Enjoying the Sun | Chilliwack Family Photographer

Take one sunny evening, add one fabulous smiley family and a sprinkle of me with a camera...transfer all ingredients to a beautiful local nature attraction, and you have the perfect recipe for some good wall art! A few shots from our session at the Blue Heron Reserve...

Family Shooting Season is OPEN! | Chilliwack Family Photographer

Although, there is no better time to have a family portrait than the present (never put off to tomorrow what you can do today!), it does seem to be a more popular activity in the Fall. Probably because everyone wants a nice photograph to send with their Christmas cards, but they want to get them done before the bad weather takes hold. It is this time of the year that the requests for sessions start to roll in a little faster than normal, and the calendar fills up a lot quicker!

I have decided to make last weekend's Gustavson Family my official starters of this year's Family Shooting Season... because they were just so awesome to shoot and so much fun to work with! I love these guys...

A few for the family.. | Chilliwack Family Photographer

With Christmas fast approaching, Photographers everywhere are finding themselves firmly in the midst of "Family Portrait Season" (kinda like Duck Season, but our shooting is a little safer for the targets!). I have had the pleasure to shoot a couple of awesome families lately, who are not only great friends, but are fantastic models at the same time!

Of course, this time of the year can present some challenges weather-wise, and these shoots were no exception... the first was pouring with rain, the second was freezing cold. But, I have to salute both families for braving the elements with no complaints and "turning it on" at the right moment!

 I'm now kinda scared to see what Mother Nature intends to throw at me for the next session!

Walking with Mr Kelby... and a few thousand others! | Chilliwack Photographer

The kids are in bed... and the rain kept away the over-estimated hoards of trick-or-treaters.... so I am sitting here, desperately looking for ways to occupy my hands in a way that doesn't involve the small pile of unwanted chocolate bars sitting a few feet away from me. It is to my blog that I turn! So... where has my camera taken me lately? A few places actually - and it's quite a relief after the little break I unwillingly took.

One of the recent highlights involved 2 hours of uninterrupted selfish shooting, courtesy of a guy called Scott Kelby. OK, he wasn't actually there, as such... but he is the brains behind a worldwide event, where groups of photographers gather together on one particular day, share their love of the lens and just shoot to their hearts' content.

It is called Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photo Walk, and our local meet was at the Blue Heron Reserve, just down the road from us. Now, many of the Walk Leaders chose urban (usually downtown) settings, so it was actually a really nice change to have a more rural location... and a chance to practice more of those bird shots that I have wanted to do, this year.

Here is a little taster of my day's efforts...

  So... what did I learn from my day?

1. Don't forget your coat on a rainy day! (Yes... I put mine out ready to take but it didn't make it to the car. Thankfully a VERY nice fellow shooter had a spare!)
2. Carry a waterproof camera cover in your bag. (Mine has sat in my bag unused for months... until this day. It was very wet and that $7 purchase probably saved me $$$ in repairs!)
3. Other photographers are not that scary! (Who knew?!)
4. Every photographer should give themselves a little "me and my camera time" occasionally. (Shooting 100% for yourself is the best therapy ever!)