BY THE DIM EARLY MORNING LIGHT

IT ALL STARTED WITH A FRENCH FRY.

Almost exactly thirteen years ago to the day, a seemingly insignificant event occurred, one I am certain no one else who was with us even noticed. I stole a French fry from a boy’s plate. At the time, we simply smiled at each other, and went about our evening, but months later, when we had started dating, both of us would remember that moment when we both just knew something very significant had occurred.

Today, over twelve years after officially becoming a couple, I am lucky to say the boy, Ben, is my husband. As I write this, I know that, quite honestly, there are no words to adequately express who we have become together, and what he means to me.

He somehow sees my faults as endearing qualities, remains my greatest support system, and without a doubt, is the person I have the most fun with. He always remembers to say thank you, even after a long day, even after a sixteen-hour shift, if only because I remembered to buy peanut butter for his lunch. He is the most amazing father to his little girls, and I am certain that if you asked them, they would tell you their Daddy hosts the very best kitchen dance parties.

While I can take little credit for who he is, I can truly say I am proud of him in everything he does.

So today, on the occasion of your birthday, I want to say thank you, Ben, for everything you do for our family and loved ones. You live your life with much love, generosity, and integrity, and that’s something to be really proud of. Happy Birthday, My Love. We love you more than words. xoxoxo

Frogs, Cheese, & A Peacock: Our Cottage Weekend

The first time all four of us headed up to Ben’s family’s cottage was last year around this time, and based on how little sleep we got, we swore we would never go up with both girls again until Eloïse was considerably older. Despite that less-than-ideal initiation, we recently decided to give it another shot.

We kept the menu simple, and bought a few things at a local market on the way up, namely fruits, vegetables, and an assortment of cheese. The market has a little farm attached to it, complete with rabbits, chickens & roosters, alpacas, and peacocks. For Aurelia, it was most definitely the male peacock that stole the show.

She had a million questions, and was fascinated by the way he fanned his plumage, and even the way he squawked. She was sad to leave, and for the remainder of our time away, the peacock became one of her main topics of conversation, including when we would see him again. Luckily, the excitement of getting to the cottage gave her something to look forward to.

The cottage is located deep in the woods, and can only be accessed by 4x4, and in the winter, by snowmobile. It is an old hunting & fishing club, without electricity, built over a hundred years ago, and sits by a lake where no other cottages can be found. Trying to describe it in a way that gives it justice is next to impossible. The first time I visited, over twelve years ago now, I was blown away that such a place existed. A great number of friends have spent many, many weekends here, and it’s pretty safe to say the place has become legendary. For many years, Ben & I headed up to it every chance we had, sometimes even leaving late at night on a whim. Now, with two little ones, the opportunities to head up together are rare, but it remains one of our favourite places. For Aurelia, it has quickly become one of her favourite places, too.

When we finally pulled up to the cottage, and settled in, we headed right to the lake, where we got down straight to the business of hunting for frogs.

We got lucky with one, thanks to Papa’s skilled hands, but after the girls examined him a bit, we let the frog “go back to his family”.“Bye, bye Fog!”

We spent our time relaxing, eating a mainly-cheese menu, and exploring our surroundings with the kids. We took a canoe ride around the lake, headed to the beach, captured &examined minnows, bloodsuckers, lilypads and dragon flies, caterpillars, and just savouring every little moment. Bliss.

We strolled down the path through the woods with the hope that we would have more luck finding frogs in puddles. The frogs weren't plentiful, but it didn't matter: splashing in puddles was just as fun.

The girls both loved taking turns swinging on the porch. Wait, let me rephrase that: they loved to swing, but had a harder time with the "taking turns" part. Nevertheless, their glee was hard to contain.

Despite being a little concerned before we left how our little family adventure would go, everything went smoothly. The children even fell asleep easily, and slept through the night, giving Mama & Daddy a little break. It was sad to leave after only having stayed a single night, but since it was all we had planned for, we had little choice. We headed back home, with a quick stop to visit the peacock one last time (a visit that would be followed by watching several YouTube videos of peacocks. Do you realize just how many peacock videos are out there?).

