Alberta Graduation Photographer|Regan

Banff Alberta Mountain Formal Portaits

Regan’s graduation dress came in. As an Alberta Graduation Photographer, this is the day I was waiting for, the chance to tell my daughter’s story in her beautiful grad dress.

So Many Emotions

The same day we were driving to pick up the dress, Regan received an email from her school that there would be no graduation ceremony or party this year because of the pandemic.

One day, so many emotions hitting her at once, anticipation, disappointment; joy and sadness.

We Want to Protect our Kids

As a Mother, my heart aches so deeply for this girl who gets so ripped off.

She is more pragmatic and stronger than I am. She chooses to celebrate her accomplishment with pride and happiness instead of anger or sorrow.

I’ll follow her lead and help her to tell the story of the strong willed, determined, beautiful young woman that she is. I can’t take away the hurt or the disappointment, but I can help her celebrate and commemorate the now.

We will celebrate her hard work, photograph her throughout all of these steps and stages, and create her a legacy of memories.

How Do We Create Legacies?

Photographing someone, I always want to know who they are, what makes them tick, what matters to them, and then I find a way to show that in their images.

She is my child, so I know her inside and out. When she’s excited, frustrated, stubborn, joyful, I read her face like a book. When I photograph her, I memorialize the unique and wonderful individual that she is.

What does a legacy look like for me?

When she looks at these images 20 years from know, I hope that Regan remembers:

• How much fun we had creating them.
• Her excitement as she put her dress on in Prom Forever. I hope she’ll remember seeing the look on her sister Callen’s face when she stepped out of the dressing room.
• Our sleepover in Canmore, the stupid conversations, the hot tub, eating fries in bed while watching videos on her phone.
• Our wanderings and adventures that day, stopping by the river at Castle Mountain and playing in the water. Meeting an intriguing stranger and photographing him playing his guitar by the river.
• The music we played, how much fun we had touring around in the XTERRA.
• The gentleman that scared me so badly I thought I’d pee my pants or worse, drop my camera when we stopped at Vermillion Lakes.
• How people stopped to watch and admire her on Lake Minnewanka as she twirled and laughed.

• Making endless Tiktok videos, doing it over and over until she had exactly what she wanted for her video.
• She’ll remember how deeply loved she is by me, because I feel it when I look at these images. It’s easy to see the love and bond between us as we connected through my lens. I want Regan – and everyone who sees these images to see how much the person in them matters.
• I hope she’ll have pride in how she rose to the occasion, choosing joy and taking the lessons learned now as a foundation for her life going forward.

My wish for her 20 years from now is that she’ll look back at this beautiful, young, almost 18 year old girl, and feel satisfaction, contentment, and joy. She’ll know that the hard work, the strength of character and morals of this young woman steered her to the beautiful life she lives.

How to celebrate your graduation

My wish for every 2021 graduate is that they find a way to commemorate their accomplishments and celebrate the passage from school to adulthood.

I am an Alberta Graduation Photographer who helps graduates and their families create a one of a kind photo session to tell their story, which is theirs alone. To book your session, or for more information, find me here.

Wondering how to design your grad session, check out this post

I’m an Alberta Graduation Photographer, serving central Alberta, Edmonton, Sherwood Park, Camrose, Tofield and the Alberta Rockies.

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