Here’s a couple favourites from the MacLellan family session last week:
It all started, Allie & I, seven years ago in a small classroom at the Western Academy of Photography in Victoria, BC. I was a ripe 18 years of age, fresh from a high school grad class of 51 students and a small beef farm with about the equivalent amount of cattle. Allie, coming from Calgary, was around 22 at the time and had already done a year or two in a writing program at university. It was a couple of weeks into the school year, and although I was excited about being in this new place, I had no friends yet and I was missing home.
It was our hunger that got us talking one afternoon in class. I don’t remember all of the details, but it wasn’t long before we found ourselves spending more and more time together. Allie had a Jettamobile, I had the Friends VHS series, and we shared a love of photography and food that quickly bonded us. My homesickness (mostly) faded away and as the school year progressed, I found myself settling in much better and having a lot of fun. We modeled for each other for many assignments, skipped classes together to watch Friends at my place, and made a LOT of passes through the Tim Hortons drive-thru that year. Allie is the one, if you remember reading my post a long time ago about getting lost all the time, that I had my first major travel malfunction with. She’s also the one that I made an incredibly weird and amazing camping roadtrip with from Victoria down along the Pacific Coast into Northern California.
[Insert Mike] Mike was already a rather talented ski & mountain bike photographer coming into school that year…. so I’m not exactly sure why he was there…. BUT, it worked out alright =) Again, I don’t remember all of the details, but I do remember him always being the funny guy and that everyone loved him because he was so much fun to be around. We were given an assignment after Christmas to shoot an engagement session. Since I had been hanging out with both Mike & Allie, naturally I nominated them to model for me. Awkward. But hilarious. Who would have thought that I would be doing fake engagement photos of two people who would actually get married 7 years later?? I don’t know exactly when their romance began that year, but I remember being REALLY excited when I found out about it!
I have had some of my hardest, belly-hurting, tear-inducing laughs with Allie and she was without a doubt the best part of my college experience. I cried like a baby when I left Victoria at the end of the school year. I had made these incredible friends and I didn’t want to leave. We emailed every now and then over the next couple of years, and then 3 years ago Allie was able to come and be at mine and Dave’s wedding.
Mike & Allie haven’t at all taken the easy route with their relationship over the last 6-ish years. They have mostly lived in different cities, often different provinces, while pursuing their separate career paths. And yet, they’ve always seemed solid, supportive, comfortable and confident in their relationship. They make love look uncomplicated, just as it should be. Probably my most favourite thing about these two is that they laugh so much, and you can’t help but be laughing too when you’re with them.
Being with these two again, especially for their wedding…. especially in such an incredible place such as Whistler, BC…. was perfect. I was so scared, and yet so honoured to be trusted to photograph their wedding. Mike & Allie, you two are simply two of the coolest, most hilarious and fun people ever, and I love you and can’t thank you enough for having me there.
Here’s a few highlights…
I love this little guy. I first met him around this time last year when I photographed him at 18 months, and I was excited to spend some time with him again the other night. He just keeps getting cuter and funnier!
