Early Bird Photo Walks

This past weekend I headed over to Victoria on Vancouver Island to do a Beloved Session (yes, if you are in Victoria, I’m hoping to come over a few times per year to do Beloved Sessions for you lovely Island gals…though of course they are regularly available in Vancouver).

I was staying with a friend and on Friday night we headed out for a dog walk over to this gorgeous place called Summit Park.  It was dusk and the light was leaving quickly yet I was wildly smitten with this place.  It was a Garry Oak Meadow, something I had been learning about through a book by another friend of mine Maleea Acker called Gardens Aflame and there is something truly special about these places.

Of course there were the oh so unique Garry Oak trees but the park was also filled with the gorgeous purple Camas flowers. So the next day, I got up early and headed out on a walk with my DSLR (of course…because I like to participate alongside the participants in my classes so I wanted to take part in the activities we are doing this week in the Beloved Camera Class) back to the park and other than 1 person walking their dog had the whole park to myself to adventure in.

While we have beautiful parks here in Vancouver, they are quite manicured but this place was downright wild (as it should be…preserving these very special Garry Oak ecosystems). There is something about wildness that I crave in my self-portrait taking.  Its like the less manicured the park, the more space I have with no one else around, the more wildness…the more it feels like I can really let go of thoughts of how others might see me and the wildness feels like it opens the door to these moments of self-portrait taking as being even more healing.  So having a quiet park to dance & move in felt so beautiful & sacred.

So here are a few photos from my morning photo adventuring!  And if you are the type who is up early waiting for everyone else to wake up….I highly recommend going out on early morning photo adventures…when the world is oh so quiet and it feels even more safe to dance and get playful with our cameras!