Samineh and Reza are enjoying a wonderful engagement together that’s a little longer than most couples get to enjoy. Thinking back, Justin and I were engaged for over a year and a half and that period of our relationship really was just such a nice, almost dreamy time. It was as though being engaged gave our relationship an extra heightened awareness and loveliness. We met Samineh and Reza in the winter of 2008 and photographed their lively engagement party at The Vancouver Rowing Club with great music, dancing, family and friends- meanwhile a foot of snowflakes fell outside. Since then, they have been living and working in the Northwest Territories keeping warm and enjoying so much time together. On their recent visit to Vancouver, we spent a quintessential Vancouver winter afternoon on Granville Island for their engagement photo session and here are a few of our favourites.

I was  just listening to  The Q on CBC with Jian Ghomeshi and he had a guest on his show who speaking about a town in Haiti that won’t be getting any aid since their area was not as badly hit as others. Still, everyone is living out on the streets because many of the buildings were so poorly built, that they are on the verge of collapse and completely unsafe. This prompted me to want to tell you about a charity that we donated to yesterday called Architecture for Humanity. Their focus is to go into communities in need and rebuild buildings using quality materials so the construction will last and be safe in the future. They are truly an upstanding charity worth giving to and they are involved in so many projects that are soooo worth while, even in our local Vancouver.   Thanks, steff

Check out their website to learn more: www.architectureforhumanity.org

To donate go to: Help Haiti: Long-Term Reconstruction

Building a more sustainable future using the power of design.
Through a global network of building professionals, Architecture for Humanity brings design, construction and development services to communities in need.

It’s a familiar question for photographers to hear, what’s your style?  One of the hot catchwords right now is photojournalism or reportage.  Whilst Photojournalism is the predominant style of coverage that Steff and I do for our clients at hyperfocus photography, we do use other styles of photography as well.  We really like to use a variety of techniques and shooting styles to create the story, mood and atmosphere of the day that will show the viewer what the day was truly like.  But for now, lets take a look at wedding photojournalism.

The photo-journalistic style of wedding photography involves photographing a wedding day as its actually happening, capturing real moments and true emotion; the end result are images that are real and can be related to on a much deeper level versus something that is staged or set up.

Any photography that is staged, or set up by the photographer is not photojournalism (this includes staged photojournalism, which are images that are staged or set up to look photo-journalistic).  Real photojournalism is often a much more difficult style to do well than other popular styles of wedding photography; the result however is that you get a much deeper emotional connection to the images.  Nice, well composed photo-journalistic photography has been our preferred style of shooting for the last 9 years now and our clients really love it.  And we love it too! But don’t worry about missing out on anything, we still love to shoot contemporary fashion-inspired portraits, great details and family portraits.  We feel the best wedding coverage is an expertly blended mix of techniques and styles.

If you have any other questions about photographic styles or would like to book a meeting with us to see our work first hand just drop us a line or give us a call.

Thanks,

Justin

I just love this moment!

A truly spontaneous piece of wedding day artwork.

Holly and Jeremy cutting their cake at the UBC Boathouse (with her nephew eagerly waiting for his slice–priceless) And yes, it was a REALLY good cake!

Hello 2010!

Justin and I would like to wish you all the very best to come in the new year.  We had a lot of fun on New Years Eve with Friends, delicious food, drinks and a seriously fun Photo Booth.  Friends and family is really what the holidays is all about, hopefully you enjoyed some quality time with your friends and family too.

Sincere wishes,

Steff + Justin