Stephanie and Paul

When we walked in the door to Steph's home, we were embraced with such incredible energy and warmth. Her family is amazing! Everyone was so excited for Steph and Paul and they couldn't wait to get her into her dress and on the way to see her groom.

And Steph's dress was gorgeous. It was truly stunning in it's simplicity. Definitely one-of-a-kind:

And her shoes...comfy and classy!

The thing with this wedding day is that when we left our home in North Vancouver that morning, it was clear and actually warm enough that we didn't need our coats. And it was still pretty nice when we were with the girls as they were getting ready. But, as we headed over to Paul's place, the temperature started to drop and by the time we started photos, it was snowing!

Steph and Paul (and their entire bridal party) were such good sports about taking the photos outdoors. We were in Abbostford and there didn't seem to be a lot of places where we could hide from the weather, but we managed to find a few!

We want to give these two our biggest congratulations! You two are so fantastic and we were honoured to be with you as you tied the knot!

Kudos to Tying the Knot

Tying the Knot has once again placed in the prestigious WPJA contest. Both of these images were made by Stephen: one you will recognize from our current ad in The Complete Wedding Directory, and the other was made on a very cold day this past January and can currently be seen on the front page of our website.

Congratulations, Steve!

Catherine & Alfred

When these two tied the knot on January 26th, you could feel the joy in the room! Catherine is so incredibly happy and Alfred obviously loves her so much! We were so excited to be part of their celebration and incredibly flattered that they planned their day, in part, around our availability.

Through the cold weather and the potential downpour that come with a Vancouver wedding in January, Catherine and Alfred were such a joy! And while Alfred is a little shy in front of the camera, his new bride most definitely is not! She moved and smiled and gave us "that look" with little prompting. She was so excited about everything and it definitely shone through. We had such a great time with them on the shoot!

The ceremony and reception were both held in the always lovely Four Seasons Hotel. The staff there do such a great job - we know our couples will always get the very best treatment while they are there. The intimate gathering of family and friends allowed Catherine and Alfred to spend a lot of time with all their guests.

And we were also able to spend some time with Linda and Kyle, who we photographed last year. In fact, it was their wedding where we were fortunate enough to meet Catherine. Linda and Kyle are such great people and I was so happy to see that they are still madly in love...they only had to look at each other for it to be obvious. They had some big news of their own, and we have officially added them to the Tying the Knot baby boom list!

Here is a quick sneak peek from Catherine's wedding....enjoy!

Good Artists Copy...

...Bad Artists Steal. At least that's what one famous artist once said. I wonder, though, if he would have made such an off-the-cuff statement in the age of the Internet.

I've thought a lot about the subject of where we find our inspiration and what we do about it. And I'll admit that I see images all the time that I would love to be able to produce. But here's the thing - I can't. If it doesn't come out of my head and my heart, then it's just not an image I can make. Steve and I spend very little time looking at the work produced by other wedding photographers - we find our inspriation in fashion, movies, music videos, the light outside and the people we're with. In other words, we use our own lives and those of our clients to create our work. Apparently there are plenty of other people who are working in the visual arts that don't have or use that skill.

Examples? Well, I'm not not writing this to call out other photographers who are getting "inspiration" from the work that Steve and I produce. That can't be helped...some folks just lack the imagination to come up with ideas on their own. From slogans, to attempts to duplicate our actual images, they're feeding off our ideas. And that's fine - there's room in the market for that kind of photographer.

What I am writing this for is to call out the folks that actually go into our websites and galleries and take images for their own use. Unbelievable, you say? Not so my friends. We have several images currently gracing the pages of web sites around the globe. None of which is being used with our permission or knowledge. Well, until we stumbled across them, that is. And here's the kicker - these images are all being used on websites that have a copyright disclaimer on their home page. This would suggest, to me at least, that they are laying claim to the design and content of their sites and don't want anyone else to steal those items. Hmmmm, it's interesting then that they have STOLEN our images. Not borrowed....STOLEN.

And these aren't images that were ever published anywhere but on our website. They are all images that were on our site prior to October, 2004 and so they have been used by these companies without compensation to us for over 18 months, at least and probably closer to over 2 years.

How long do you think they'll keep using them? Until they are caught? Until we send them a bill for usage rights? Until we name them and shame them right here and now? Until they find an image on our site they like more and just "borrow" that one (oh right, it's not as easy now that we've protected our images a little better).

So, what can we do? How do we, as artists and as wedding photographers, not only protect the copyright on our images, but also our clients' likenesses? These sites don't have permission to have our clients' images on them. Maybe we should have our clients go after them as well.

