Jake and Betty recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their family and friends. Before the official celebrations began, we met at Tanglebank Country Gardens for some family portraits. The granddaughters wore yellow dresses and skirts as that was the colour of Betty’s bridesmaid dresses. Here are a few of our favorites …

Before falling in love with photography, Jason studied architecture and worked at an architectural firm. So when architectural photography jobs come up, he’s always excited. Ledgeview Villas consists of 44 beautiful duplex homes in a strata-owned development steps away from Abbotsford’s Ledgeview Golf and Country Club. Here are some photographs of the show home …

Jason Brown was invited back to Strategic Corporate Resolutions in Abbotsford, BC for some more head shots and interior photography of their new office space. From leadership round table groups and executive coaching to leadership training and sales coaching, the team at Strategic help businesses develop strategies for building exceptional businesses. Here’s a sneak peak at what their new place looks like …

We had Max and Vienna in today to break in our new studio space with an uber-colorful portrait session. Here’s a sneak peak (a post dedicated to their session will be up soon):

We were honored to photograph the Foster-Szylowski family in Coquitlam, BC for A Fighting Spirit. A Fighting Spirit is an organization our friend, Karen McKinnon, on Vancouver Island founded as a resource for families who are facing the difficulties that come with having a sick child. Families are paired up with photographers to either document part of their journey or do a portrait session. It is a way to shine a light on relationships and bonds at a time when lives are turned upside down.

We were paired with the Foster-Szylowski family who is in the beginning stages of Leukemia treatments for 5 year old Benton. They chose to have family portraits done at a favorite park near their home. Blue Mountain Park has beautiful, old growth trees and interesting stone sculptures. And best of all for Benton, there was a cave and waterfall which he dubbed his bat cave as he is a fan of Batman.

Samara reminded us of our 2 year old daughter - poker straight hair, lots of energy, pleasantly spunky and loves to run. She’s also a tough cookie as she split her lip on one of the sculptures at the end of the session and made it look like a mere scratch.

We wish you all the best in your journey to living life cancer free!

Here are a few of our favorites …

If a session is challenging for us, it usually involves a two year old, a newborn and/or animals. Justin’s newborn session involved two of the above and still was a breeze. I think Kate and Jeff need to share their secret!

Brianna arrived with Justin and was happy to show him off and have their picture taken. She also asked where our kids were and when she found out they were sleeping, she told us we needed to go wake them up. You gotta love a girl with some spunk!

Here are our favorites …

Caleb is approximately 107% boy. There’s something a little boy that could actually be made up of “snips and snails and puppy dog tails” that just sits right with me.

Caleb’s mom requested something with train tracks and immediately Jason had a couple locations in mind. I loved how Caleb’s shirt and hands went from being pink and white at the beginning of the session, to brown and black by the end.

The absolute highlight of the session was hearing Caleb give a convincing performance of “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash with his flaming guitar. Unfortunately it was an abridged version. We’re hoping to hear the entire song next time!

Here are a few of our favorites …

We spent another day at the Mission Folk Music Festival and heard some more amazing performers. Jason and I have to admit that we’re a touch snobby when it comes to music. We were musicians in our previous life (which is how we met) and still have an appreciation for excellent, live music. We loved every performance that we saw this weekend.

Surprisingly the kids loved it as much as we did. They sat on our blanket for hours two days in a row listening to the music. We are marking next year on our calendar and will be going again … so don’t plan your wedding for the same weekend.

Blueberry season is one of the best times of year.

Jason took this by holding out the camera, snapping away and hoping for the best.

The Gallus Brothers‘ kazooaphone solo. They perform good time, old time, wild ragtime and country blues with suitcase percussion.

Xander’s favorite. You have to watch the YouTube video of them playing two instruments, singing and juggling.

Wil Campa con la Gran Unión from Cuba reminded us of the Afro Cuba All Stars. They were smoking hot and we wished we could have heard them more but alas we had to take off for a shoot. These are some of the musicians dancing for one song.

Lexi is pretty serious about life.

Xander’s pretty serious about climbing as many trees as possible.

On a sadder note, the Mission Folk Music Festival always reminds me of a friend from high school who passed away. We missed seeing Autumn Joy Jenkinson basking in the sunshine and taking in the music with her daughter.

After London’s first portrait session, Jason jokingly declared that the photographic gods are smiling on this baby. Pretty much everything went perfect. The dress London arrived in matched the props we had bought for her. She slept like a baby. The ideas Sheena brought worked amazingly well.

Here are our favorites …

I’m glad our career is one where we’re allowed to get emotionally attached to our clients. If emotional attachment wasn’t an option we would have had to turn away the Bacon family for their annual portrait session.

Toby was one of my earliest and most enthusiastic Kindermusik students at The Little Brown Music Studio. He was all about trains so it was a treat for us to photograph him at this session with his Thomas the Tank Engine set. His favorite train is Lady. I can’t remember why she’s his favorite but it probably has something to do with her shiny, gold paint job.

Grace and Jorja have grown since their last session. They are also mildly famous for being the peaceful twins on our newborn business card. This year they are moving around, getting into things and are on the verge of walking.

We didn’t have to ask Lyle and Lauren what they do in their “spare time” as they are in the midst of a kitchen renovation.

Here are a few of our favorites from their Revival Arts Studio family portrait session: