Remembrance Day Thoughts

Today I’m thinking of my great uncle Donald (Don) McCrae who was a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot in WW2.
He was an avid photographer and took this photo of my Grandpa Alex McCrae at the summit of Mount Revelstoke, BC at Heather Lodge.
Don built the lodge in 1937/38 and managed it until he enlisted in 1941. He was an avid skier and was known nationally for his adventurous long distance ski tours from Revelstoke to Banff.
Sadly, I never had the joy of knowing him as he was listed as missing in action May 28th, 1944. He was 28 years old.
McCrae Peak in Revelstoke was named after Don in his honour.
I do have Don’s camera, a 1920 Kodak autographic camera, gifted to me by his nieces, and quite possibly the same camera that took this beautiful photo of my Grandpa on Mount Revelstoke.

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Alexander (Shorty) McCrae at the Heather Lodge on Mount Revelstoke.

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Donald McCrae, Royal Canadian Air Force

The Digital Age

The digital age has all but eliminated an important ritual.
The sharing of memories and family history through photographs.

People my age have printed memories of their youth. We have photographs of the fun parties and ridiculous adventures we went on with our friends. My nephew’s generation is being called the ‘Black Hole Generation’. My nephews capture the moments in their lives on their phones and then post them online. What happens when the memory on their phones fills up? They delete those memories. Online platforms don’t last forever and those digital memories will also vanish.

Recently my Mom and I sat down over pictures from my childhood that were thought lost forever.
Pictures she had not seen for 40 years, and pictures I had never seen. It was a healing and beautiful moment for us. Today I have a portrait of my mother as a young bride of 19. This portrait is priceless to me.

Print your memories. Don't keep them locked away on hard drives that no one will ever access. Make photo albums so your family, children and grandchildren will have those important tangible memories of you.

A Family That Skies Together || Revelstoke Ski Heritage

I’ve written before about my families love for skiing and their place in the history books of the Revelstoke, BC ski community.
See that BLOG post HERE.
This past week I took some time off and went skiing with my Mom. My Mom is 77 and learnt to ski when she was 3 years old. She down hill raced as a teenager and raced as an adult for many years with my grandfather and her brothers in the Vernon ‘Over the Hill’ Downhill.
My grandfather was 75 years old when he raced in Vernon and he received the ‘True Grit’ Award for being the oldest skier to participate.
If you are sitting around the table at one of our family gatherings in the winter the topic will inevitably gravitate towards family ski adventures. Skiing is part of our DNA.
We strap on skis when we are old enough to stand on our own, and ski until our legs can no longer carry us down the slopes.

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My Mother (left) with my Grandma Mary and Uncle Don at the Hickory Run on Mount Revelstoke in 1947.

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My Mom today. Isn’t she the Cutest?!!

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I feel grateful and incredibly blessed to be able to still share our passion together.

Print our Memories

I would like to tell you a sad story.
A story about why I believe it is important that we print our memories.

In 2011 I attended my cousins wedding and during the reception I made portraits of all my family members.

In the spring of 2012 my uncle died suddenly.
It was a devastating loss for my family. He was all our favorite.

My way of coping with the grief was to lay on my bedroom floor and surround myself with photo albums from my childhood.
Within those album pages I could hear his delightful giggle and experience memories again of him. In my search for images for his memorial I found those portraits from 2011 stored away on an eternal drive I no longer used. I printed and framed that portrait as a gift to my Aunt. You can imagine the emotional reaction it received. Even though I had emailed her a digital copy years ago, she had never gotten around to making prints of it. That framed portrait was displayed lovingly on his memorial table.

There is concern in the scientific community that this generation will be a black hole as we rely so heavily on digital documentation. I am grateful that I grew up in the analog generation and that I have these printed memories of my childhood and albums filled with friends and adventures from my 20's and 30's.

DVDs are becoming a thing of the past as technology advances. Jpeg files are corruptible and 22% of hard drives fail after 4 years. It isn’t a question of if; it’s a question of WHEN. It happened to my brother and we will never get those first photos of my nephew back. It has happened to me many times. Thankfully, I have numerous backups of all my images. Even still, I have been working on a massive project the past year printing and filling albums with my favorite images since I started shooting digital in 2006.

I feel that I am doing my clients a disservice by only delivering digital images to them because I know that it is possible that they will never be viewed again and could potentially vanish. That is why I offer my Fine Art for Families. I want their memories to last and their children's children to enjoy them.

People need to know where they came from. They need a sense of lineage.
Please print your memories. Get those images off your phone before you delete them to make more room.
Print them. Make albums. Start today.

“Because 50 years from now the most photographed generation in history will have no photos.”

— http://missymwac.com/

Awesome Assistants || Behind the Scenes

I can't run after toddlers or make sure you look your best for that business portrait without the help of some talented folks. Shout out to my Awesome Assistants!!

Ray - Keeper of the Bags and baker of delicious cookies.

Deb - attention to detail. She moved back to England.   :(

Greg - such a handsome model for the lighting text.

Bridgett - grey card realness.

We are stronger together

I joined LOUD Business (Gay & Lesbian Business Association of BC) on April Fools day 2014. However, I am no fool.
Becoming a LOUD member was one of the best decisions I made for myself and my business last year.
Being in LOUD has enriched my feeling of belonging to a community that cares and supports each other.
I have made strong connections and some dear friendships within LOUD and I look forward to those connections and relationships deepening.

Below are some fun shots I took at the LOUD Luncheon in February with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Foundation of Hope in attendance.

#loveislove

I sneaked a few background shots at the VanARTS wedding photography workshop I was assisting at recently.
My heart was bursting a little because it was the first time VanARTS had ever had a same sex couple modeling.
Never in my wildest dream could I have imagined marriage equality in my lifetime.
They were so in love.

I'm a Mount Pleasant girl but I spend a lot of time in the West End, so I was so excited when WeARTS (West End ARTS) contacted me to be featured in the inaugural issue of Hatch magazine.
My friend Annie Reid wrote the article and she asked me some thought provoking questions.
It was a positive process for me as it forced me to dig deep about who, what and why in regards to my artistic practice.

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