The Short Version.
I strive to make getting portraits easy and relaxed without sacrificing genuine connection to each other, and to this beautiful place of Vancouver Island. I believe your story and life is worthy - worthy of being seen, photographed, captured, and remembered. You were here. This matters. It can be a milestone moment, or an everyday legacy. And whether it’s finding the love of your life, a family you have created, a life you are growing, or just because being alive is a wild ride …. lo and behold, you have found what you were looking for. And that’s a story worth telling.
The Long Version.
Oh hey! I'm Kate. I am a lot of things but when it comes to photography, my home is making genuine, connected portraits that also reflect this beautiful place of Vancouver Island. Moving to the island opened my eyes to the natural beauty and wonder here. Between being married and having a kid, I can’t help but correlate this beautiful place to some of the best moments of my life. As such I feel compelled to help couples and families find that same sense of awe - about life, about this island, about each other.
I am a BC girl, born and raised on the North Shore of Vancouver. I graduated university with a BFA in non-fiction creative writing; my call to storytelling started young. The day a camera fell into my hands everything clicked. That was 2010. I was shooting weddings by 2011, off doing photojournalism around the world by 2012, and sponsored by Sony Canada by 2015.
That means alongside local wedding work, I am a recognized travel photographer and photojournalist, circling the globe many times over. I’ve worked with NGOs, tourism boards, and magazines. I run a philanthropist photo organization called The Giving Lens that literally is making the world better by means of photography. I shoot with some of the best gear in the world thanks to Sony, and I do it all in hopes of making the world a better place by highlighting human connections - whether that’s on the dusty freshly minted married couple on top of Pkols.
I've laid under a blanket of stars in the Jordan desert at 3am, watched the sun rise and set on Machu Pichu, stood elbow to elbow at Angkor Wat, bathed with an elephant in Thailand, lived with the Masai in Tanzania (on 3 different occasions!), ended up in a prison in Mozambique (it's not what you think), danced til dawn in Cuba, sipped rum on a private island in the Philippines, celebrated a 5 day berber wedding in the Sahara, had a few too many mezcal margs in Oaxaca, and I've lived in Morocco, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, and Mexico.
But.
My biggest journeys of all is meeting and marrying my person, Peter, and making a family together with our kids, first with our wild girl Finley and then more recently, sweet chill Liam. Lo and behold, they are my greatest adventure. The north point on my compass. Peter is my home, my shelter from any storm. My kids are my fire, bringing warmth and light.
So while you might think it’s strange a travel photographer is here offering to take your wedding photos, the strange and wild adventures of falling in love, marriage, pregnancy, and building a family speak to me on a whole other - but similar - level as that of any journey. And I aim to do it in a way that reflects not just how it looks but how it felt. I want to capture your legacy. I may take cool trips around the world but the greatest journeys don’t involve passports and airplanes. The greatest journeys are right next to us, holding our hand, saying “let’s do this.”
Meet the Your (?) Photographer
Together since 2004 with a phenomenal human named Peter. We met working at summer camp (insert cringe). He had mutton-chop sideburns and I wore fingerless gloves, we listened to Dashboard Confessional and Death Cab for Cutie and thought Alexander Keiths was really fancy beer - but we made it work anyway it seems.
I began traveling in 2005 and never stopped. I picked up a camera in 2010 and by 2012 I was leading travel photography tours around the world and working alongside NGOs to document their struggles, staff, and stories.
For 5 years I worked for a travel magazine, rising to be their lead photo editor. That means I single-handedly oversaw all the photo essays we published - this means your wedding images will be expertly curated with variety, details, movement and action, connection, and depth and won’t be a just set of individually great photos, but photos that work together unfold the story.
In 2016 Peter and I added a daughter to our adventure, Finley Aoife. She’s hilarious and weird and wild and loud and we wouldn’t have it any other way. In 2022, we added wee Liam Padhriac to what Finley has dubbed “The Wolfpack” - we’re still figuring him out but if I had to summarize: he’s suuuuper chill.
I started to really focus on local wedding and portrait work when I had Finley, knowing that I had these skills to share, stories I wanted to tell, and a really good reason to stay put. I still travel, but less often (and for longer lengths).
Things I adore: really really really good coffee, craft beer, patios, campfires, road trips, golden hour, starry skies, the smell of a damp forest, the sound of pebbles rolling in the tide, laughing so hard I can’t breathe, anything and everything that feels like community, Schitt’s Creek, sweatpants.
Unusual things I have eaten on the road (vegans, avert your eyes): tarantula, snake, crickets, balut, guinea pig, and a big mug of warm goat blood chai.
I believe photography can change the world, and I live that out daily via The Giving Lens. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve watched a child’s face come to life taking a photo, and watch mothers and fathers blush looking at a portrait of themselves. There is a universal language to visual things. If I say nothing else with my work before I die, I want to say: You matter. Your story matters. You were here. You are worthy.
I teach! I teach travel photography online through different outlets and I offer in person mentoring. I even do bootcamps for new moms. I love to teach, it’s a huge part of who I am to empower other people.
Favourite destinations include: Zanzibar, Marrakesh, Oaxaca, Lisbon, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Havana, Palawan, Cape Town, Jodhpur, and Tofino.
Featured on and Worked With:
I am a passionate, creative, empathetic, pretty funny (I think?), and committed to telling stories honestly, genuinely, and beautifully. I pull from my experience as a photojournalist to capture details and candid moments authentically; I also pull from my desires (and hesitations) as a mother and wife to have a few “curated” moments that looks as beautiful as they felt. So I know that important balance between posing assistance and authentic moments - slightly staged but not stiff, flattering but not forced, curated to look your best but still look like yourself.
If all this sounds like a good fit with you and your hopes for your next (or first!) photo session, then we should talk!
