Unique Images Photography | Weddings | Portraits | Fashion » Wedding, Portrait, and Fashion Photography Blog

Happy New Year!

Thanks to all our clients from 2009! I have put together a very quick little slideshow of some of my favourite wedding and bridal session images of 2009. I tried to keep it down to only three images per wedding—which was really hard!—but this is meant to be just a glimpse. More images from each wedding can be found on the blog under the weddings category. The one exception is the very last set of wedding photos, because this is a recent wedding that I haven’t even blogged yet, so I thought I’d give them a few more photos in the slideshow. I’ll be blogging the whole wedding soon.

There are three photos from Jessica and three from James Day and the rest are from me. I also need to thank Sherri, Trent, and Doug for assisting and shooting with me this year as well; their help was invaluable to me. There are a lot of portraits in this mix, because I put so much work into them that it’s hard to not choose them as my favourites. And there aren’t really any detail photos in here, either, because this is all about the people!

Click on the play arrow below to start the slideshow. Have a great 2010.

A big thanks to Ashton and Breanne for braving the cold in Calgary for their engagement session. And an extra big thanks for lending me a jacket when I forgot to bring mine!

We met up at Calgary’s Confederation Park and, unusually for me, stayed at that one location. But it’s such a nice area, with quite a few different cool little spots in it, that we didn’t need to go anywhere else. We started out in an underground walkway and I got grungy-style images in the tunnel there, while we dodged joggers and people walking their dogs, including one guy who was wearing two totally different shoes. That was pretty funny, though I won’t laugh too hard, because at least he had a jacket.

The leaves were just turning to their fall colours in the park, though it wasn’t until the end that I really worked them into the photographs. It’s funny how sometimes what’s right in front of me won’t inspire me, but something out of the way in a corner will really appeal to me. (There are a bunch more images with the fall colours in their private gallery, but I like the ones below best). Confederation Park has really tame ducks! We were able to get so close to them and we didn’t even have food. Ashton and Breanne tempted them over with leaves.

Anyways, it was great to meet you both and I look forward to seeing you again at your wedding next year!

Congrats to Mike and Gillian! They were recently married in a moving ceremony in Calgary’s Baker Park.

We did their engagement session back in February down in Lethbridge and they were both happy and easy-going, so it was great to catch up with them again on their wedding day. I started the day with the bride’s dress going on—well, photographing Gillian in it—while my assistant photographer Jessica photographed the guys. Their ceremony was outside at Baker Park, near the Bow river. The leaves were just starting to turn yellow for the fall—though most of them were still green—and it’s a beautiful place, full of trees and really peaceful. There were lots of smiles and tears throughout the ceremony, mostly tears from Gillian and smiles from Mike.

After their wedding ceremony we stayed in the park for nearly all their photos, stopping on the way back to the reception to wander through the Safeway where Gillian and Mike had met. Their reception was also an emotional affair with teary speeches and loads of laughs. Here are a handful of their images.

This wedding was photographed on my behalf by my friend from Australia and wonderful photographer, James Day, while I was shooting another wedding. Check out his fantastic work at his website here. I edited the images, but since I didn’t photograph them you will notice a different style of photography this blog post.

Although I have met Amanda and Jeff I was not at their wedding, so I gave James a call and chatted to him about the wedding day. Here is Jeff and Amanda’s story, as told to me by James and then paraphrased by me for the blog:

“Amanda and Jeff were all about having fun and they were laughing and having a blast all day. I started the day with Jeff and the guys as they got ready at a friend’s place in Calgary. Jeff has actually been to NHL training and his groomsmen were all hockey buddies. (Amanda is also a pro beach volleyball player and recently she and her team won a big tournament in Vancouver). After watching the guys joke around and throw up (well, one of them, but we’ll keep those photos private for now ) I was off to join Amanda and the girls as they got ready at Amanda and Jeff’s place. Amanda was excited and dancing around to her R ‘n’ B music all morning. She’s also a fan of the America’s Next Top Model and every so often would strike a pose for the camera and really ham it up.

Their reception was wild! Once the dancing started up people were all over the dance floor and really getting into it. Jeff and Amanda had brought their dog to the reception and put him in another room, but from time to time he’d escape and run onto the dance floor. Throughout the night, Jeff was also defending his title as reigning beer-pong champ and I’m sure he kept his title. Thanks for having me at your wedding, guys. It was heaps of fun. ”

If anyone who was there has something to add, please put it in the comments area below! We can do the first ever community blog post.

Congrats to Jonathan and Sora, who were married recently in Calgary! We did a fun engagement session with them last February and I’ve been looking forward to their wedding since then.

These guys had two wedding ceremonies, both of them traditional ceremonies, though they were each very different. Jonathan has Ukrainian and Irish heritage and so the first ceremony was a traditional Ukrainian Orthodox ceremony at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church, which has to be the most ornate and decorative church I have seen in Calgary. It’s stunning! This ceremony was followed by a traditional Korean ceremony in the church’s basement and it was completely different in so many ways. It was a kind of organised chaos from the photographer’s perspective. For one thing the guests were standing up fairly close to the small stage area where Sora and Jonathan were and often I had to weave through people to find a new position. And there were so many different and fun traditions, too, such as family members tossing small items of food to Jonathan and Sora that they had to catch in a large piece of cloth. It was certainly an energetic ceremony.

After the ceremonies and the family photos we headed off for photos. We took a few around some old sandstone ruins for a while before going back to the Hotel Arts, where we did casual images without any real setup or posing, other than for the final image of Sora, where we went for a more stylish vibe. These guys were very cool to work with and, although we had to work quickly because of time, we did get a good variety of images.

