Last week while out for a commercial photo shoot, I had the chance to take a side trip and finally step inside the Athlete's Village at Millennium Water in False Creek. I just caught up as the first group of the day went out on the tour, "Avenues of the World". These are nine amazing suites that have been designed and decorated by some of Vancouver's best local and international designers, Chil Design Group, Alda Pereira, BYU Design, The Cross Decor & Design, Inform Interiors, Kodu Design, Ledingham Design, Mitchell Freedland Design & William Switzer.

If you have a chance to go and see the rooms for yourself, Millennium Water offers guided tours on Mon-Thurs from Noon-5pm but please check the website as times do change.

It truly is a beautiful gem on the edge of False Creek.

I grew up with a Dad who loves old cars and what a treat it was when Lana told me that her Dad was the same. Her Dad builds these exquisite old muscle cars from almost scratch and the workmanship that goes into them is amazing! He brought out one of Lana's favs just for her shoot and it was a lot of fun to work with! All the people in the park would stare as they walked by. We even had one little boy who seemed to be so captivated by what we were doing that he started taking pictures of us on his little camera. He'd even come close to inspect the car with it's shiny wheels but quickly run away once we came near, it was very cute!

One of my other loves is dogs. I love watching all of the dog shows and when I was little, I would check out all of the animal books that the library had. It's a lot of fun when our couples bring the other members of their families to the shoots. It just adds another dimension and is so rewarding when you get that perfect shot because you can't exactly tell dogs to "sit, smile and look at the camera" with much accuracy. Jason and Martha own a beautiful one year old Vizsla who just bounded around like a little bunny and was super excited to be at the beach with the family! Sometimes pictures just lend themselves beautifully to the tones of black and white and I just love how much texture and mood there is to these images.

Back in January we asked you what you wanted to know about what we do.  Here goes! 

Our first two questions came from Habib: 

1) For weddings I assume there's multiple shooters for the event, what lens do you use the most for your shots? 

I use a Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 for almost everything. I love how you can get right in the action and show the surroundings of the event. I do however change to a Nikkor 100mm macro for jewelry, most detail shots and the odd portrait. Jason loves his Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, which he shoots on most of the day to catch those unscripted moments in between my shots when the couple are just hanging out or having a private moment, having that lens really helps us stay in the background when we need to. The types of lenses that we use are very much an extension of our vision for the day and the feel of how we want it presented. 

2) When you first started, did you had to reach out to other wedding photographers and see if you can tag along as secondary shooter or something like that? 

I was very blessed with an amazing beginning to our career. At the time we started, Jason and I were just getting married and as it turned out, the man who did our wedding cake also had a small photography company on the side and when he heard that I was attending school for it, he asked if I wanted to come and apprentice as they were in need of a female shooter. It was a great experience as the people I worked with taught me so much more than they could in school as it gives you real life experience and it's important to see how fast you need to think on your feet for wedding photography because you can't ask people to "back up" and do it again. A few years later,  Jason who is a self taught photographer, started to become a large part of the company and now we shoot together for all of our weddings. In wedding photography, it's not necessary to have two shooters but it certainly makes the experience more relaxed and fun for both you and your clients. 

We wanted to say thanks to everyone who asked a question of us. 

As always, if you have a question, we'll do our best to help! 

Stay tuned.  We will be answering other questions every week.

The weather is changing and the sun is out past dinner time, yup, summer is on it's way!!! Zahir and Zahra will be tying the knot in only a matter of weeks and it's going to be great! Kudos to them for taking dancing lessons, something I don't think Jason would do but he just might find himself in a dance class sooner than he thinks! One of the new restaurants down on the beach, Deluxe, was also kind enough to let us take some photos in their bright new store, can't wait to eat there for some tasty seafood!