The Steckly family recently booked their Christmas Card Session with us in October. To get everyone in the looking fabulous for their Holiday Cards, mom Jade wanted soft earth tones for their session and found cosy warm sweater dresses in pinks and browns. The day was cool, so everyone was only pulling off their warm wrappings for family shots, but each gal had the cutest jacket with hoods making individual shots amazing and fun. We took them up to a great look out with a mountain view, then headed down to a  favourite nook in the woods from Jade’s childhood. Daniel was steller, setting up their littlest girl propped against a blanket wrapped log all ready for her close up, finding a mirror buried in the woods, and a rake which we used to gather piles of leaves for the girls to play in. Their family of four had so much fun playing in leaves, exploring the paths and running through the woods. We had a blast shooting their session for them, a biannual event which we hope to continue. Here are some of our favourite images from the day.

Russ and Holly have two almost grown ups: two teens graduating in next few years and nearly ready leave their mom and dad for their own adventures. This made photos an absolute must and we were given the honour of shooting this amazing family near the stables. The plan was to do some family photos in the surrounding trees and then if time permitted to move on to some with their horses down at the stables, but as it happened they had so fun in amongst the trees and what with dad having just acquired a brand new pick up, the final focus became them against the shiny new truck. Holly told me that Trent had her laughing so much she simply couldn’t stop smiling and Russ is already calling the session the “Longhorn” edition.

The goal of the session was to give the Colbourne family up to date family photos for their wall as well as some of the teens, as their last family portraits were nearly a decade old. Their daughter Danielle tells me the most recent photo of her on the wall was when she was six!  We are already planning a grad session for Danielle with her horses – which we missed shooting this time round – and look forward to seeing the entire family for a session — a little more frequently— in the future.

Bailey Gibson has our images all over her fridge. Every time we do a photo booth in town she is there in line for a fun photo of her kids, her friends or her coworkers, who ever she can grab to enter into the fun with her. She has been talking about doing a family photo session for some time so I was an trilled and excited when she called to set up a fall photo shoot for her family.

The day was planned and Bailey and I corresponded about ideas, locations and outfit choices to create an amazing fall session. The day broke and the sun was shining, everything was looking fantastic! We packed our car and headed up to meet her at her chosen location, a little park near her home where they could play  in the leaves, walk down the trails and we were close to home base in case her little son needed somewhere to warm up for a while. Two minutes, honestly two minutes before the session was to begin, it began to rain. So we headed to her home and then headed to ours with a new plan: a studio session.

Bailey picked a simple clean white backdrop which made her fun and amazing outfit choices pop. We pulled out our rugs, chairs and had a blast shooting in the warmth of our studio. Half way through the family changed into their Red Dragon t-shirts for some fun and more casual images. Her family was a total joy to shoot, every idea we had was met with “Oh this is going to be so fun!” and smiles from ear to ear. The girls were gorgeous with their hair in flowers and all done up to perfection – did I mention Bailey is an expert hairdresser- and the guys were amazing. I don’t know if they had more fun or if we did, but we are already looking forward to the day we can do it again. In the meantime I know I will see Bailey and her crew at any and every photo booth we hold in the Tumbler Ridge area.

Eye for Detail Photography was at the recent Pumpkin Patch event on a cold but clear Sunday afternoon in Tumbler Ridge at the ball diamonds, where kids of all ages and families sought refuse from the cold wind in our pumpkin themed photo booth complete with hay, fall leaves and of course lots of pumpkins! Each received a wonderful memento of the day, printed on the spot while they waited. Every so often Trent would run into booth and brace against the wall as the wind threatened to knock the whole booth over! We powered the whole event with our little onsite battery which miracles of miracles lasted the whole three hour event and only started screaming warnings when we were printing the final family’s picture.

The event was hosted by the TR Days/Grizfest Society, and included face painting, animal calls and jellybean guessing among other games and activities for children and families. The lions club brought tons of hotdogs and drinks that were free for everyone as well as warming hot chocolate provided by the Grizfest society. Funds raised by the Grizfest Society will go towards hiring children’s groups for Grizfest 2012.  Here are some of our favourite images from that day. Thanks to the families who gave me permission to use their images and to everyone who came out!

Of course, Tamara didn’t get “married” in a vaccuum. In addition to her kids (which we met last go about), she also has a husband, who we didn’t.  And yes, as explained last time, this really is her husband as they are already married (took off to Mexico last winter to get married without me, not that I’m bitter….).

Kassandra was one of the winners of our “Show us your ‘Tude” contest (Melanie, one of the dancers in my previous series on Dancing, was the other), and it was a beautiful fall day when we went down to Flatbed, near Tumbler Ridge. She brought along her boyfriend as a prop, so I took some photos of the two of them together.

Okay, it’s really impressive when someone can stand between two rocks and stick their leg straight up. But one of the thing I love about Dance is the action. Motion. Move.

While the Boulder Garden is a nice, solid base, it’s tough to find a smooth, level, flat surface that’s big enough to jump confidently, but the dancers did their best; if their form isn’t perfect, blame the photographer for making them jump when the footing was so unsure.

I’ve been wanting to, meaning to, get out with John for the last couple of years, but the timing never worked out. He was busy, I wasn’t. I was busy, he was climbing.

Knowing this, he asked me if I was free on a Tuesday. In late September. After the snow had already started to fall at higher elevations, to go out and take some photos. I said yes. Trouble is, he said, I can only line up one other person.

I was cool with that, and so we headed out to Babcock Falls, where John likes to climb. I had a vision for the shots, but not knowing how things would actually look, I didn’t get everything set up properly, so I just took some pictures of John and Katrina climbing down the falls (I guess technically, that’d be rappelling) once.

So this is a teaser for next year, when I get the lights set up in the right place.

After the rain fell, so did evening, and we managed to hike out from Babcock Falls, hope in our vehicles and drive to a point where we could see the sunset (I was hoping for the Boulder Gardens, but it would have taken too long to get up there, so we just drove higher up Babcock).

Here’s the results:

Here’s a few more photos of four Dawson Creek dancers out in the Boulder Gardens near Tumbler Ridge.