Shortly after the scheduled ceremony start time the marriage officiant was still no where to be found.  As guests waited patiently on the beach soaking in the beauty and gentle Hawaiian breeze we learned that the officiant would not be making the ceremony. Now, news like this would cause a wee bit of stress for the calmest of brides. But not Dana. She was cool as a cucumber and brushed off this ‘minor’ detail and quickly came up with a fantastic replacement officiant.  One of their friends would perform the ceremony and I have to say he did an amazing job!  I would have never guessed this wasn’t his actual profession! He nailed it. Potential crisis averted. I have the best clients and they have awesome friends

We shot until dark and the only light out was the moon.  I just couldn’t stop!  I had a hard time narrowing down the images for this post, so here are just some of my faves.

Dana and Adam thank you so much for including Darren and I in your fantastic wedding.  You treated us like one of your own guests and we truly appreciated it.  I hope these images convey the love and beauty of your amazing day.

I am sitting in my condo in Oahu listening to the waves crash on shore.  I can still feel the warmth of the day blowing in through our screen door.  Nibbling on some cookies and cream ice cream is helping cool me down

As another year comes to an end I feel so blessed to be spending the last day of 2010 with Adam and Dana for their wedding in this Hawaiian paradise.  I am a very very lucky lady.

Speaking of lucky, I have to say that I was honoured to find out that Dawn and Billy’s amazing destination wedding in Tulum was featured on the awesome blog Destination Inspirations.  You can see the feature here.

Looking forward to sharing some tropical images with you soon!

Here is baby and I hard at work with the help of my fabulous and sexy assistant, my husband Darren

Billy you are amazing!  Thank you so much for sharing this with me.  Click on the link below to view the video.  And also, here are a couple more shots from the session.  Hope you enjoy

TTD Video

Billy is HUGE into kite surfing, so we had to get a few shots with his kite.

This surprise started way back in May.  Dawn and Billy had started planning their destination wedding in Tulum and had invited Darren and I to attend and also they had wanted to hire me as their wedding photographer.  Now as much as I soooo wanted to attend their wedding and be apart of their day creating beautiful photographs in the Mayan Riviera, Darren and I were hoping to be pregnant by May or June and depending on how that went I didn’t actually know if I would be able to fly and shoot their wedding come late November.

Now here is where it gets good, real good.  In the meantime, I was contacted by Dawn’s mom, the unbelievably awesome Lynne mentioned above, who had decided that for her wedding gift to Dawn and Billy that she wanted to secretly fly Darren and I down to have me shoot the wedding.  By this time Darren and I had found out we were indeed having a baby and that the timing would probably be perfect as I would just be six plus months come late November.  So Lynne and I tried to decide on a story to tell Dawn as to why I “couldn’t” shoot their wedding.  We decided to say that I wouldn’t be able to make it as I would be too far along at that point to fly.  Little white lie.  Sorry Dawn!!!  I felt like a horrible friend, but knew this surprise would be SO worth it.  So Lynne and I planned and schemed away and to make a long story short Darren and I were flown to Mexico to surprise these two lovebirds with some amazing wedding photography for their special day.  How amazing is that ?!  Such an fantastic wedding gift.

So as you read this I am probably lounging poolside sipping a delicious virgin lime margarita while basking my big baby belly in the fabulous sunshine.  Go ahead and hate, because when I left Victoria the weather forecast was calling for snow, so I feel bad for all of you, really I do

I can’t tell you how excited I am to shoot this wedding and to share the gorgeous images I know we will create.

No post is complete without pictures, so here are just a few snaps from my latest lovebird session with Terrill and Dan.  Enjoy!

What better day than to edit some travel pics and reminisce about our amazing time in Turkey.  I think I probably only have a couple blog posts worth of images from this trip left to share, and then it will be on to my next travel adventure.

So today I am sharing with you images from the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.  As you can tell I had a thing for the ceiling detail.  Hope you enjoy!

As I was finishing up editing our images from Goreme and just starting on some from Istanbul, I came across an assortment of random images that I wanted to share.  There is no sort of cohesion to this post, but that’s ok.  Often I think that random images like this can really help tell a story.

This shot was taken out the window of our bus.  Couldn’t pass up a picture of a camel on the side of the road!

Darren getting his ‘model’ on and looking hot.  Love the fairy chimneys in the background too!

Thought I should rub these and make a wish!

