An Oily Day

Yesterday I shot my anti-oil campaign shoot at Sebastian Beach in Lantzville. We started out early at 8am at Rachelle's house. I brought the girls, sorry models, coffees and we sat in the living room painting nails and flipping through past issues of Paris Vogue for inspiration while Rachelle's Great Dane/Lab, Benson, kept us company.

Benson observes the fine art of nail painting.

Then each model took their turn at the makeup chair while Erika swept on blacks and golds across their eyelids and bronzed their pretty cheeks.

Erika does her magic on Shena

Prep time took a little longer than I thought, but then it always does. Every one tried on different outfits to see what would work best on them. It's often difficult to judge what will work when you're piecing through thrift store racks. Sometimes you come across amazing finds and then you say to yourself, "I hope this fits!". I was lucky that each girl wound up wearing what I had originally planned for them.


The whole morning the sun kept intermittently peeking out from behind the clouds. By the time we got to the beach around noon the sun is fully out, but there is wind!

All bundled up!

All the models were so into the shoot. Even little Sam, who had to leave early because she was feeling under the weather, got all made up and sat for a few shots.  What a trooper! 

Teresa, a seasoned surfer, was used to cold waters and didn't hesitate to jump at the opportunity to go in the ocean. Rachelle and Shena both followed suit soon after.

Teresa and Rachelle dunk their heads in to get that beach hair look.

I had fun, the girls had fun. I hope if nothing else people spread the word on what's happening on our coast. I love shooting at the beach and I cannot bear the thought of it covered in actual oil.

Stoppin' the Tankers

Tomorrow I will be shooting on location at Sebastian Beach in Lanztville. I have four lovely models this time three of which have already appeared on my blog, Shena, Teresa and Rachelle and a newbie to the group, Sam. I am very much looking forward to this new shoot. This is probably the first shoot with a concept that is very dear to my heart and also for many of my followers, it is a topic close to home.


It is an anti-oil shoot and more specifically targeted at stopping the proposed pipelines in B.C. One pipeline proposed by the company Enbridge called the Northern Gateway Pipeline would run right through the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C. one of the last completely intact temperate rain forests in the world and home to the endangered Spirit Bear not to mention countless other wildlife. It would run from the tar sands in Alberta to Kitimat, B.C. Once there, super tankers would have to wind their way through a maze of narrow channels and points, at some places making almost ninety-degree turns. All of this plus imagine doing that in the middle of our winter storms! Good luck! In Burnaby, B.C., Kinder Morgan wants to twin their already existing Trans Mountain Pipeline and expand the amount of tankers leaving the Burrard Inlet. Because these super tankers are so big (they are longer than the Eiffel Tour is tall) this would require dredging the harbor, basically scrapping and digging into the bottom of the ocean floor ruining an ecosystem. 


By doing this photo shoot my hope is to spread the word on what is happening on our remarkable coast. I travel a lot and whenever I tell people where I'm from they always say "You are so lucky to live there. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world". Well, I say let's keep it that way!