Shhh! We've got a secret!

We're happy to announce our very first

PORTRAIT PARTY!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

by appointment only

Fifteen minute slots, one per family, beginning at 9 o'clock in the morning until we fall over from exhaustion! No session fee, and no obligation to purchase. 10-20 images will be posted online at Pictage (www.pictage.com) for a period of one week during which time prints may be purchased. After a week, all images will be purged from our system.

Love portraiture of your children? Put yourself on our waiting list to host a Portrait Party in the privacy of your home! Get together at least 8 families on a Saturday morning, and earn valuable print credits! Contact us to ask for details!

Isaac at five months

I've made a slideshow of Isaac, the preemie baby I've just re-photographed at five months. It's up on my site under Portraits/Slideshows which links from over on the right side here. He's such a dreamy big monkey now...just as sweet of temperament and cuddly as ever, and while undoubtably his cheeks are the same remarkably adorable cheeks as I shot umplumped shortly after his autumn birth, it's hard, mostly, to catch the tiny vulnerable preemie in any of the current shots. His parents have shots from our first session all over their home, and I just stood before them, familiar as I am with them, and stared at how tiny Isaac was to begin with. Back then, worried about Isacc's fragility, no one but his parents could hold him, and he almost disappears into enfolding arms.

If ever I had a question about whether it is worth commemorating a child's birth and new days in pictures, Isaac, newborn, answers it. He is so different now after just a few months, that without pictures, good, artistic pictures, much of that early vulnerability would surely be forgotten. I know one can't quite recapture such states even with photographs--even with video that captures sound and movement--but oh, when the pictures are lovely, it is quite a pleasure even to try, to stand before a photograph of him tucked tight into his parents' arms and marvel at his size.

Besides finding Isaac himself remarkable, I found his mothers' happiness compelling. These are women who waited a long time for their son, and perhaps their joy at his arrival is to be expected, but still, palpable delight absolutely leaks from them, and when you leave their presence you can't help but to leave grinning, made just a little happier by knowing this small simple unit called a family is there behind you, loving each other.

New art images

Here are some pieces I've been working on of late.

This is a composite image of a small underwater daffodil merged with the leaf lattice from last year's hydrangea, also taken underwater, using a compositing technique known as the Orton Technique after Michael Orton. It is modified because it begins with digital imagery rather than the more usual underexposed film, and because digital always offers up a different effect than would be possible using film:

This is another modified Orton technique using three underwater digital images of spring flowers:

This third image is an unmodified underwater image of a dyed blue daisy:
The fourth image was a pan made of an immature magnolia seedpod:
This last image is the hydrangea leaf lattice again, shot while being swished underwater:

Baby Isaac: how he has grown!

I stopped by baby Isaac's home recently to take more photographs of this bouncing five-month-old baby, and to grab a shot of the wall art his parents purchased in February commemorating his arrival. It is sure stunning up on their yellow wall. The matts are incredibly thick, setting the artwork off beautifully. It's funny seeing and shooting Isaac now. I am so ultra familiar with him because I've spent so long editing images of him, and so completely a stranger, too. Do I recognize him? He is huge now--nearly 20 pounds. Sometimes I'd look at him and see someone completely new, he's changed so much. But then in the next moment I'd spot that tiny preemie newborn and his adorable cheeks poking through the big boy he's become. He loves to cuddle; loves to laugh; is clearly just so delighted to find himself alive.

One thing's for sure...if he was loved the day he came home from the hospital, he's loved doubly now. His parents just exude happiness and joy. It's a pleasure--and an honour--to be around that kind of blissed out mama-love.

I hope to be able to post some of the images from our recent session soon!

Spring is still springing here in Vancouver...

Still working slowly to get the fine art site up and running.

I had my favourite model and second-born daughter, Meghann, out under the second string of Vancouver's blooming cherry blossoms this week, this time in Queen Elizabeth park, where, given it's Easter, there were a considerable number of picnickers and revellers. There was even a family who had erected a tent for their kids to play in. The weather has been much, much warmer than last weekend, though it's overcast, sprinkling and a little cooler today. (Rain is due. Yuck. More of it.) It was a challenge getting good shots around all the people enjoying the park, but I managed, and hopefully I'll find time to pop some up in our portrait section. Meantime, here's a couple ones I've worked on...



The last shot is of the art "Vancouver Ancestors" by the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. I love this installation, part of the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale. I'm sure most Vancouverites, including me, wish all the sculpture around Vancouver would stay permanently; alas, only a few will stay.

Ah, wedding season!

Leanne and Moya, brides from San Francisco, braved last week's Vancouver chill to legalize the wedding that had been invalidated in California nearly three years ago. They were one of the hundreds of couples snaked around San Francisco's City Hall in the rain after Mayor Gavin Newsom decided to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Feb 14, 2004. Every couple was "unwed" a scant seven months later.

This time, all signals were go! While the ocean churned brown and turbulent behind the 30 guests and the wind tossed icy knives, the brides held hands, and their daughter, Lucy, to repeat their vows.

Now they are well and truly hitched, with no invalidating to follow! Frost-bitten, I'd be willing to guess, but so happy. They told us they loved in particular the part of their ceremony where Johanna Hickey, their marriage commissioner, had them repeat the phrase that states that they know of no legal impediment to their marriage. It's a pretty heady phrase for gays and lesbians, and packs a wallop.

It's a misty moment for my wife, Joy, and I too. We cried when we repeated those words to each other in June of 2003, and I cry at almost every wedding when I hear them again. It makes me stop and remember our long court case, and how iffy the end result seemed at the beginning, and how significant and empowering the victory was, for Canadians, of course, but also for couples around the world.

Joy and I stop every so often and shake ourselves. Is same-sex marriage really legal? Did we really have a part in making it so? The legal victories in Spain, Massachusetts and South Africa were no doubt partially influenced by ours. It changed the world, and it--always, always--makes us proud.

The photograph below, showing Leanne and Moya's rings on a sprig of yet-to-pop cherry blossom, signifies the fact that with this spring wedding, everything is refreshed and newly growing.

Congratulations, new wives!

Julianne and the blossoms

I had the beautiful Julianne, six, out under the cherry blossoms on Vancouver's Graveley Street yesterday. There are many lovely photos, but this was my favourite because of her joy as she spins! And check her out up a tree...almost vertiginous, but lovely.

Last year, Vancouver began a yearly Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Graveley Street Akebono blooms have hit the map. Consequently, instead of being the east side's best kept secret, the area was drawing Vancouverites in great numbers. It was lovely to see everyone out enjoying the blossoms; though it was cold, the sun peeked out for a little while. Blue sky turned out to be a bit of an April Fool's joke, because by the time we were driving back home, we were in a shower of mixed hail and snow.