I want to know what you all think. How would you feel as clients or artisits yourselves to have your work ripped off the pages of your website and plastered all over a product that you don't know anything about? Let me know what you think. I'll put together some of your suggestions and then maybe we can find a way to stop this sort of thing from happening more.

And the irony is, if they had asked, we would have let them purchase one-time usage rights with all the proper releases for what is now a relatively low price.

Christine & Herman - January 15, 2006

We first met Herman in September, 2004 at Jag & Tunde's wedding (more about them later). We had such a great time at that wedding so we were really excited when we got the call for this wedding. And then we met Christine. She is a straight shooter with so much incredible energy, and she kept me in stitches all day long.

This was such a great way to start off the new year. And an even better way to finish out the weekend. Christine was absolutely stunning and such an incredible pleasure to photograph. She trusted us completely and anything we asked of her, she did, despite the freezing weather. She has one of those incredibly rare faces that can be innocent one second and incredibly sexy the next. We had to keep reminding ourselves that this was a wedding - not a fashion shoot. But, in the end, we just went with our guts and made images that we have never had the opportunity to make before.

So, thank you - you and your bridal party were just fantastic to be with. We already knew the guys, but it was so great to see them again. And the girls...well, I felt like I was hanging with old friends. They were so relaxed and fun. I hope each of you had as good a time as Steve and I did!

Ahhhhh....weddings

It has taken me all week to figure it out. I have had a sense of something all week long. I've been distracted, anxious, even a little nervous, and I could not figure out why. Even this morning, I had a vague sense of something tickling the back of my mind. I wondered if it was the 26 days of rain that we've had; or maybe it was the jerky photographer that ripped off our slogan this week; or maybe it was that my oldest child just turned 6 and I was feeling nostalgic.

And then it hit me - just now. I'm photographing a wedding today! I haven't picked up my camera for a professional wedding shoot for almost two months now and I am so excited that I can hardly wait. I'm watching the time change on the clock in my kitchen and it is moving so slowly right now. All the gear is lined up on the counter, the iron is plugged in, Steve's in the shower, my make-up is done, when can we leave? Now? Now? Let's go!

I've always known that I love my job, the same way that I know I love my kids - it's just there. Ok, it's not the same exactly - I could never give up my kids, but it's something fundamental to who I am. I am a wedding photographer. Say it with me people - Jen is a wedding photographer. How great is that?!? I get to walk into a room full of strangers, introduce myself with a "Hi, I'm Jen and I'll be one of your photgoraphers today", pick up my camera, bring it up to my eye, focus, compose...wait....click...and we're off. I lose all sense of time and duty to anything but the folks in front of me. All those issues that come with being a mother, a wife, a business owner, a friend, they all sort of fall away while I'm at a wedding. I get hit with a rush of adrenaline, I see light with so much more clarity than on other days, I witness commitment, and joy, and the bittersweet moments as parents watch their children take this huge step. And I get to make pictures of it all!

I don't think I've been this excited about the season starting before. We have two weddings this weekend and I have ideas that have been churning in my head these past two months, and I'm going to hear stories and see moments I haven't seen before. I am going to photograph a wedding. How incredible is that?

Can we go now?

2005 - A Year in Pictures

As we move into 2006, we wanted to take a look back at 2005. We started this thread in July - it was titled Brides of 2005 - and we intended to create a record of all the weddings we photographed in 2005. So here it is: one photograph from each wedding that we we lucky to attend this year. It is almost impossible to define each wedding in a single image, but that is what we are trying to do with this record. Each shot sums up our feelings and impressions from each wedding. Some will show the couple, others a caught moment, others just the bride, and some just the details. And while each wedding is primarily about the couple themselves, the feeling that we are trying to convey doesn't always come with the expected type of image. So here goes:

Carla & Doug

Lauren & Chris



Lia & Bobby

Melanie & Brian



Christine & Ed



Clara & Paul



Justin & Olga



Linda & Kyle



Suzan & Shayne



Chantal & Adam



Sally & Adam



Ellison & Chris



Elissa & David


Julie & John


Lisa & Mike


Elana & Ivan

Faye & Justin


Cathy & Danny

Winnie & Michael

Liz & Doug


Elaine & Kelvin

Teresa & Ray

Helen & Simon

Christy & Matt



Nahri & Jason


Trisha & Chad

Ingrid & Christian

Lisa & Lawrence

Sharisse & Jim

Diana & AJ
Eliott & Catherine

A Tuesday Affair

Lisa & Eddie

Billie & Petto
Allison & Kevin

Daniel & Rachel

Chris & Joanne

Sandra & Costa

Denise & Adam

Randy & Crystal

Linda & Raymond

Tammy & Kevin

Jenn & Dave

Tammy & Terry

Ivone & Reza

Tanya & Darrell
Lynette & Ryan

Tracey & Mike