At the end of April, I went to Ontario to visit my family, but mostly to photograph the wedding of two of my favourite people, Khanh and Irene. I’ve known Khanh since my first year of the civil engineering program in university, way back in 1999. We didn’t really get to know each other until a few years later, when I met Irene. Irene was immediately friendly and welcoming, which is what you had to be to befriend the shy, university version of me. They’ve both since introduced me to many awesome people and experiences, and even lived here in Victoria for a couple of years (and we all miss them dearly).

The wedding took place at The Old Country Inn in Unionville, a small town near Toronto. Their wedding was a bit of a mix of cultures, with their Indonesian and Vietnamese family members, Austrian restaurant food, a relaxed tea ceremony, and a typical Canadian wedding ceremony. The whole thing was very laid back, with mostly just family attending and all events happening in one room. Khanh and Irene have been together since high school, going from living together to living across the world to living across the country and back together again. Their families clearly already felt like one already, having known both Khanh and Irene for so long. I feel so lucky to have been a part of their wedding day.

Jennifer, Gord, and their six-month old son Jasper were in East Sooke a couple weeks ago visiting family. They had me along for a documentary family photography session at the beach at East Sooke Park and then some time at their family’s home nearby. I don’t typically do family portraits, so I was thrilled that they wanted to do a session documenting an actual day in their lives. Jasper is a very lively and expressive baby – it was actually tough to get him to stop looking at the camera (babies just don’t understand photojournalism). The weather was perfect and I had a lot of fun. I’d love to do some more sessions like these.

Back in September, I joined Wendy and Garry for a day at the Saanich Fair. They’ve been married for nineteen years and wanted to document something they love to do together. They spend a lot of weekends checking out different events in town and experiencing new things. The fair is an old favourite of theirs, especially the horses.

When asked to say something interesting about their relationship, Garry wrote, “We don’t have all the same likes and dislikes, we don’t watch the same media, or have the same politics (we don’t vote the same but we believe in the same things. We just think there are different ways to get there), in part because of the difference of age but we are very different.” Wendy explained “But on the important things, the age difference has really never mattered. We are just very different people in many, many ways. But at the end of the day, we are on the same side; looking out for each other.”

It was a lot of fun spending some time with these two, seeing how they enjoy each others’ company.