This trip provided a little glimpse into the future and to hopefully many, many more cottage adventures. Seeing my little girls at the cottage together, witnessing them having so much fun living out the simplest of childhood adventures, like hunting frogs, was so awesome, I can’t even begin to describe how it made me feel. I love that they have such an amazing place to discover. Although it already held a special place in our hearts, this little piece of paradise has suddenly come to mean so much more to us, because of two very special little people.

Big S & Little S

Here's a secret: Up until now, whenever I have walked into someone's home for a session, I have a certain level of anxiety. What if my mind goes blank, and I lose control of the session? What if the kids don't warm up to me, or are uncooperative?

Having said that, I am happy to report that, so far, I haven't run into any of these situations. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the kids  I have had the pleasure of working with have enjoyed themselves, and that getting their picture taken was relatively painless for them. Nevertheless, there is always the fear that the conditions during a session may be less than ideal.

On this day, I was feeling no different. I had met these little people previously in the fall, and it was more than likely that they would not remember who I was. What I quickly realized was I had nothing to worry about. This little almost-four year-old young man was the most ideal model. He not only greeted me enthusiastically, he posed for me without any prompting, in such a natural, relaxed way, I could not have asked for more. His little sister was a dream, easy-going, content just hanging out. And Mama? Well, she and I had the most amazing chat, and we had so much fun, in fact, we lost track of time.

Here's another secret: by the end of the session, a little piece of my heart had been stolen by this boy. He is just an awesome little person - full of energy, enthusiasm, sweetness, an amazing conversationalist, and positively gorgeous to boot. I feel honoured he was willing to show me his dance interpretation of one of his favourite Elvis songs, complete with splits, flips, and pirouettes. After his performance, when I asked him how he knew how to dance like that, true to form, he shrugged and replied, "I just know."

I believe you do, S.

Lopez

This is Lopez. Lopez is what happens when a Mama is stuck inside with two little girls on a rainy day in May. It was Aurelia’s idea to make a caterpillar. Truth be told , Lopez, named after Daddy’s muse, Jennifer,was not our first attempt at a pompom caterpillar. The first caterpillar we attempted to make with pompoms a while back was too fragile to survive any kind of touching, as the glue proved to be an inefficient mean of assembly. This time, however, I had the idea to run a needle and thread through them all, and it worked really well. Apparently in the process, we also created Lopez’s best asset, according to Aurelia, anyway. You see, the thread I used was red, and Lopez’s tail-end pompom was bright yellow, so the knotted thread was fairly obvious. I predicted when I was making him, that this little knot would be the topic of many conversations, and I was not wrong.

Late last night, at around 1030pm, once Eloïse was in bed, Aurelia, who had gotten out of bed, asked to hold Lopez. Having been up since 4am, I was exhausted. So when Aurelia asked me what that tiny knot of thread was, I absent-mindedly responded, “It’s Lopez’s bum hole.” She paused, examined it more closely, and declared, “Oh! You’re right!”. Well, this little knot of thread kept her busy for an hour.Ben and I were talking in another room, and we would hear the little pitter-pat of her feet coming toward us, and she would exclaim, while pointing at Lopez’s derrière, “Look,Mama! It’s Lopez’s bum hole.” (If we were more responsible parents, we might have thought this to be disturbing, but luckily, we are not, so instead, we thought it was hilarious.)

Morning arrives. When Lopez’s is finally pulled off the shelf from his resting place by Aurelia, the first thing she examined was his bum hole. And then she proceeded to explain Lopez’s anatomy to Eloïse, a moment I was lucky enough to capture on camera.
Sadly, Lopez did not survive the day without first losing his eyes, and losing his “figure”. But not before he received a lot of love and praise for his bum hole from two little girls.
The lesson here? If your name is Lopez, it’s always about the booty.

"UMBLALA!"

What's that, you say? To you, it may appear to be part of an apple speared by a chopstick, but our little Eloïse declared it to be her version of an "umblala". That's right, an umbrella.

Oh, how I love her.

A Girl and her Cats

Humphrey & Percival. My poor cats. Before the girls were born, those cats had loads of attention. But let’s face it: once I had been holding a little person in my arms all day long, the urge to hold another living creature when I had a free minute pretty much flew out the window for me. And so, they take what they can get.

