Chan-Ra Photography

stephen & kim wedding...

i was honoured to be a part of this small & intimate wedding. i find my more mature clients have a better understanding of what they want. in this case, they wanted to be surrounded by their close family & friends. which can be good for a few reasons. like it eliminates drama when the guestlist gets to big. or the little details when things get too grande. and my favourite part of all -- i didn't have to battle hundres of guests who all have cameras and make my job a little more difficult.

kim was in the greatest of moods all day. maybe she didn't have to worry about caterers or paying the DJ. small weddings typically are more relaxed for sure. but kim is so fun & amazing that i'm sure a thousand guests wouldn't phase her. from the moment i walked it, she was all about having fun. that was the theme of the day. she was ready to work with me for any photo i arranged. she even had a few ideas of her own (which i cannot show online). she was a pleasure to photograph, she has so much energy and i think it shows. can't wait to photograph her again! i wish stephen & kim the best!

... book it

so... this particular album took 18 months to make. i've never spent so much time putting anything together before. it took a little longer because nancy & tony weren't really in a rush. they took their time selecting photos, then we had to do numerous meetings, edits and revisions. i basically had to re-edit every photo in the album to make sure everything was consistent. tony fell asleep on my couch a few times. nancy felt bad about making me work so hard so she always brought food :) which helped. but like i told nancy & tony... it wasn't any trouble at all. they invested a lot in this album and i would rather have them happy than live with any regrets. 

sorry for the terrible quality snapshots. i actually gave them the album without taking any shots, so i had to quickly meet up with afterwards to snap a frew shots. but i'm happy they decided to get an album. this album is 10" by 10", leather bound. it has 100 images. i don't like doing collages because it takes away from the bigger picture. so this album has one large image on each page. the great thing about having a large ablum is being able to see your photos on a grander scale. nancy & tony are really going to enjoy filling through the pages. and since it's been almost 2 years now, i'm sure it brings back memories.

 

happy new year!..

to all my chinese, korean & vietnemese friends and anyone else celebrating the lunar new year. my background is actually cambodian and we don't celebrate our new years until april. but it's still fun to participate in other people's traditions. i have alot of clients that are celebrating, so this is a shout out to them too.

it's been awhile since i've seen a lion dance. i've seen a few at traditional chinese weddings. i can say that if you're going to any chinese weddings this year, you're likely to see one. why? because it's the year of the dragon. both the lion dance and dragon dance are used to celebrate special occations. the dragon dance involves many more performers which doesn't work well within small spaces. so you'll likely see the lion dance - which is equally fun (shown below).

i had to dig these photos up from wendy & lamber's wedding, which is cool, i never get to show all the awesome photos. enjoy!

colin & jenn wedding...

... sometimes i get nervous in the morning, you know, thinking about my responsibilties, did i forget anything, etc... sometimes it can take away from me enjoying what i do. on this morning it all changed the moment i saw jenn. the girls let me into their hotel suite and the first thing jenn does is smile and call me over for a hug. she was sitting in the make-up chair so i walked over and hugged her. moments like these get me excited and pumped for the big day. it makes me feel appreciated when people are excited to see me. like i'm a person and not just hired help. i'm always honoured to be part of someone's special day. 

i don't think i laughed so hard with any other wedding party. the girls were great. jenn is so petite but her dress is so big. just watching her bridesmaids help her get into her dress was hilarious. when they were attaching the crinoline the girls went missing for days under there.

they had their wedding at a rockway glen golf course & winery so it was beautiful inside and out. the ceremony outside was gorgeous and probably the best ever conditions i ever had for photos. we rode around in golf carts to various places for photos (actually 2nd time this year that happened lol). when they told me where they were getting married, i googled the venue and checked out the gallery. my goal was to have colin & jenn on their website. and oddly enough on the wedding day the co-ordinator asked for my card and some photos. shout out to the staff since everyone was amazing. i appreciate anyone who takes care of me. like servers who offer me food when they see me working hard and look to busy to eat. good job fellas!

my favourite part of the day had to be the speaches. sometimes when you first meet someone - you put your best foot forward. usually i'm trying to sell myself as a mature & responsible professional. and clients typically do the same. so i do enjoy the speaches when people give more insight into just who the lovely couple are. like i found out colin was in gangsta rap and had a DJ name back in the day. i had a good laugh.

anyways, i think i rambled on enough. i have to work on photos for the venue. i'll give you an update if colin & jenn appear on their website.

varela-bryce family portraits...

just in time for the holidays... we did these portraits in late fall. romal & yeni do family holiday cards every year but this is the first time they hired a photographer. i love working and meeting different families. i learn so much about family dynamics. sometimes it makes me not want to have kids though... lol. aryana so smart & energtic. andrew is definitely a mama's boy. he didn't want to be in any photos so we had to get creative and find ways to sneak photos. 

i love it when clients show me what they do with the photos. i always encourage clients to do something... either prints, a book... or in this case cards. it's so much fun. and much better than looking at them on your computer. when you print a photo... it only gets better with age. when you look at photos on a screen, it doesn't have the same feel. yeni told me that she loves the photos even more everytime she looks at them. and why wouldn't she? she has a beautiful family. yeni does this every year so she was comfortable making these cards herself. but i always offer to help clients with products. it's my job.

(here is a scanned copy... it looks much better in real life)