I came home from yoga a couple nights ago to the results of the wedding photojournalist association’s 4th quarterly contest. There was a little treat in there for me.

This morning I woke up to a nice surprise. Junebug Weddings posted their choices for the best of the best wedding photos of 2009 and one of my photos was selected. Also on this list are many photographers that I admire, including the photographers who photographed our wedding, Ben Chrisman and Erin Reed. It is truly an honour to be included on a list with such wonderful names. This shot is from Jane and Roberts wedding on vancouver island in September.

My good friend Ryan was floating around the internet one day, and came across Tea and Whimsy, an england wedding inspiration blog. There she found a photo that she had taken, as well as one that I had taken from Peter and Helen’s wedding last summer. Not long after I got an e-mail from the creator of the blog asking if she could feature Jesse and Ben on her site. Obviously I said yes and I thought i’d post the link for anyone interested in more inspiration from this lovely blog!

The pictures you’re looking at in this post are of one of my closest friends Deb and her dad, Poppa Junks as I like to call him ( i.e. Jim Junkin). Deb is a friend that I could call at 3am for no reason at all. Jim? Is not. I called once at 11:30 and he answered as such: “What the hell are you calling this late for?” He never sugar coated anything for me, and I never did for him. Often Jim and I would yell at one another, fighting over some random moral disagreement… but in the end we would kiss and hug goodbye just like I was apart of his family. Jimmy J is one of the most loving fathers i’ve ever met. He may have been stubborn but he was a teddy bear too, full of love and pride for both his girls. It doesn’t take an expert to know this. Jim was proud of me too… he was very supportive of my work from very early on. He always took the time to tell me how he felt about my photos. He was a little bias though, because at that time all my photos were of his daughter. Jim himself isn’t exactly the easiest person to photograph at first. He certainly won’t smile at you for any extended period of time. So I had to yell at him a lot during this session. It worked of course, and we got some beautiful traditional photos of them together because when Jim actually does smile, its enough to warm your heart for days.

This February, Jim passed away after a long battle with colon cancer. It is impossible to write in this blog all there is to say about him. I will say this (again), he loved his girls. The biggest testiment to Jim is the people he left behind and I can’t say enough about them either. I have so much admiration for each member of the Junkin family, for so many various reasons… most of which boil down to the fact that I just can’t resist being around each one of them. I was able to fly back home for his funeral which was bitter sweet. The service had you laughing through your tears, and you really felt like it did Jim justice. I could talk forever about what my experience was like on this trip home but I don’t think I will at this time. Instead i’m going to get to the point of this blog.

Deb is going to be running for her dad on May 31st in the Colon Cancer Canada 10k marathon in Ontario. Because I live here (Victoria) and it is in the midst of wedding season, I am going to take that day to walk 10k (lets be honest I can’t run 2 minutes let alone 10k) around the island with Tristan instead. If you’d like to support our fake walk, or Deb’s real run here is the link to do so : http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=614295

Deb’s donation goal has been met I believe but it was a small one and i’d like to give her the opportunity for more support. If you can’t donate thats ok too. I’m just putting it out there for those who might have a similar story, and to give the walk/run some more attention. My love to all the Junkins.

I woke up saturday morning to a nice surprise… in the most recent WPJA (wedding photojournalist association) contest a photo from Erin and Tylers wedding this summer won 9th place!