2018 has come to a close and now’s the time I look back on the year that was and share some of my favourite images from it. I’m going to do my wedding work in a separate blog post, so this is a compilation of images (in no special order) from my portrait sessions and travel. As usual, there are many animals featured!

 

In April we flew to Maui where I photographed my good friend Devon’s beautiful wedding (more of that on the wedding blog post!) and at the end of that trip Bryan surprised me with by proposing at sunset on a beach in Paia! So we are now in the thick of planning our own wedding for next year and we are so looking forward to celebrating with our friends and family.

 

At the end of May my fellow equine photographer and friend Maureen and I packed up our camera gear and boarded a flight to Cranbrook as we headed to Three Bars Cattle and Guest Ranch for a week long equine photography workshop with the talented Ryan Courson. Every day we had three to four photoshoots on the ranch, interspersed between delicious meals and trail riding. We’d get up before sunrise and shoot past sunset, then edit late into the evening with Ryan offering his guidance until we were off to bed. I’m still working through my images from this trip and I can’t wait to share more.

 

I also took a video course this year and while I haven’t had much time to practice, I hope to be able to incorporate more video into my photography work in the future. It is a whole other art form and there’s a huge learning curve.

 

This year I began working more with Seaside Magazine, located here on the Saanich Peninsula where we call home. I took on the Trendspotting column which appears every second month and wrote my first published article in years. It felt great to do some writing again, especially since that is what I majored in at university. I also had my first two cover photos published with Seaside and my third just came out with the January edition!

 

September was for travel—I went on my yearly trip to Calgary to photograph at New View Stables and this year timed it with being able to attend the Spruce Meadows Masters Tournament—the biggest show jumping tournament in Canada. I hadn’t been in years and as always, it was incredible to watch the most talented horse and rider teams from all over the world compete at such a high level.

 

At the end of September, Bryan and I headed to Halifax for a few days so I could attempt to make it to Sable Island to photograph the wild horses who call the island their home. This has been bucket list trip for me since I was a kid, but I had no idea just how hard it is to make it to this tiny island off the east coast of Canada. I plan on writing more extensively about this trip, so for now I’ll just say that miraculously we made it to the island, and we were treated to a sunny day, plenty of wild horses to photography and I’m really proud of the images I came home with. I have a separate gallery on my website here with the Sable Island prints for sale.

 

This was the most difficult year I’ve ever faced in my personal life. I can’t thank my family, friends and clients enough for all their support and understanding this past six months. You’ve been there for me as well as my grieving family – so again, thank you.

 

Here’s to 2019 and all the adventures to come. Happy new year!