Claire and Aryam: Golden Hour Engagement Session at Crystal Crescent Beach

Claire and Aryam's romantic engagement session at Crystal Crescent Beach near Halifax, Nova Scotia left me speechless. We had the most perfect light I've ever witnessed in my entire life- and to make matters even better, one of the first things Claire said to me when we met up at the beach was “we have no problem with PDA”. My response? “This is the best day of my life”.

I recently attended an online wedding photography workshop held by @jonaspeterson (one of my biggest inspirations in this industry!). When asked about how his personal experiences interact with his photography work, Jonas responded with some words that struck my soul and haven’t left my mind since the moment I heard them. Now, I might be paraphrasing a bit because I was frantically scribbling notes through teary eyes, but it went something like this:

“The more love you lose and find, the more humble and respectful you are to the love process. Having experience in loss- both in love and in life- allows you to become more humble... more humble and more caring and loving, and taking greater care of relationships. The best advice I can give is to go in and treat people with the care that they didn’t know they deserved.”

This. This right here is what it’s all about. And so I’ll leave it at that, along with some of my favourite images from Claire and Aryam’s engagement session; they exude the very same kind of respect and love and care that I want to carry with me into my own relationships, and I’m constantly grateful for the way their love has changed my life for the better.

Sydney MacLennan