My step-dad is a tall dude.  And when they returned from their trip and were telling us stories of Don almost hunched in half trying to squeeze through these narrow tunnels and not being able to stand up straight till the hit an ‘open area’, we were all howling with laughter.  I think it was one of those conversations after a couple glasses of wine and you maybe had to be there, but it was hilarious.  Don is a retired Victoria firefighter so he is always thinking of how one would escape from a particular environment.  With only one way in and one way out and with people lined up like a never-ending conga line, there would be no way to get out in a hurry.  A little disconcerting.  So needless to say an experience like this wouldn’t be high up on the old ‘to-do’ list for people who are in anyway claustrophobic, or afraid of earthquakes.

All that aside, Darren and I were pretty excited to check this out.  It didn’t disappoint.  The pictures I post below in no way do this place justice.  And thank goodness for high iso camera capabilities because with the exception of a few light bulbs in the pathways, there really wasn’t any light until you hit an open area.  What these pictures also won’t convey is the extreme body odour and damp musty smell.  I guess I never really thought too too much about air circulation before we entered.  The smell could have made me gag repeatedly.  And by the end of our tour Darren and I were both dizzy.  One because we were probably oxygen deprived, and two from the body odour, I swear!

The purpose of these underground cities was to hide from invaders.  I was amazed at how well they were built and all that they took into consideration while building.  There was a church, stables (imagine the smell then!), an area for grape crushing and making wine (my kinda city!), and even a cemetery.  There were even big boulders that could be pushed across to block invaders, Indiana Jones style!     So neat.

I am not a tall person at all and I found it quite uncomfortable being hunched over for so long.  So I really felt for Darren who is 6 feet.  Well I laughed at him then, but I did feel sorry for him.  After walking like that we would eventually come into a clearing where we could stand up.  You can imagine my surprise when we enter a clearing after following the school class in front of us,  and there is a photo exhibition on display of Goreme.  Awesome.

Anyways here are a couple poor quality shots, but you get the idea.

This is Darren’s “enough pictures already look”.

Darren and I enjoyed sleeping in our ‘cave’ hotel and exploring the fairy chimneys.  We had fun touring around the caves and making up stories about the various ‘interior design’ trends.  I could have peed myself laughing.  I also tried really hard to ride a camel here, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  Goreme was one of my favourite places in Turkey.  There really just isn’t anything like it.

I LOVE Turkish tea!

Some of the beautiful reliefs inside the fairy chimneys

Hope you enjoy these newest door additions.  I apologize for the number of vertical shots, it takes a bit more scrolling to see them all.

View from our room.

Today’s post is about a beautiful island in Greece that we had no plans on visiting.  Darren and I had no intention of stopping in Syros, but the universe had other plans.  Anyone who has travelled in Greece knows how absolutely chaotic and bizarre the ferry schedule can be.  Island hopping can get complicated.  The ferry schedules are a mess and can flip your plans upside down in a moments time.  That’s what happened to us.  But so often these unexpected circumstances in life turn into a wonderful experience and I am happy to say that this accidental island visit was just meant to be.  Syros is gorgeous.  It is a beautiful combination of old and new.  I could have wandered down their marble and cobblestone streets for hours taking photos.  And yes, there are several places in Greece we visited where the streets were made out of marble slabs!  Amazing.

Some snaps of stunning Syros.

Here is a little information about this magical island I gathered from these two sites dedicated to Santorini, here and here.

Santorini is the southern most island of the Cycladic group in the Aegean Sea.  The entire center of the circular island sank into the sea during the tremendous volcanic explosion 3.500 years ago. The eruption caused tidal waves which virtually wiped out the advanced Minoan civilization of Crete 70 miles to the south. Some scholars believe that the island is part of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis which supposedly slipped underwater during the disaster.  What remains today of Santorini is a large crescent-shaped island enclosing a vast bay, the largest caldera on earth (7X14 miles).

The volcanic rock that covers the island is an eerie reminder of just how active this volcano has been.  The colours of the rock it created and the layers you can see almost everywhere are so incredibly beautiful.  Not to mention the insane drops into the sea with homes built right to the edge.  Darren and I had a fun time exploring the island.  We were staying in Imerovigli, but were easily able to walk to some of the neighbouring towns.  I particularly loved Fira.  They had all the cute donkeys, need I say more

Most of these photos were taken on a fairly overcast day and I think they provided a bit of a moody feel.  We ended up having a wild storm that night and we lost power for the whole night and up until noon the next day.  I thought our adorable villa was going to blow right into the sea!

