Best of 2021 - Vancouver Photographer
Every year I round up some of my favourite images that I took as an elopement photographer in Vancouver and beyond, as well as give a summary of what this year has held for my life. It’s sort of like my professional Christmas card! But before I show off my amazing clients, here is what my life has held for me this year.
Last year, I felt I had so much to say about my personal life; renovations, hospitalization, job instability. This year, I have less to report, but it was more centred around getting settled in our home, and intentionally getting out and exploring. The first four months of the year were filled with learning how to use my pizza oven (I love making Neapolitan pizza), perfecting my starter/sourdough baking, and of course, furnishing our newly renovated basement. Our family also helped Mitch and I build a shed in our backyard as we have very little storage inside. I’ll have to admit, the strict lockdowns were quite tough on my mental health, especially as an extrovert. We were so excited to have people over for dinners and movie/games nights, but it had to wait until the summer. If you want to see pictures of the place all furnished, check out my personal instagram HERE. For Mitch, this year was spent working on his business, SWAN Air Compressors, and he found it’s a lot more work than anticipated! He supported me at the beginning, and this year it was my turn to support him.
Especially as the snow melted off the mountains, we did a lot of hiking with family, friends, and sometimes just the two of us. We even bought our own camping gear and went on two overnight hikes; to Bedwell Lake in Strathcona Park on Vancouver Island and Panorama Ridge in Garibaldi Provincial Park in Whistler. While I am still getting used to sleeping on the hard ground and various ways of going to the bathroom, I am already looking forward to our next adventures. However, our favourite hike was probably at Lake O’Hara in the Rocky Mountains. While technically in BC, it’s about a 15 minute drive from Lake Louise, AB, and generally requires a shuttle bus to get to the trailhead, which we booked months in advance. It was at the beginning of October, and the larch trees were out, along with a dusting of snow, which made for some of the most stunning scenery I have seen yet!
Now down to business…I don’t know if this is an actual statistic, but I remember hearing in university that most businesses fail before reaching the 5-year mark. To tell you the truth, I have always struggled with an insecurity that I don’t have “real job”. Often the first thing I get asked is “so do you do this full time?” When I tell them a definite “yes” and that I have been full time for a number of years, often they look surprised. There is nothing wrong with that question, as many photographers aren’t full time, but it’s not something you ask of a teacher, nurse, mechanic, or accountant. It’s just always a bit humbling. For some reason, I thought that when I hit that 5 year mark, I would be able to say to myself and proclaim to others “hey look at me, I’ve outlasted most businesses, even through a pandemic!” Well, as I sat down to write this, I wondered “how many times have I done a ‘best of ___’ post?” What do you know, this is the 5th time, which means I have finished my 5th year of being a full time wedding and elopement photographer. Hearing myself say that does give me a sense of pride, but it’s another reminder that I need to define success for myself, not by what others think of me, as it will also always be a moving target. Part of the reason I do these year-summaries in the first place is to force myself to reflect on my clients as it is their stories and connections that matter most and give me such great fulfillment in my job.
As always, I love to include some statistics of the year. Well this year, I did actually take multiple flights and go internationally several times! The first time I went to the US was all the way back in February to head to Seattle then to Lake Tahoe. It was such a beautiful feeling to be able to cross the border, even if I had to quarantine for 14 days on the way back. Thankfully that was the only time I had to do that, as I was able to go to the US five times for work and pleasure. Even though work was fairly local, I went to Banff, the Sunshine Coast, Victoria, Washington, Manning Park, Campbell River, Winnipeg, Tofino, Whistler, and most recently, Hawaii for work this year. In total, I was a part of 42 weddings (the most I have ever done and hopefully ever will do), and 36 other photo sessions. It was the busiest year yet (mostly because of COVID reschedules) and so I decided to outsource some of my editing as well as blog writing! I honestly couldn’t have survived without Post Partner and Kait Cozzens taking on a lot of these responsibilities. Though I haven’t even delivered all the galleries from 2021, I have taken over 175 000 photos, and delivered over 29 000 edited photos. A new and interesting metric that happened this year, was a huge increase in helicopter elopements. I rode on 13 helicopter rides this year for elopements and couples sessions in all sorts of scenery and locations. Five of those alone were to Ipsoot Glacier through Blackcomb Helicopters which is why you will see a lot of that location in this post. Finally, even though I have transitioned to being an elopement and intimate wedding photographer, 2021 was filled with a lot of rescheduled weddings from 2020. But all love deserves to be shown, no matter the setting, so I hope you enjoy it all!
A special thanks also to Cassandra Casley from Twist and Shutter, Ashley Drody, Kristara May, and Isaac Sim especially (he stepped in with less than a couple hours notice when another person was sick) for helping me second and associate shoot some of these weddings!