The Many Sides of Keira Wray

I'm not gonna lie: the photo shoot was my idea, but when the day came, I wasn't in the mood and didn't want to do it. She had no idea we'd made the plan, so I thought it would be easy to change my mind and sit around and do nothing for the day.

"Oh, look, it's cloudy out. Looks like it might rain. Too bad."

But Keira is the only girl of three kids, and she's the middle child. So when her older brother came home from his 'mother and son breakfast date' happy as a clam to have had some solo adult attention, I knew the 'Keira and Aunt Terri afternoon' had to happen.

"Keira, go put on something that makes you feel pretty. I don't care if it's sweat pants or a dress - whatever you want. We're going out."

I. was. not. ready. for. THIS.

This vibrant, intelligent, creative, and beautiful human being is eleven years old.

Seriously. ELEVEN!

In fact, technically, these were shot nine days before her eleventh birthday.

She's TEN YEARS OLD here, people!

I got to shoot serious, mature, put-that-away-until-you're-21 Keira.

And I got to play with a monkey who loves to swing from trees and make faces for the camera.

Supermodel Keira...

...and an eleven-year-old who was just told she looks like a model.

At ease with the camera...

...and at ease with exactly who she is.

Brooding...

....and doing... 

whatever this is.

Throwing shade

and throwing leaves.

This unexpected gem is one of my favourites.

Also, the cropped version.

We waited patiently on the swings while some small children played on the tire swing. This was the whole reason she had chosen this park.

So much better than I'd pictured.

I know. There are a lot.

I ended up with 125 photos in the span of an hour and a half, and that's just the 'usable' ones.
There were so many that required only minimal editing - this girl is just so ridiculously photogenic.

On our way out, she asked if we could visit her favourite tree so she could climb it. It sounded like a fantastic photo-op to me, and I was all about it, grateful for one more chance to shoot the 

adventurous,

silly,

sophisticated

Keira Wray.

Family Christmas

I'll give you one guess where I was this Christmas. :)

I spent the holidays as I have the past few years: surrounded by the love of people who have taken me in and included me in their gatherings, their events, their adventures, and indeed, their lives. 

But that's not what makes family.

They've shared with me their family vacations, their birthdays, their Christmas mornings.

But that's not what makes family.

I've been taken into their homes when I needed it most: always given a place where I feel I belong when nothing else feels like the place I'm supposed to be.

I've been entrusted with their homes, their possessions, their children, and some of the most beautiful moments of their lives.

I've watched old traditions manifest...

...and new ones take shape.

But that's still not what makes a family.

 What makes a family is the knowledge that behind your back, someone somewhere will say, "No, that's not right. I know that's not how that person works," when information is taken out of context and grows as it moves from one person to the next. What makes a family is always knowing you have each others' backs enough to say, "Hey, this is what I heard while you weren't in the room. Can we talk?"

What makes a family is the knowledge that if you mess up, someone will still support you enough to save judgement at least until they hear both sides of the story.

What makes them family for me is knowing that through everything - the good, the bad, and the ugly - there is still no place I'd rather be than where these people are.

Arata

When December rolled around and I realized I had done only one single official portrait session in all of 2018, I was appalled. Work or no work, downtime or no downtime, "unofficial" photography notwithstanding, I needed to shoot some people, and I wanted someone I had never had in front of my lens before.

The Arata family was down for the mission.

It was getting dark by the time we started, so we didn't get a lot of shooting in. I was able to provide both colour and black and white copies, though, and in the end it was the black and whites that topped my list of favourites!

I had so much fun with this bunch: they were worth the wait (as was the homemade peanut brittle they brought me as a thank you!). Hopefully we won't wait anther whole year to do it all again.

Al-brrrrrrrr-ta

Canadian Rockies

Spray Lakes, Alberta