Last winter I received an email from Sarah from Australia about extended family photos. Sarah, her husband and their two daughters were flying all the way to Vancouver to spend time with her husband’s family for Christmas! We planned their session date for a weekday afternoon in Langley, but as the date approached, the weather forecast quickly turned ominous. The snow kept falling… and falling… and the temperature kept getting colder and colder. With the windchill, the temperature was hitting lows of -10 Celsius, extremely rare for Greater Vancouver.

We were unsure how to proceed with the insane weather; weather this cold is not easy for grandparents or young kids or big groups in general! In the end, we made a game-day call to move the session to Sarah’s in-law’s townhouse complex. The beauty of the snow is that it makes even “ordinary” locations look magical. This way, we were close to the townhouse complex’s clubhouse to run back in in between shots to warm up. The clubhouse also had the added benefit of blocking the wind, which kept the temperature more around the 0 degree Celsius mark. (An improvement over -10!)

The drive was absolutely crazy to get to Langley from Vancouver, but I just took it slow on back roads… and it all worked out! I was so so happy to capture this family all together for the first time in a few years. Proof that you can create stunning family photos in any season… you just gotta roll with the punches. :)