Today I am leaving on a roadtrip to Victoria, where I will be getting married this Saturday! This is a once in a lifetime experience, and we're doing it up right! Which means, contact by email will be minimal until we return from our Honeymoon the first week of July. I appreciate your understanding, as James & I truly want to savor this wonderful time of starting our lives together!

When we get home, I will be bringing you up to speed on some of our fabulous 2008 weddings, with photos like this:

Happy June everyone! =)

-Karen 

Three months of non-blogging...what could be the cause??? Well ladies & gents, it's this: I have gone and become a BRIDE!!! I can hardly believe it, but the next wedding on my agenda is my very own: June 14, 2008 in Victoria, BC. One week from this moment, I will be Mrs. James Dean!

So I have gone and learned that this wedding stuff is hard! Now I too have debated endless details, budgeted, researched, changed my mind a hundred times, had a dress meltdown, agonized over which photographer to choose and still need to work out my seating plan for next week! Wedding planning has revealed some things in my character that surprised me, for better and worse. Maybe wedding planning is training ground for marriage, as I'm sure this is only the beginning of my character being revealed! What I do know is that it has been worth it. Next Saturday, I will exchange my vows of commitment to James, before God, and all my dearest friends and family. It's almost too much for my heart to take in! This I know: I am truly blessed.

So a few weeks ago, James and I jumped over to the other side of the lens. My good friend, and photographer extraordinaire, CJ Scott shot a session for James and I. I was beyond excited to get the CD in the mail. I truly love having photos of James & I at this stage in our lives. It's so easy to let time slip by and not take any photos! It renewed my passion for the work I do, because I delight so much in comemorating seasons in my clients lives in photographs.

Here are some of ours:

Soooo- have I been so busy planning my wedding that I haven't been shooting? Heck no! I've got a lot of catching up to do here, blogging about a few weddings (one I just got back from an hour ago, in Kananaskis), an engagement session, AND a totally fun first for me: being published!!! I'll be on my fantastic Honeymoon until mid-July, but I may be sooooo relaxed, that I'll get around to blogging!

Cheers!

Karen Doherty (but not for long!). 

I have a FABULOUS older sister named Janet! She lives in Victoria, BC and I miss her pretty much all the time since I live in Calgary now. Fortunately I get to make more than my fair share of trips back to Victoria for work and play.

Janet turned the sophisticated 3-0 on December 17, 2007. Months before, she decided she wanted to celebrate with a bunch of her girlfriends on a little trip to Calgary, and she put me in charge of the plans. A challenge I couldn't resist! Drawing on what resources I had, I decided I wanted to give the girls a chic photo experience with a little photoshoot. I brought in my friend Vicki-the-super-stylist to do hair and make-up, had wine and appies, good tunes and we were all set!

 Here's Janet getting all glammed up:

Smokin' hot sister!

The scene of it all:

Group shots! So many great ladies in one room...

Various friend shots:

Sistahs:

She is a classy one!

Happy 30th B-day (again) Janet!! 

Cheers,

Karen 

Some very dear friends of mine, Mike Richard and Melissa Quantz, were married on July 28, 2007. Melissa is one of my oldest friends, going back to Junior Highschool days in Victoria. My memories of Melis run the gamut from rockin' out to R.E.M. in her parents Westfalia Van on various island camping trips, to almost missing a very important train from Switzerland to Prague back in 1999 when we were doing a little Euro travel.

James and I flew out for M&M's signature wedding at Melissa's parents' house in Oak Bay, and we decided we would try something new to add variety to their photos- The Pure Photo Booth! We created a small photo booth in the living room, with a basic studio light set-up, and the camera on a 10-second timer. Guests were invited to visit the photo booth often to take self-portraits, and a "no peeking" policy was in force. By the end of the night, they had a hilarious ecletic mix of photos to remember their guests by. If you've been wondering where the Bio pics on my website are from...well, now the secret's out! Here's a slideshow of the quirky shots:

We're thinking of making this available to all Pure Photo Group clients, so if you want a Pure Photo Booth of your own at your wedding, let us know!

-Karen 

We've been living through a bit of a cold snap in Alberta these last few weeks. I always have to laugh when the weather forecaster says something like "We are expecting a high of -28 degrees this afternoon...". Can -28 degrees *really* be called a high? Come on!

Anyway, before things got crazy cold (as in -43 degrees with the wind-chill), I bundled up and braved the cold with Jacquelyn and Craig on January 20 for their Engagement Session. They wanted to incorporate one of the photos into their wedding invitation, so there was no wimping out to wait for warmer weather- a deadline is a deadline! And these two were real troopers about the sub-zero temps. Check 'em out! =)

Eventually we did seek refuge indoors to thaw out a bit!

The engagement session ALWAYS gets me really excited about shooting the wedding! I can't wait to see these guys in Victoria for their wedding at the **Delta Ocean Pointe Resort & Spa**  on May 2nd. Thanks for a fun afternoon Jacquelyn and Craig! You two make -15 look good!

Cheers,

Karen