When it comes to the girls, Aurelia co-exists with the cats, and appears to have little attachment to them. In fact, most of the time, her only acknowledgement of them is when she’s shooing them away. Then there’s Eloïse. She loves them.Loves them. Whether they like it or not.

Percival loves the attention, Humphrey does not. Many mornings, I have caught Eloïse & Percival cuddling as she tries to share her bottle and pacifier with him. She is constantly kissing him on his back, despite the fact she ends up with a mouthful of fur, and declares it to be “Yuck!”. Indeed, she loves her “tats”.

Baby B. January 10th, 2011.

This is Baby B, the last in a family of three gorgeous boys. These photos were taken on his Mama's birthday when he was just ten days old. My first newborn shoot, and I have to say he was a dream to photograph. The little guy hardly made a peep, even when we attempted to wrap him in cheesecloth, and idea we quickly nixed when he started looking like a mummy. He was already perfect just as he was.

His mama is one of my oldest friends. We first met in high school, and although most of our interaction these days is via social networking, there is something to be said about the friends who knew you when you were rolling your jeans, and drove around the neighborhood looking for certain young men on skateboards.

Thanks, Drea, for the privilege of photographing your beautiful new baby boy. He is lucky to have been born into such an amazing family. 

Oh, and thanks for sharing your birthday macarons.

A & M: November 18th, 2010

When I first contacted my good friend Drea and asked her if she would be willing to let me photograph her two sons, I was nervous. It was a combination of asking for help, putting myself "out there", and all the fear of my technical shortcomings. But I also knew I just needed to begin.

So when she greeted my proposal with enthusiasm, I was really happy and excited, but a little, ok, a lot anxious, too. I mean, I might get there and totally lose it. Maybe there will be poor natural light, or the kids won't like me, or I won't know what to do with them, and end up with a whole bunch of same looking, badly exposed, boring photographs. All of this was running through my head.

The night before I slept very little, but once morning came, I felt as ready as I would ever be. I would give it my very best, and that is all I could ask for, really.

When I arrived, and Drea introduced me to her two sons,A & M, they were a little apprehensive. Little did they know, they were making me shake in my boots. We decided to have them show me their room. Mom followed us because although the kids knew why I was there, you have to admit, it is a little weird. However, after a few minutes I realized her presence was freaking me out, so I told Drea we wouldn't need her, and she left us alone. Anyway, we just hung out for a bit. They mostly talked with each other, and I slowly started clicking away.

Prior to the day of the shoot, I had asked Drea to answer a few short questions about her boys. Since I had never met them except for her oldest on the day he was born, I thought it was a good way to get a little insight into each of their personalities since our time together would be limited. One of the questions I asked her was what made them laugh. Her response was "anything related to butts, farts, puke, etc." When she initially gave me that response,little did I realize how that would be the key to getting them to open up to me. Up until that point, they were playing pretty quietly, hardly looking at me, and talking very little. Then, M came across something with a strong odor, and declared :"Uhh, it smells like puke." There was a pause, as both boys looked straight at me as if to gauge my reaction. I burst out laughing. And sudddenly, just like that, I was in the club.

Suddenly, the entire energy shifted. They relaxed, started playing, laughing, looking and interacting with me, posing for me. It all started to come together. It was a blast. They are two amazing little men, one quite energetic, and the other a little more reserved. The idea of photographing two boys ages 6 and 4 at the same time sounds quite challenging, but really, I could not have asked for better models. They were awesome.

Thank you A & M for a fun-filled morning. You have no idea how much you taught me during our short time together.

Overheard

Eloïse, (while pointing at TV): Mama!
Aurelia: That’s not Mama, that’s a pteranadon.

On The Road

Yes, I am back! It has been nearly a year since I posted on this blog. I can't believe it. Way too long. Anyway, so much has happened in this last year, particularly for me, creatively. I am not quite ready to talk about it all here. To be honest, I feel quite vulnerable about the whole thing. However, more than anything, I am excited. I am on the verge of something big, and it feels awesome.