I met with Makaila and Colin while on work-cation.
Makaila and Colin are both from different parts of Ontario and both have moved to Calgary for work; and… met in Calgary - crazy, right?
Because all of their family members were back here all of our correspondence was through e-mail and the odd phone call. BUT… I flew out to Calgary this year to shoot and film Tanya and David’s wedding at Lougheed House in Calgary and then in Banff, that wedding was about a month before Makaila and Colin’s - you see where I’m going with this…
But, get this, Makaila and Colin live literally 3 minutes away from where we were staying - totally coincidentally. So it just made sense to book our pre-wedding meeting at a local Starbucks in their neighbourhood on the same day that I landed and spent several hours at Chinook Mall.
The meeting went really well and I’m super happy I was able to finally see the couple that I would be working with. During that meeting we really scaled down our slightly ambitious plan of where to do the photos.
Makaila and Colin didn’t want to do a first look, which is totally cool but it only left us with 90 minutes to do the family, bridal party and couples photos. Slotting travel time into this equation meant that we would have to sacrifice something and that’s not what we were willing to do. Since I shoot at the Ajax Convention Centre Multiple times a year I knew exactly where to go, the little green hill across the road.
I know what you’re thinking, Oleg, it’s an industrial area, unless the couple wants that industrial look what are you going to do with a tiny green hill surrounded by brown buildings?
Hear me out, with the right framing, equipment and knowledge you can make that spot look like an other park in the city. In fact that secret spot actually has a direct sight line to the sunset. Greenery + Framing + sunset = awesome photos
It worked so well that here’s a quote from the review that Makaila and Colin left for me:
“Oleg is a master of the camera. He can pull amazing shots out of seemingly mundane scenery.”
Thank you Makaila and Colin!!!!-
The wedding was of course beautiful, although I had just met Makaila and Colin once prior to the wedding I felt like I was hanging out with long time friends.
Enjoy the photos from their gorgeous Ajax Convention Centre Wedding.