Mac

Mac at 8 mos.

Someday Mac will grow up. It's something I turn over in my head every time I take photos of a baby. Will this be the picture that gets copied 30 times and every aunt and cousin gets one in the mail? I better get an honest moment, his true expression, in case it ends up being the picture that defines for him what he was like as a baby. Maybe it will pop up over and over in every photo album... until all of a sudden he's 30 and it doesn't anymore. After everyone has cleared out their albums and he's finally found a desire to reconnect with his past he might ask his mom what photos she's got stashed away. Maybe she'll pull out one of mine and he will realize that it's one of the images of his childhood that gives definition to his personality in some small way... "You were always such a pensive baby, with flashes of joy between looks of deep thought."

I can't wait for the babies in my photos to age, to photograph them again and again and see how their personalities evolve and if there are remnants of their baby-selves bundled into those personalities. Will Mac be a pensive person with flashes of joy? Or will he evolve into an out-going joker who smiles all the time?

Watching someone grow up is one of our chief life lessons. It is only after doing so that we can understand our own beginnings, and the way that our parents see us.

Mac, just a few weeks old

Terrain Musings

I've heard it said that there are types of people who feel most at home in a certain place. Mountain people, prairie people, ocean people, that are shaped by a certain terrain and cannot fully live without it. For me all places are paramount. I need the mountains to feel strong and humble, to be reminded of the majesty and measure of the earth. I need the prairies to feel grounded, still, cradled and secure. I need the ocean to remember the freedom in uncertainty, and endless possibility.

Each of these places shapes my relationship with the earth. In the mountains I am a part of her - united with the wind and the rock. In the prairies I may borrow a piece of her to do with as I wish - a partner with a privilege to grow and harvest, and a responsibility to return what I cannot use. Where the ocean meets the land I stand at her mercy - small and exposed.

I need all places to feel whole.

Nick

From Nick's graduation photoset, that we shot at the University in April. 

Today Nick graduated from University. It's funny how well you can know someone without really noticing who they have become or how they have changed since your friendship began. I just read an article written for the University of Alberta with a feature on Nick, about his honours project, and while reading it I learned new things about my friend, after knowing him for 12 years. They weren't things that surprised me, but they were things I'd never put into cohesive thought before. The writer described him as someone with a, "fluidity of mindset that allows for serendipitous opportunities..." and it took me reading it in someone else's voice to recognize that yes - my friend is very spontaneous! This is the guy that decided to spend a weekend at Coachella with me when he had mono, and dragged me off to Montreal on a whim for his 25th birthday. Someone who basically wrote the book on taking a year off to do something completely different. I gather the interviewer listened to his story and knew right away that Nick was a free spirit, going in whatever direction he detects the strongest pull. I've known Nick for so long that he has grown and changed into this more refined version of himself, and I didn't notice he was any different than the guy I met 12 years ago. Today is a good lesson for me to remember that the people I love are not one-dimensional, frozen in time once my brain has done what it does best and categorized them away in a certain place. They are fluid, they change, they grow into themselves. I need to pay attention or else I might miss the opportunity to see something in them that will make me love them even more.

When your subject is your best friend you get to share the cutaways! 

Welcome to the 'Moonstruck' Blog

If you haven't met me there is one thing my friends and family will tell you in an introduction; I am 'forever nine'. This nickname was coined by my husband, to point out my insatiable hunger for life. I am not shy to ask questions or show my sense of wonder in any situation, and I simply enjoy every second I have. Whether I am photographing fish heads in the supermarket or wandering off the path to collect that one perfect pinecone I thought I saw, I am always lost in the moment... moonstruck by the world around me. 

As a wedding photographer I have the privilege to be with people on one of the most exciting days of their lives, and it is my responsibility to preserve the way that day felt for those who wish to remember. My hope is that these photos mean as much to the people in them as they do to me, for each image I create becomes a part of my story, an unforgettable piece of my human experience. This art form and the people in my photos have irreversibly enriched my life. 

I have been changed by you, and I am totally moonstruck by your stories. Thank you for letting me tell them.