Claire and Agustin had a day that completely suited them. There was a real sense of celebration amongst them and their guests as they went through their wedding day – it was easy to tell that they are much-loved.

This is one of those ‘accidental photos’. As we were driving out to Cochrane from Airdrie, I noticed a wide-open field (no fences!) and a beautiful sky that were just screaming to be in a picture! Kudos to the limo driver for being flexible!

While we were journeying the Ranche House, Duane was with the boys as they were raising a celebratory pint in Cochrane.

Claire was radiant!

I love this moment. Claire’s parents share a glance as Claire and her father come down the aisle.

Agustin couldn’t take his eyes off of Claire or stop smiling throughout the ceremony. I love taking pictures of people who wear their hearts on their sleeves!

Speaking of which…

The romantic portrait session was a lot of fun. Duane and I kept reminding them that they were allowed to tell us no if we suggested something too extreme for them.

Claire’s brother and father performed ‘All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar at the reception. It was great – they had all of the guests clapping and singing along!

This is Claire’s reaction as she learned that her brother could play the harmonica…

It’s awesome when we get to be involved in a friend’s wedding.  Alisha and Tyler were married this weekend in Fernie and we had such a great time with everyone there.  Last year we did pictures for Aaron and Megan, Alisha’s brother and sister in law, and they chose to structure their day in a similar fashion.  They met up in the morning for pictures and opted for a late afternoon ceremony.  Both of them were really relaxed and we had a great time roaming around Fernie for a few hours!

The shoes…

…and the dress.  This would be the third dress that Alisha’s mom has had a hand in making for the brides we’ve taken pictures of.  The other two were Megan’s and Julie’s.

Megan was the hair and makeup artist for the day.

A casual portrait of Tyler before Alisha showed up.

There were lots of emotions when they saw each other for the first time!

Tyler is a Hosmerite so it was fitting that we got a shot of Mt. Hosmer in the background.

If you can classify it as the industrial section of Fernie, then we went into it for a few shots.

Alisha wanted to go show off her dress to her coworkers.  We pulled into the back alley and noticed a beautiful couch just sitting there, screaming to be used

Both Alisha & Tyler were adventurous and when we saw these purple flowers on the side of the road we asked if they’d be OK going into them.  Little did we realize that the flowers were probably standing 6 feet tall!  They were happy to go in none the less!

This barn was great to shoot around!

One final location where they took a walk down Earl’s runway out in Morrissey for a little alone time before the ceremony.

Tyler is a bit of a clown and got in front of the camera while waving around Alisha’s parasol.  Too bad for him I was there to push the shutter!

One of the highlights of a wedding with this family is the dance.  Here’s Aaron and Alisha pulling out all the stops!

Hard to believe that it was two years ago since I last hiked the West Coast Trail. I had no intentions of doing so again, but when we had a sudden opening coincide with my wife’s planned trip with her and a couple of our friends then I figured that I was probably meant to go. As it was, we discovered in early July that there happened to be one spot left (reservations are made 3 months prior to hiking) in all of August which happened to leave from our direction and on our date. So after another quick phone call my brother decided that he was in as well.

The trail was originally built as a way to get shipwrecked victims back to civilization if they survived the ocean (the terrain is pretty formidable – and I could certainly see how it would kill a lot of people without a trail). Anyway, 6 days, 75 km and a lot of pictures. I’ll skip to the chase so that I can showcase a few (and by ‘a few’ I mean ’43′.)

I love the ladders on the trail. Everyone always talks about how intimidating they are, but honestly they are my favorite way to gain elevation. No switchbacks, just straight up. Good for getting the burn going in the legs.

The trail is pretty wide open on the first day (from the North end, starting at Bamfield) and goes through some gorgeous rainforest.

An attempt at a self-portrait…

The beginning of the second day saw us hiking on tidal pools. A welcome break from the up and down of the forest.

This picture is a reenactment. Two years ago we miscalculated the tide table and had to spend two of the longest hours of my entire life in the rain waiting here for the tides to go down. Much better this time

The beautiful Tsusiat Falls.

Beautiful light as we trekked on the beach on the morning of day 3.

Leah hamming it up while we stopped for lunch.

One of the few manned lifehouses left on the Pacific Coast. The keepers only get away three times a year!

So this was kind of funny. The last time we crossed this creek we had a rogue wave sneak up on us and pull packs, boots and cameras into the creek. Yeah, it happened again while we were crossing this time as well. Oops. Fool me once… Here, the girls are dry…

…and not so much in this one! The wave came up to Jodi and Lisette’s knees. I love Leah and Jodi’s reactions.

