I had been corresponding with Bailey from Calgary for some time regarding setting up a family session for when she was out here visiting. After talking to her on the phone I had the vision of Bailey being a busy woman, in about her late 30's. Our plan was to go out to her family's place in Fanny Bay to capture their love of the property and of course, each other.

Well, my vision of Bailey and how I imagined her session was totally off base - I love it when that happens - it is a lovely reminder about how we make assumptions about people.

I pulled up for our session to a beautiful, very well cared for and obviously totally loved home and property and was surprised when I met Bailey, a gorgeous woman in her early 20's. After chatting with her in person for a bit, we had such easy conversation,  I was blown away by her intelligence and more - this gal has it all going on!

So, back to the portraits, I was anticipating our session would be about an hour, with me taking some different combinations and hitting up some different looks. The whole family really embraced the session, and we had a hoot - even trying to get the three dogs into the game. I spent about three hours hanging with the family, getting to know them and having the privilage of capturing them on camera. The session had a lot of meat to it! 

And now... I have a lot of meat in my freezer. When I left, they sent me packing with a few boxes of their locally raised, and butchered on site, meat. You all know I am a great lover of the today present - a present just because. It was so wonderful to come home to my family and show them the today present I had received. I was a bit overwhelmed by the generosity the family bestoad on me - it was super sweet, so thank you again!

Just a few of my many fave's:

 

 

 

This little one had hands down the cutest most precious expressiive mouth and these lovely little hands that she kept playing with.  Thanks mom and dad for being patient with your sneak peek.

 

 

Each year I donate my time to creating photograph for You Are Not Alone (Y.A.N.A) For those of you that follow my blog you know it is a charity that is close to my heart, as they have came to the aid of so many of my clients and to my family as well.
The photos we create are of children that Y.A.N.A.  has helped and these images will be used in Y.A.N.A.'s promotional material to put a face to the cause.

The day is always a super fun one, as the families are always interesting and excited about their session. These were all created in mini-sesssions, which are just 25 minutes and all, except the first one was shot within walking distance of the studio.

 

This spot came with it's own parking spot for the truck -

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my Wordle - you can go to their site and make your own. My wordle was created by words randomly found in my blog- you can click on it to see it larger - because if I spend anymore time trying to figure out how to make it larger I am going to have a bad day!

 

WHAT!!! I have exceeded my bandwith, it's FULL- that is definitely reflective of how much I have been shooting and thus blogging. So, I am kind of fearful to post photos in case the whole blog crashes and explodes and poof .... disappears. I know I can sort it out but not in the time it takes to have my morning coffee. I am out shooting today so, my blog fixing is going to have to wait.

 

I thought I would leave you with one of my favorite blog links to check out though, according to the gals in my Chicks who Click course you folks are interested in some of my favorite sites. I think I am going to start getting most of my gifts through here. I know it isn't photo related but I do find myself energetically inspired by the many talents posted on this site. As someone who has no patience for crafting, (not to mention pretty lame fine motor skills,) I am in awe of what these people bust out.

Hope your Friday is as fun as my FULLday, I will be running all over town creating photos for the Downtown Business Improvement Association, meeting with a wedding client, grabbing goods for dinner and doing some banking, - somewhere in there I might just buy an I-pod as well. John has convinced me that my lame sounding 1980's ghetto blaster at the studio has to go.

 tata - Karen

What a whirlwind! Sunday I spent the day with the crew from Roots the Salon capturing some new looks for their promotions. There were so many fabulous things about this shoot. The makeup was done by Crystal (Crystal email me with your last name and phone number - so I can give it out to everyone because you are fabulous) who did a flawless job under some serious time pressure. Also on board was Jenalee Nordstrom,  there to dress the crew in her custom clothing designs  - keep an eye out for Jenna's clothing line Credence,  the items I saw were so unique, gorgeous and made with beautiful fabrics. Pulling the whole shoot together was art designer and marketing whiz, the super cool under pressure Amanda Woloshyn

She amazes me with her vision! 

The stylists had a bevy of fantastic models, who patiently waited for their time in front of the camera, they did a very commendable job of putting up with being talked about in the third person.

Of course the stars of the day were the stylists. I don't know what I expected, but everyone was so easy to work, easygoing and really collaborated to make the day go smooth.  I could also really sense their passion for what they do.

The day left me feeling fulfilled and wanting a new haircut!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems like Ashley and James wedding was a long time coming as I have been looking forward to it for sometime. I have had the opportunity to get to know them as they have both been attendants in weddings I photographed - so there wedding was a bit like getting together will old friends. 

It was a big wedding, one of the largest guest lists I have seen and a 16 person wedding party and ten hours of coverage. However, both my assistant Marlis and I both agreed, as we finished up around 10, that the day flew by with ease. Everyone was lovely to work with and Ashley and James were rockstars  and gorgeous ones at that!

Obviously there are tons of photos so here are just a few initial fave's of mine.
Thanks James and Ashley, it was truly an honor to be asked to document your wedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Marlis for assisting me on this one!  

Garnet's mom wanted some very natural not very posey photos of her daughter. So I gave her very little direction and the following photos happened. Seriously, these are all her, she pulled out all these moves herself. 

Just in case you were wondering if sessions with McKinnon Photographer are fun: 

 

 

 

She felt very strongly about being photographed on the top of this rock pile:

 

 

I know Garnet because she is in the 4 Cats Arts Academy Class that Selah goes to (and that Garnet's mom teaches,) and doing her photos was just like going out and hanging with a pal. Thanks Garnet, it was tons of fun!.

 If you have little ones and haven't checked out 4 Cats you really must - every now and then they have an open house day and this will give you a taste of the creative goodness that happens there.

I'll be back to blogging later with some photos from James and Ashleys wedding.

 

 

So it isn't my most creative blog title but you have to cut me some slack  - I have been throwing all my creative energy behind the lens this last week. You might not have noticed but I think this past week had a few extra days in it, they must have, because looking at what happened around here, I am sure we couldn't have accomplished all that we did in only a week.

Right now, in my  happy-loopy mood I can't begin to itemize all that I have been working on but you can bet I will be posting it, maybe I'll even get my mom and Gerald's wedding posted. So for those of you waiting for sneak peeks be gentle with me, I was hit with a bad sneaky flu this past week and had to take some down time during my scheduled office/editing hours.

This week also marked my last official Chicks who Click session for this year. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to my current and past chicks who make it so much fun. They have also been very instrumental in spreading the word which has resulted in a crazy amount of interest - it is great to know we hit on something good!

I will be running another Chicks who Click in the new year, I struggled and hummed and hawed about doing another one this year and my schedule just can't afford it - so those of you that are interested be patient and we will roll something out for you most likely starting February. If you are interested please email us as you will receive advance notification and registration opportunity. Again, big hugs to all of you who have done the Chicks who Click, your support has been so meaningful - hugs to you all, Karen

 

These two are totally crazy about each other and I was so excited that they decided to have some photographs to capture this time. We packed tons into this session (Jolie and Dennis, you were awesome!) we created some outside images and some more intimate, steamy portraits in the studio. I think I'll just show you the outside ones.