come as you are | charlene + emma

finally.  getting caught up with a few drafts that have been waiting eagerly to be shared!  with all the mom-friends from past and present booking these Come As You Are Sessions, it was a lovely surprise to have a family member call me in to capture her early motherhood days.  i come from a big family, with six aunts/uncles on each side of my family.  Char was one of the first of our generation and therefor was always looked up to, always harassed, and one whose lap was often occupied by a wiggly younger cousin with a bony-butt.  She was always generous and kind to us and I feel like all that patience must have paid off now that she is a Mother.  Capturing someone after a life-time of family get-togethers, through so many joyful births and heartbreaking losses took the meaning of this session to a new level for me.  We can choose our friends, but we can't choose family, so I'm so grateful to have had such a caring, thoughtful and supportive cousin in my life and so happy to have been able to give back with these photos.

Congratulations on having the sweetest little girl!
You guys are doing a great job

xo

 

come as you are | Saara Leila + Millie

 

These are the most beautiful pictures.
You captured every mundane moment and pulled every ounce of beauty from it.

Nick and I both got so emotional over these.
It's like, all the worrying and sleeplessness and feeling pathetic ARE worth it
when I see it from your eyes, from their eyes.

This is beyond anything I could have imagined.
You just gave me so much.  Again.  To be able to give these to the girls one day.

You've seen me at my worst.  And now to see these moments, to share them with you.
Thank you from the deepest part of me, with so much joy and gratitude.

~ Saara C.


It sounds like I did my job.

This session was very close to my heart.  There are so many women that I have become friends with in our little town, all of which I would love to honour with these sessions, but I have to admit that receiving the text request to do Saara really made my day.  She was the first Mom I met when we moved back here in 2009 when Moses was 5 months and her daughter Leila was 11 months.  We were both first time moms, desperate for company, visiting one another's homes numerous times a week for sanity.  In the last 7 years, I've witnessed her struggle as a single mom, seen her through many ups and downs.  To see her now, remarried to a truly wonderful kind-hearted soul and blessed with another gorgeous little child, it means the world to me that she has found happiness.

At the end of this session, I acknowledged all this, and we both had a good cry and a hug on the bottom of her stairs in her new home.

I love you, Friend.
You deserve every last drop of this love + happiness.

xo

 

come as you are | Lissa Bailey + Ocea

Just a few favourites from our first come as you are mother's day sessions from last week in the lovely Beach Grove with a Mama I met a good couple of years back.  We only seem to run into one another once or twice a year, if that, so it was really special to spend this time with her to see where she was in her Motherhood journey.  Her girls, energetic + hilarious, just like their beautiful Mama.

couldn't have a more perfect start to these sessions

xo

...and Baby Makes 3

One of the most rewarding parts of being a photographer has been the people I have met and the stories they have shared with me.  I have had cried in the car following a handful of consultations and sessions, inspired and overwhelmed by the courage these clients have drawn on in the face of adversity.  It is always a pleasure to capture the joyful moments for families and couples to remember, but for those trying to make lemonade out of lemons, I am both deeply humbled and honoured.  The stakes are higher.  For many of these clients, it is a turning point in their lives, and these photos are part of that first step towards healing and growing.

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Rita is due any second now as I write this post.  She was 36.5 weeks when we did this session a week and a half ago, we were lucky to have booked a day that worked for both of us before Christmas.  These photos mark a new beginning for her, her beautiful daughter Verity, and their new baby, nicknamed Chickadoan!  The aim was to capture their special mother-daughter relationship before the arrival of baby number two.  

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I feel like we got it.  

Thank you Rita & Sweet Verity for welcoming us into your home and allowing me to capture these special moments for you.  It truly truly was a great honour.

 

xo