Also a reenactment picture.

This little guy followed us from an establishment along the beach for about 6 km. We grew quite fond of him as he forded two streams with us and chased a deer into the ocean. We eventually sent him back with another group going the other direction though.

There was an infestation of mice at this spot. It probably didn’t help that Leah buried a bunch of dried fruit that had spilled in the sand next to our tents…

Speaking of that site, we had some concerns that we were going to have to a 1:00 am camp move due to rising tides, so Matt and Leah stayed up for a couple of hours to see how close they were going to come. This is a thirty second exposure…

Lots of ladders on day 5.

We made some friends that were hiking on a very similar schedule to us. On the last day we had a group of about 15 of us that ended up hiking together on the tidal pools which was a lot of fun.

Almost done!

Two more group shots. One from the end of the trail.

And one when we got clean again.

Alright! Thanks to everyone who stuck around to the end!

Our blogging has been a little sparse lately.  Last week Kevan went and hiked the West Coast Trail with Leah and a few other friends while I stayed here in Calgary and held down the fort.  I was getting a little case of cabin fever and Karyn had Friday off last week so we randomly hopped in the car and headed down to the Flathead Valley for a little vaction.  While we were there we met up with Jessica & Mike for dinner.  I love it when we can hang out with past clients!

We stayed at a little motel just south of Bigfork.  When we got there the sun was just setting so naturally we got out our cameras.

She’s working on her modeling…

I also did a few shots in the hotel room of some of the interior design.

While in Montana we did a hike into the Jewel Basin.  The drive up to the trail head was one of those winding, single-lane dirt roads up the mountain.  I remember at one point turning to Karyn and telling her it felt like cheating because we covered a fairly significant amount of elevation in the car.  It was HOT that day, about 32 Celsius so I wasn’t complaining too much.  Well, when we arrived at the trail head I realized I didn’t have my socks for my hiking shoes so I did the entire hike in my sandals.  It wasn’t so bad on the way up but I was sure feeling the lack of any arch support on the way down!

We hiked up to Birch Lake and had gorgeous views of the entire Flathead Valley most of the way.

Fire has devestated the hillside in past years so vegetation was a little sparse!

While at the summit we took the opportunity to swim in the lake since it was so hot.  It was a little cool but certainly refreshing!  Here’s a few shots from the top.

I’ve been down to the Flathead Valley quite a few times and every time I go I try to take the Going to the Sun road back through Glacier National Park but it’s always closed!  This time, however, it was open so we decided to drive it back.  The state decided it was about time to do some repairs to the road (built back in the early 1900s) so it was construction for the bulk of the way to Logan Pass.  That was coupled with almost everyone in Montana also driving the road at the same time.  I’ll be honest, I had played this drive up in my head to be spectacular, one of the best drives I’ll have ever done, but instead I found myself getting frustrated with all the traffic, the “touristy” pull-offs for mountain vistas, and the fact that I was seeing all this beautiful country from my car.  For the second time in the weekend I felt like a cop-out for not having worked for the views and it really ruined the experience for me.  Oh well.

Since I’m on the subject of working for your views, the August long weekend we took a day off and hiked to Bourgeau Lake and then to the summit of Mt. Bourgeau with Kevan and Leah, Aaron and Megan, and Jenna.  There is quite a bit of elevation gain on the hike, about 5,000 ft but it was stretched out so not a very difficult hike.  The views, however, were stunning.  With the few hikes I’ve been out on this summer (Healy Pass, Akamina Ridge, Flathead Valley, and Mt. Bourgeau being the highlights), they have been some of the most beautiful places I’ve visited thus far.

Dew on the leaves as we started up to the lake.

A mountain reflected in a pond using a lithograph technique.  I really like how this one turned out!

Here’s something I wasn’t expecting to see at these elevations…Ptarmigans!

Karyn walking the ridge.  She wasn’t feeling great the entire hike but she still pushed on to the summit!

The view of Bourgeau Lake and beyond from the summit.  You can also see Healy Pass from here where Kevan and I hiked back in July.

…and what hike would be complete without a group shot from the top?!

If I had to sum Jessica and Josh’s engagement session into one word it would be WOW!  They’re hot, they’re naturals in front of the camera, and the light was perfect.

Apparently they just bought a camera a few months ago and I think they just go out and practice posing.  There’s nothing more I can say to do justice to these two so I’ll just put their pictures below (I don’t have a favourite from their engagement session, they’re all amazing so I’ll just randomly select a few).  I’m definintely looking forward to their wedding next month!