Traveling is by far my favorite thing to do in the world.  Every once in a while, I visit a place that just seems to strike a chord.  My friend and tour guide, Robby, set some high expectations for my trip to BC.  He not only lives there now, but was born and mostly raised in Canada.  He speaks of the Great White North as if it’s where one might end up after passing on as a reward for living a good life.  You might call that heaven.  Due to the incredible hospitality offered by my friend and the beauty of the region, my expectations were met within a half day and every thing else just compounded the greatness of my experience there.

Getting to Victoria went something like this:  drive to airport, fly to Vancouver, take a train to the bus station, take a bus to the ferry station, and finally, take a ferry to the island.  The ferry was the highlight of the journey.  After a half hour of open sea, you begin to see beautiful forested islands until finally, you dock at one.  Victoria, a quaint feeling city on a seemingly small island, is actually located at the southern tip of a pretty big island.

A view from the ferry: 

Minutes after arriving, Robby took me to the St. James Island dock to check the crab traps that he had thrown out earlier that day.  We would repeat this action dozens of times before the trip was done.  Crabbing, for me, was the highlight.  Instead of writing about this experience, I made a little video to show what we did to catch the 23 crab. 

Crabbing video:

http://youtu.be/n5DZKoTxEfw

Every night, we would take our spoils to Robby’s house, clean them out, boil them and eat them. 

Robby’s grandmother used to operate a farm not far from the coast.  We made a visit out to the farm for some pictures.

Many of the rooftops are covered in moss due to the abundance of moisture.

Below is a panorama of Woodwynn Farms.

Sooke, another town about 45 minutes away from Victoria, has many beautiful landscapes and waterfalls.

Sooke is where we met a man named Pete.  After declining an offer of weed from Pete, he explained to us the art of extreme cliff side fishing.  In a nutshell, Pete risks his life every time he fishes by dangling by a rope on the side of a sheer cliff in order to catch the coveted steel head trout that he actually has to throw back by law anyhow.

On my last day, I took some pictures of Robby and his wife Daniela.  They are a Brazilian-Canadian fusion power couple.  Here are some of the shots from that taken at the sea wall in Victoria.  Don’t mistake them for an Abercrombie ad.

Victoria still lingers in my mind.  Its abundance of life, friendly people, and gorgeous landscapes lured me in with a siren’s call.  The amazing thing is that it’s still winter.  I can’t even imagine what it will be like when I go back in the summer.

Every year I like to carve pumpkins.  You may have seen my pumpkins featured on the tween website jsyk.com over the last couple years. 

My Justin Bieber is here:

www.jsyk.com/2010/10/15/justin-bieber-gets-carved-into-a-pumpkin-its-a-bieb-er-lanter/

My Edward Cullen is here:

http://www.jsyk.com/2009/10/23/celebrity-pumpkin-patterns-edward-cullen-gets-carved-up/

This year I got sentimental.  I carved up Steve Jobs of Apple.  Here is the picture:

My blog hibernation period has come to an end.  I went dark for a brief time, but I’m ready to assault your eyes with pretty pictures and words once again.  

The weather is slowly returning to be bearable and photo friendly.  I can never truly prepare for winter.  I’ve lived through more than 25 Utah winters, and I’m still shocked every year at how cold it gets. The January weddings that I shot rendered my hands almost helpless due to the bitter cold.  Pushing the button even became burdensome.  It’s easy to take for granted the ability to move your joints freely.  I almost felt like the man in that Jack London story.  My solution was simply to step inside a building for a moment to warm up rather than fuss with matches.  I will say, however, that winterscapes provide some of the prettiest pictures around. 

Mason & Sarah-Ashley

I’ve known both of these characters for some time now.  Mason aka Wart has been a friend of mine for at least 12 years now.  I would have known him sooner, but he was a scholar in the local elementary’s ALPS program.  Therefore, he did not attend class with the less smart children, as he would not be brought down to our level.  As fate would have it, we didn’t really start hanging out until high school.  It was then that I discovered that Wart had himself a fine sense of humor.  We became great friends and have been ever since.  Wart also possessed a quality specific only to him: “Wart Luck”.  This was a type of luck that transcended bad luck.  Chicago Cubs fans don’t know what bad luck is compared to this guy.  This was a luck that seemed to make Job’s misfortune seem tame.  One thing after another seemed to happen to Mason.  One time he had hurt his ankle skateboarding and could barely walk.  He called in sick to the local Schlotsky’s Deli where he worked.  He legitimately could not work.  I was with him later that night.  His ankle was feeling a bit better, and he limped toward a local grocery store in Riverton (which wasn’t even close to the Schlotsky’s).  Just then Mason’s boss passed us, noticed that Mason was out and about, and asked him what he was up to.  Mason had to hang up his apron after that incident.  Like Job, however, Mason always took this misfortune in stride.  In fact, I can’t really remember him ever complaining about having the world’s worst luck.  It seems now that his luck has changed.  I’m very happy for him.

Sarah-Ashley is my good friend’s little sister.  I’ve known her for ten years.  She’s all grown up now.  I remember back in the day when I would tease her about boys, give her noogies, give her wedgies, etc.  I never did any of those things, but I’ve always thought SA was a classy individual.

Sarah-Ashley specifically requested a large tree, some other nature shots, and some vines.  We accomplished that and more on this shoot. 

I’m taking calls for shoots now.  The earlier you book, the better chance you have of getting the date you want.