Although I love Alberta, the very heart of my family is in the southern counties of Ontario. We have such a history there most town lines have names associated with the family, there are houses that have been in the family for a century or so and one hundred year old ketchup (hello botulism!) my great grandmother made stored away in the cellar.

I will be in Ontario until August 8th however feel free to connect with me through my contact page.

Because I am sure you are dying of curiosity to know who these fine looking people are I will tell you. The fellow to the left with the death grip and welcoming grin is my great great great great grandfather John Ferguson (b. 1804) with his cane from Mississippi. In the middle is the Wigle home in the late 1800s, third from the left is my great great grandfather Norman Iler, to his right modeling the rocking chair Vanna White style is his wife Linnie Wigle Iler, and second from the right is her mother Mary Wright Wigle. The image on the far right is my grandfather, Murrary Ferguson, looking quite suave in his overalls.

Pictures provided by my Aunt Joan. The family genealogist extraordinaire.

Enjoy!

I am so excited to share these. So excited that when I had just finished putting together the images and this little write-up, the power went out for an hour and all I could think about was how much I needed internet access to get it up.  I met with Leah Wood and her family south of Calgary as they are making their way down to Disneyland.  Dunstan and Leah’s four kids were an absolute riot and made my job quite fun.

Enjoy!

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn to drive to Canmore for a session with recently married Les and Charlene.  It may have taken the aid of a large Tim Horton’s coffee but it was entirely worth it. The early morning mountain air, the sweet light, the sheet of dew. Oh it was just divinity.

Also, if you are wanting to contact me this weekend it may take me a couple of days to reply as I am participating in the 60km Weekend to End Women’s Cancers. If you happen to see the hundreds of walkers in Calgary either Saturday or Sunday honk your horn, break out the sprinklers on your front lawn, or smuggle one of them (aka. me) into your car to the last pit stop (okay maybe not so sure about that last one). Every word or jester of appreciation is awesome!

Here are two images from this morning – I can hardly wait to put the rest up!

I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Leah Wood‘s family as they came through town on their way to Disneyland! Lucky kids! I kind of wanted to climb onto the roof rack and go along for the ride!

Here is a sampling  :)

I first photographed Shauntel and Matt as a couple when I was first delving into photography and you can always be sure to have a good time with them. The fun is now doubled (or squared if you prefer)! We met at Nose Hill Park (where oddly enough neither of us had been) and wandered and took in the amazing light.  Here is just a sampling of the day – the rest will be posted later this summer.

Enjoy!

#1 – I have an irrational fear of bees. I don’t mind spiders, snakes, naked mole rats etc. but bees… no.

#2 – I will eat just about anything once (and typically enjoy it enough to have more). This includes bugs, alligator and puffin to name a few.

#3 – Depending on how you define ‘siblings’ I have been the youngest, the middle, the oldest, the only, the whole and the half at some point.

#4 – I am actually very shy. I didn’t speak until I was 3 and would hide behind my mom’s legs whenever going through the grocery check out. The checkout lady still knows me as the shy girl.

#5 – When I was born my name was Esther Laona. However, according to one parent I didn’t ‘look’ like an Esther Laona and with 10 minutes before leaving the hospital was renamed Brittany Esther. Looking at pictures I think Jabba the Hutt may have been more fitting.

#6 -The only thing of great significance my family can claim is selectively breeding a pepper, aptly named the Staddon Pepper.

#7 – I collect old toy cameras.

#8 – I deeply despise shopping; all types except grocery, school supply, and antique shopping.

#9 – When I was one and a half years old I ate a light bulb off the Christmas tree and swallowed it. Yes, the electricity was on. That was the second time that week my parents had to call poison control because of me

#10 – English isn’t my forte. Friends say I am fluent in ‘Brit-ish’ and my second language is English.

#11 – I love traveling almost more than life itself. I have visited 28 countries and have been on around 250-300 flights.

#12 – My nickname when I was younger was Rip. This derives from the tale of Rip Van Winkle and my ability to sleep anywhere, at any time, for however long.

#13 – I was nicknamed Brittany Brillo Head. That’s pretty self-explanatory.

#14 – On my mother’s side I have 37 cousins.

#15 -  I am 8” taller than my mother. She is vertically challenged.

#16 – I road-tripped-it to Alaska with my father and sister when I was 8. I learnt all about camping in the back of a truck and that sometimes the roadside was a better option than a junction washroom.

#17 – Anytime I use a vacuum I break it. It’s a sign.

#18 – I really hate socks. I would go barefoot everywhere if it was socially acceptable.

#19 –I always put a single chip in my burgers

#20 – My newt committed suicide by escapement. My cactus was killed by love (ie. over watering). My fish ate each other. My dog has epilepsy. I am a crumby pet owner.

There we are. Twenty completely useless facts about yours truly! If you write your own please feel free to leave a comment with a link to your site :)

You may also notice over the next few weeks some changes with the blog – it is a work in progress!

Enjoy and leave a comment!

Meh.

Just as promised – myself with a camel! Okay, not quite as you may have been expecting but I had never seen a ‘yield to camels’ sign before!  Sure enough as you drove along some of the highways in the United Arab Emirates in the distance you would see a few camels scattered here and there. Little bit different than the herds of cattle you see here in Alberta!

Not being much of a shopper myself one of my favourite excursions from Dubai was going dune bashing – a type of off roading that has me even more convinced I must learn how to drive standard.

The Sheikh Zayed Mosque, located in Abu Dhabi, is the eighth largest mosque in the world and is home to the world’s largest chandelier and carpet. A spectacular piece of architecture to be certain.

With five hours left before flying home it was decided that seeing Dubai from the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa would be a good idea – words cannot describe how rewarding this last minute decision was. The Burj Khalifa currently holds the world’s tallest manmade structure record, standing at 828m – this of course also accounts for the 3m leeway of sway one can feel from the top when the wind picked up.

Thank you so much for looking! That is all for this summer’s trip images so we are now back to our regular programing so be sure to check back soon :)