Their reception was across the road from the Hotel Arts at the Endevour Arts gallery and this venue, like the one in the last blog entry, had been stylishly decorated with the guidance of Lisa Hanslip from The Wedding Planner. We weren’t officially covering the reception, though they had kindly invited us there for dinner. Thanks for having us at your wedding and all the best, guys.

Lots of candid, photojournalistic stuff for the blog this week!

Congrats to Sandra and Karlo! I photographed their engagement session in Calgary back in April this year (link) and I’ve been looking forward to their wedding since then. They are one of the nicest couples you could hope to meet—really open and easy-going. You’ll be able to see that from the slideshow below, because just about every image with someone’s face in it shows them either laughing or crying, especially from the ceremony onwards.

The ceremony was outside at the Calgary Croatian Cultural Centre and the reception was inside. When we got there to set up I wondered if I had the right place, because there was only one person there! It turned out that everyone else was inside in the air-conditioning. It was a hot day! The area where the wedding was held was nice, but it was directly under the flight path from Calgary airport. Every few minutes the officiant had to pause as a plane went overhead. It was actually funny after a while. There were some red-leaved trees there and I loved how they fitted so well with Sandra’s hair colour and the colours of the flowers and dresses.

After the ceremony we took off for some relatively fast portraits at one of the parks overlooking the city. Because we were a little pressed for time during the portraits I grabbed Karlo and Sandra throughout the day to get a few posed shots whenever we could. You’ll see that in the slideshow. I actually do this at most of our weddings.

The reception was filled with love, singing, and teary speeches. Karlo and Sandra even sang a couple of songs themselves! Shortly before we had to go Karlo took me to the bar for a shot of his national drink, slivovitz. I haven’t actually had a drink in years and so I had something non-alcoholic, but it was a real honour to be treated so warmly.

So here is a slideshow of about 140 images from their wedding day. It takes a little while to load, but it’s worth it.

We first met Brad and Ashley when we did their engagement session here in Lethbridge last fall. They are a fun couple and we flew through their session, getting some great photos with lovely fall colours. Although Brad and Ashley live in Airdrie, near Calgary, their wedding was down in Coaldale, next door to Lethbridge. Ashley asked for us to take photos at the river bottom, so we took them to a place near the Helen Schuler Coulee Centre. It’s a really nice location down there, though we hardly ever go there for our wedding photos. I think we only went there once all last year! But it was really lush and green and, although the clouds looked threatening later in the day, we escaped getting rained on.

We took some photos of the girls before the ceremony, then headed off to the church before coming back to Lethbridge for more photo time. I loved the huge stained glass windows in the Coaldale church. It was like photographing inside a big tie-dye shirt. Lol! Their reception was at the Lethbridge University and we finished our photo time there, though we weren’t at the reception itself and got to go home early for a change.

Here are some of their images.

Karlo and Sandra live in Calgary, so on the way back from our latest Banff wedding I stopped in to shoot their engagement session.  As you can see from the photos, these guys are a lot of fun and very individual.  Both of them are musicians and Karlo is recording a demo album.  I loved the decor in their house, too.  The colours and natural window light was just fantastic for getting cool photos!

Sandra and Karlo were both happy, laid-back and so easy to take photos of.  Karlo looked kind of rough with his tattoos and all the rest, but he was smiling constantly and I actually had to tell him a few times, “Ok, this time I want a serious expression!” 

We started out in their bathroom, of all places—lol!  That’s the first time I’ve ever done that at an engagement session!    Then we visited a few areas close by them for some more photos, finishing in a grungy part of Calgary not too far away.  I’m really looking forward to one location for their wedding day that we didn’t get into for the engagement session, but hopefully we will get to on their wedding.  I’m leaving it up to Karlo and Sandra to sweet-talk the venue owners into allowing us to take photos there.  I won’t say where it is, but they’ll be photos unlike any location I’ve ever been in.    I’m definitely looking forward to their wedding and you’ll have to check back in here in the beginning of August to see their wedding images blogged.

We recently did Mike and Gillian’s engagement session. We did it here in Lethbridge, but they are from Airdrie and will be having their wedding up in Calgary. They are a fun and easy-going couple and we jumped around to a few different locations here during the shoot, including the parking lot of a Safeway, because they originally met in a Safeway in Calgary. Who says grocery shopping can’t be romantic?

Anyway, without further ado here are their photos! We look forward to seeing Gillian and Mike again on their wedding day later this year.

Sora and Jonathan, a super-stylish couple from Calgary, recently invited us up to photograph their engagement session.  They brought along their two dogs to the session as well; Ollie, who is a cute little black ball, and Mook, who is a big and friendly German Shepard cross, but really wasn’t in the mood for getting his photo taken.    There was still a little bit of winter snow on the ground and it was a tad chilly, though thankfully not as cold as it could have been at this time of the year.

We started out at Princess Island Park just north of the Bow river in Calgary at the top of a steep set of steps that Jonathan ran up while Sherri and I followed at a more, umm, leisurely pace.    After doing some photos with their dogs, we headed off to Stephen Avenue where there are some lovely old stone buildings and cool bistros and pubs.  We took a more hands-off approach to this session than we often do and, although we did a few posed images, we also stood back a lot and captured candid photos of the two of them enjoying each others’ company at the James Joyce pub.  Jonathan and Sora had a Guinness each and joked around, Sora putting froth from her drink on Jonathan’s nose, and both of them pulling faces at each other. 

Sora and Jonathan, thanks for braving the cold and coming out for your engagement session with us.  We will see you at your wedding!