The twins have a birthday party!

80 year old twins Cliff and Swede celebrated their upcomming birthday with family and friends at Sylvan Lake Golf and Country Club on Saturday.
Did you know that a golf cart could be put into a skid, and nearly rolled?
Lots of fun! What a nice party, and golf! Thank you to Cheryl Hansen who hired me for this cool event.

Thanks to Gil Vallee, we have some nice images!

Rain, rain....GO AWAY!
I love a good thunder storm so much more when I don't have something this important to do.
Directly after my volunteer photography time for the AB summer Games Dinner I met with this family for some family shots. Happily, Gil at the Red Deer Lodge is one of the coolest people alive, and allowed me to use the inside of the Lodge.

Kelly and Mike

Clicky for Slideshow
There are WAY too many amazing images from this session that are gorgeous! What an incredibly photo-friendly couple. Just a few of my favourites take up two posts. Huge thanks to Vicki Reid and Lenore Bullman who came out to help me with the metering, reflectors and diffuser. What an enormous difference such small equipment makes. Having two experienced photographers come with me is instantly habit forming. We may start traveling in packs, hunting for shots. Like skittish little animals that live on Tim Horton's, camera on lap. Vicki picked our apres-shoot tea stop - a nice place in Lacombe called Kavaccino's...which I may have misspelled. But it was great!

The Author of an Image

This is a gorgeous image, but it's not mine. Sure, I took it with my camera, and I even exposed correctly, but our instructor, Tony Corbell is the maker of it. Amber (the model) is actually one of our classmates, and she agreed to let Tony photograph her using his concept. Everything in this image in intentional - the light (we were all out there at 7am to watch), the costume (Tony had a little help from Louise Simone), and the posing. The more developed we become as photographers, the more intentional our images become. This is why the nature of 'intellectual property' is guarded so fiercely in our profession. It would be completely unethical for one of us to has taken the shots engineered by Tony and called them our own.
In his own words ...'use this, and I'll kill ya!' - He was kidding.
Kind of kidding. But he has a great point.
So many of us get to our gig (wedding, event, etc.), and find guests and family in possession of AMAZING fire power, fantastic cameras, lenses, and flash units. You'd think it might be intimidating, but it's not. The greatest asset a professional photographer has is sloshing around between the ears. It's the creativity, the concepts, the ideas, resourcefulness, usually with a heaping dose of personality and diplomacy.
Tony has all of this and more, but he knows his greatest assets are made of them. He is what so many of us work everyday to be...The Best.

Auntie Gladys

I love my Auntie Gladys. When I was little, she would come to town for a visit and take me to the movies. She has always been one of the nicest people I've ever known. Friday I drove back to Calgary Airport (after leaving it just the night before) to have lunch with Gladys.

We're Gangsters, See?

Heather and Trent are two people worth braving crushing humidity and heat for.

The vacuum that is time away from home with other photographers.

My cheeks hurt from laughing. What a kickass trip to Image Explorations. I learned a ton - not just from Tony Corbell (the master of light!!!) but from my friends (new and old) in photography who are just so willing to share There is so much I could say about the week, but I'm whipped.
I'll post pic's instead.

Crazy, COOL Week!

Last week I had EXCRUCIATINGLY painful Physio to fix my shinsplints, (Thanks, Keith Weber!) A night of working with Fred (who still rocks), Lunch with Vicki Reid (Living Images), a SUPER wedding on Saturday, and early flight on Sunday and now I'm at Image Explorations in Victoria. WOW. I'm in a great class with an amazing teacher and young Jonathan Elhard, the Shiny new face of Traptow Photography. No sleep, too much Corona, and Fun, fun, fun.
Wednesday night is costume night, and my costume (saloon girl) did not turn out too badly at all.
I'll post a pic if I'm not looking too...uh...tipsy.
Congrats Amanda & Scott! You two are awesome, and your wedding was SO much fun. I love your family!
Thank you Cara Liddell for saving my bacon and being my assistant on Saturday too!

A little Thursday Road Trip.

Ever since our first week in Red Deer, when I decided that I'd had enough unpacking, the kids & I have been taking off to go hiking.
Incidentally...I'm still not completely unpacked. There are about three boxes I just can't bring myself to finish. Every once in a while, I go and throw some things out, and bring others in, but it's pretty half hearted.
Thursday we drove out to Chester Lake, south of Canmore.
Storm clouds were busy threatening all day long, but only delivered a wee spatter while we were out there. At 9km round trip, it's really easy and very scenic. Great hiking for the kids.

This is a neat slideshow program anyone can use!

Tony and Scott

This couple will have been married 18 years in August, and met here in Sylvan Lake at the Pier.
Her 4 year old son introduced them(somewhat by happy accident, I think) Twenty years ago.
They're so comfortable with eachother, and funny, and nice. I love couples like this.