As I sit here, looking out the window at the first snow flying in Calgary on Oct. 12, Thanksgiving Monday, I feel a whole lot of gratitude for the magical fall we just experienced (and hopefully it’s not quite over). I always joke that fall is my favourite season, but that you can miss it in Calgary if you blink. For all the hard things that 2020 has thrown at all of us, I’m super thankful that Mother Nature decided to give us a break and not dump snow in September like usual. I know I’m only really speaking about Calgary. I can only imagine the devastation the hurricanes and forest fires have caused to people’s lives elsewhere, layered on top of all the other hard things about this year. But for the break we got here, I will take it. I have a pile of editing to dig into the next few weeks as I cozy up with non-stop cups of tea, but for now I wanted to share the session I just delivered yesterday.

My favourite types of session are often in-home “day in the life”, but the pandemic pushed me back into more outdoor adventure sessions, and I forgot how much I love these. These one hour sessions involve a few posed portraits along the way, but the priority is on having the family out exploring or doing an activity together; basically just enjoying a fun evening together while I photograph it. And in this case, I got to complete a family film as well as photos, which was something I hadn’t yet attempted in a session under 2 hours. I always love client’s initial reactions when they watch the film and view the photos, so thought I’d share their words here, because among all the things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving weekend, amazing clients like this are high on the list:

“Shirley!!! They are unreal!! I’m feeling emotional looking through them. You captured us so beautifully and it is so special to me to have pictures with my family! That video is so wonderful too, I love how it takes you right back to the day. Thank you thank you!!! It’s the best mix of in the moment ones and ones of us all together. But those ones don’t look overly posed! Just natural. Love them!”