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I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alexis and Lillian last winter just before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everyone’s lives during our editorial inspired couple’s shoot in Toronto. They wanted couples photos of each other that played up their creative selves and elevated the essence of their relationship. So we leaned heavily into my 90’s fashion editorial influences and my inspiration surrounding cinematic and intimate atmosphere. If you want to take a look at the results of that intimate fashion inspired photoshoot take a look at the final images (all shot on film) here on my blog.

Fast forward a year later to this couples shoot which in wedding photography terms would be an intimate at-home engagement session but in reality it was simply a celebration of their love for one another and one final chance for us to work together before they officially moved to Amsterdam (jealous). This time around we all felt the emotional toll of the pandemic and played that up by creating a fluid narrative that represented the highs and lows of the past year as well as a way to reflect the bittersweet elements of their upcoming departure to the Netherlands. Whether you want to label this an intimate at home session in Toronto shot on analog film (which I guess it is), or whether you want this to simply be cool inspiration for engagement photos here in Toronto (which it also is), I really hope what we created goes beyond those simplistic industry buzzwords.

I really wanted to create something powerful and beautiful, again leaning into my influences of art house cinema, editorial aesthetic and my never ending love for music, I had a vision to make this more than your standard at home couples photoshoot, I wanted it to feel cinematic, to create an interpretative narrative and ultimately create an intimate and honest experience for Lillian and Alexis.

I took the opportunity to bring on some fellow creatives to seriously elevate this entire shoot beyond anything I could’ve accomplished on my own. Natasha Zimin is a talented cinematographer here in Toronto and I’ve always loved her work and felt she was the perfect fit to come and capture some motion and compile a beautiful video to accompany the images, and oh boy did she ever deliver on that (as I fully expected and as you can see in the full video below). I also used Ryanne Hollies as a Creative Director to help conceptualize the direction of the shoot and work in tangent with me as a co-director and co-stills photographer. Ryanne is insanely talented and creative, her ability to piece together my thoughts into a cohesive creative direction was truly the secret recipe behind the final mood and atmosphere we achieved (and of course the authentic love and intimacy between the couple was undoubtably the most important element of all).

A three-headed dragon as I referred to our small creative team, we entered the shoot with a rough idea of what we wanted to accomplish but ultimately we walked away with something much more. The final video and stills are a perfect reflection of all our creative influences and creative minds, Alexis and Lillian included.

These are some of my favourite images I’ve ever created during an engagement session or couples shoot - without a doubt it was the perfect storm of creative minds with one common goal and I’m extremely proud of what we accomplished. I want to continue to bring this level of elevated and dedicated creative intention to my couple’s shoots and weddings. I’ve worked endlessly over the last 2-3 years to unapologetically lean into my personal aesthetic and influences in hopes that they shine through and the work can speak for itself. Shooting film is now a natural part of the process, although it always was, even more now than ever before and this part of my work as a wedding photographer here in Toronto has allowed me to connect with other like minded creative couples looking to create something uniquely theirs that goes beyond the boundaries of what’s considered typical in this industry that tends to rely heavily on trends and normalcy. I want to live beyond the label of analog film wedding photographer or Toronto Wedding Photographer and stand alone as a photographer who’s capable of blending their work from all facets of their photography, and this was just another attempt to further drive that home to my current and potential couples that I work with.

A cool bonus to come out of this shoot was that I reached out to Ruby Haunt, one of my favourite bands currently producing music and showed them the final video and images that we created. Their song “Snow Angel” was a big mood influencer for me when I was conceptualizing the entire shoot and I was thrilled and honoured to find out they were fans of my work and allowed us to use their song officially for the video. It’s cool to have a sort of unofficially music video created for one of my favourite artists and it’s even more rewarding knowing that the video can stand alone as its own cinematic narrative beyond the surface.

Big thanks again to Natasha, Ryanne, Lilian, and Alexis for collaborating on this and helping me create something special and beautiful to share with the world <3.