseh Chagoo) is for the couple to retrieve a knife from the dancers so they can cut the wedding cake. The dance starts with one person dancing a typical Persian dance, with the knife and basically asking the couple for money. Once the dancer gets the money, the knife is passed on to the next dancer. The bride and groom continue to offer money to try and get the cake knife. A little back and forth, and a few dance moves later, the couple finally are given the knife and are able to cut the cake. - c/o Persian Mirror

Lifelong happiness to the beautiful Sahar and Aidin. And as Sahar’s childhood friend put it in her speech: “you two are gonna make ridiculously good-looking babies”. Tabrik migoyam!

Witnessing a Persian wedding was nothing short of fascinating, let alone getting to photograph one. The traditions and customs I witnessed have deep-rooted meaning and are wonderful expressions of love and happiness. The Sofreh Aghd was completely breath-taking. Each item placed on the wedding spread has its purpose and every single one is more interesting than the other.

Once the couple is pronounced husband and wife, the officiant asks for God’s blessing to be with the couple in their lives together. The bride and groom exchange rings and kiss. At this point, the honey is also presented to the happy couple. Here, the groom dips his finger into the honey and gives some to the bride. She does the same in turn and they are ensured a sweet and happy life together. - c/o Persian Mirror

The light at the end of the ceremony was simply phenomenal so I snapped those two shots of the bride in front of the huge windows.

I caught the Bride and Groom stealing a kiss right in the empty ceremony room after everyone had gone outside for cocktails and pictorials. Couldn’t resist exercising my paparazzi skills and sneaked in this shot. It could possibly be my favorite single shot of the entire day so I’m posting it both in color and b&w just because I can’t decide which I like the best.

The pair then had a few sips of their own cocktails inside before joining everyone out on the patio for the reception, which was a complete and utter blast. These guys know how to party, let me tell you!

I’ll be back for Part 3 of the wedding later on tonight.

I hung out at the groom’s house for a little while and took a couple shots of him getting ready to wed his beautiful bride. I also had enough time to sneak in a few photos of their very special wedding invitations.

The couple planned their ceremony a little over an hour from Montreal on the south shore and rented a wonderful white limo as means of transportation. Of course, this meant they were also opting for a first look. I couldn’t have been more excited.

The driver of the limousine had set a red carpet on the wet pavement (the clouds parted just as the limo arrived, talk about good luck!) and Aidin stood there waiting for his bride. The moment Sahar emerged from the building he started crying and she started running.

There was a lot of excitement in the air, the whole family was clapping and cheering. Lots of kisses were exchanged and everyone hoped back into their car in direction of the reception site. Stay tuned for Part 2 of Sahar and Aidin’s wedding tomorrow.

To say everyone who was there to say goodbye was jealous would be accurate (I know I was!), but we were also very excited for her because, hear this, she was going on her own. One can only imagine the wonderful week-long journey lying ahead of her. She’s been passionate for years about all things Egypt. My cousin and her parents were there as well as my own parents and D and I (my mom is my cousin’s godmother and also my cousin’s mother’s sister - did you get that?).

I have compiled for you a list of things to do to pass time while waiting at the airport. It includes the following: loading up on caffeine and whipped cream, taking pictures of cute kids, doing random fun things with coffee sleeves, scouting the horizon for pilots while speculating about where they’re headed and shooting logos.

This last one was taken by D while I was off running around trying to find a croissant (I get cravings like that sometimes. Also, I did not find any, it was too late and the coffee shop was all out) and I liked it too much not to post it.

The following diptych requires an explanation. This little munchkin came up out of the blue and, in the most natural way, sat next to our friend Maximilien. He stayed there for the longest time (for a toddler that is) just looking at him and resting his little hands on his chest for balance. Mom arrived a couple seconds after. Nearly all of us, enchanted by the scene, rushed to ask what this little man’s name was.

“Max”, she said.

We simply couldn’t believe it. It was so spontaneous and the name similarity was just so precious. Little Max seemed completely mesmerized by Maximilien and eventually left as quickly as he’d appeared.

I couldn’t decide whether I liked the colour or b&w version more so you get both. You also get a bonus (but mandatory) sunset over the lake shot.

You would think I would have went people portrait crazy (I am pretty sure at any time during the evening there were over 30 people present) but I was actually drawn more to the furry animals. Sometimes you just have to mix it up a little bit to get your mojo going.

Only downside is that I now have doggy fever.

Over the years, the erosion from the Coaticook River has sculpted this amazing 50-meter-deep natural gorge. To cross the river over the gorge, you can take the Guinness Record’s longest hanging bridge in the world (169 metres/555 feet) - c/o Eastern Townships Travel Guide

We had reserved a site in the N area which holds 28 traditional camping lots in a very wooded area where literally thousands of ferns cover the less traveled grounds. At dawn and dusk, the light was simply magical. Because our campsite was situated near the river, there were hundreds of tiny bright blue dragonflies flying about on the river’s shores. I couldn’t help but think of my cousin whose favorite colour was blue and like dragonflies so much had gotten one tattooed on her shoulder. On Sunday, before heading back home, we hiked the trails and walked on the suspended bridge over the gorge. Being that it is the world’s longest suspended pedestrian bridge, you can imagine it was quite the sight.

photo c/o of Maximilien Lincourt