Now on to the photos!

All of the above photos were taken from our hike to this amazing lookout.

I know my last travel post was all about kitties, but here is another cute one I overlooked.

]]> http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/travel-snaps-tuesday-santorini-part-ii/feed/ 9 http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/travel-snaps-tuesday-meow/ http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/travel-snaps-tuesday-meow/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:55:35 +0000 admin http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/?p=2192 Ghandi once said that “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ”  This quote is always in my mind when I am travelling in other countries.  It is amazing how differently animals are treated, valued and respected from one country to another.  Here are a few of my favourite kitties from Greece and Turkey.

This mama was a warrior for her kittens.  A minute after I took this shot we watched her attack a dog that got too close.

Out of all the places I have travelled Santorini holds a special place in my heart.  It is where I always imagined spending my honeymoon, so making it there was a dream come true.  It is such a spectacular and magical place.  And I truly hope to go back one day … or shoot a wedding there!  Just putting that out there

These are just a few images with more to come next week.

I had a bit of an obsession with the vases, you’ll see.

Arriving at our AMAZING Vallais Villas

]]> http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/travel-snaps-tuesday-santorini/feed/ 6 http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/travel-snaps-uk-style-part-ii/ http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/travel-snaps-uk-style-part-ii/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:03:37 +0000 admin http://www.kimkalynphotographyblog.com/?p=1436 I have been in such a great mood this week.  It could have a wee something to do with the fact that it is my first week officially as a full-time professional photographer.  I have a hunch that it might have a little something to do with that  It could also be influenced by this amazing bright thing in the sky that I haven’t seen for awhile.  Love it !!

I am just feeling so lucky and blessed.  Don’t you just love it when things feel like they are falling into place.  Sort of like there is this calm and peace that things are right where they are supposed to be and everything is in balance.

Well before I get too gushy on you I guess I should get on to the pics.  Speaking of gushy though … am I the only one who cannot watch the Olympics without bawling their eyes out ?!  Seriously, Darren is beginning to think that I have some emotional hypersensitivity disorder these days.  The commercials, medal ceremonies, victories, defeats … everything is making me cry !  In a good way though  I feel incredibly proud to be Canadian right now.

Those are all individual tea bags !

I have been meaning to post some random images from our travel time there and figured that these are about 4 months overdue, so here it goes.  Part 2 to come.  Enjoy!

Jo LOVES this home below

And she loves these cute cars … they are flipping adorable, right ?!

Jo and Dan’s home – yellow door on the right!

Jo & Dan !!!

Jo you are beauuuuuuuutiful !!!

Now I just hope that Lia and Bry just love them as much as I do

Darren and I like to pride ourselves on being relatively ‘green’.  I am a recycling guru and am always getting after him for putting anything that could be recycled into the garbage.  We use energy efficient lighting.  Un-plug any appliances when not in use (with the exception of our computers).  We keep our heat around 15 degrees and rarely use our electric fireplace.  All of our big appliances (stove, fridge, washer dryer etc) are all energy star rated.  I even compost for crying out loud !!  Sooooo I am baffled.  Unless Darren has a secret ‘grow-op’ that I am unaware of I am not sure what the heck is going on.  By the amount of type real estate and capital letters I have given to this topic I am sure you can tell I am a bit worked up about this.  So thank you for letting me vent

Now on to something much more exciting than my energy woes – more images from Lia and Bryan’s destination wedding in Mexico!!  I posted some teaser images for them a little while back, HERE.  But because I have fallen insanely in love with their wedding images, I decided to post some more.  In two parts as a matter of fact, as there is just that many images that I heart big time.

As you could probably tell from their teaser pictures that Lia and Bryan are not the most attractive people, in fact the camera really hated them.  Eeeeeeew – look at their perfect teeth, hair, complexions, smiles … YUCK!  Heee heee heeee  !!  I am being completely sarcastic !!  Lia and Bryan are a GORGEOUS couple, inside and out.  Anyone can tell from looking at these photos that I couldn’t have taken a bad picture of these two if I tried

Lia & Bryan decided to see each other before the wedding and do a “first look” which I am a HUGE fan of !! You can read more about ‘first looks’, HERE.  I will post images from their “first look” in Part 2 of this post.  Soooo cute !!  In this post I am just sticking to the getting ready shots as well as a few of the wedding party shots.

I’d love to know which shots are your favourites.  So feel free to leave me some comment love below.  Enjoy!

Lia you are the cutest !!!