Sam and I want to wish everyone a very merry christmas as you spend time with family and friends this holiday! We will finally be relaxing by the Christmas tree, sipping chai tea by the fire, spending time with our family and visiting with friends, playing in the snow, catching up on all our movies, and eating lots of everything sugary and sweet!

Special thanks to Vivian who sent us these delicious home-made christmas cookies! She is a wonderful woman and mother of bride-to-be, Tracy, whose wedding we will be shooting next June!

Vivian, thank you for your thoughtfulness and making our christmas that much brighter... they are delicious, almost too pretty to eat, but will most certainly be shared because sweets taste better that way! :)

Wishing everyone a happy Christmas!

Much love,
Mary ( & Sam)

Gulp.

This week, Stacy Price and her crew at Marry Me Productions put together a fun night of appreciation for all of us who has worked with her this past year. The swank celebration was held at Lago down at Dow's Lake in their newly renovated reception hall! There was plenty of drinks and good conversation.

The best part of the night was to connect real faces to the names of vendors who had worked from florists, to make up artists, caterers, and even officiants! Although we had tried to mingle and meet everyone, there's always a few we missed this year, so we hope to catch up in the coming year!

Funny, the largest group of us there, was the wedding photographers! It was great to chat with everyone and hang out that night. They are such a warm and fun group of people and we couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of this community of photographers and to share our passions.. and tech talk! haha.

So... if you're wondering who's who, here we are from left to right: Frank Cava, Suzanne, Miv Fournier, Derrick Rice, Stephanie (wife to Andrew V), Moi, Andrew Geddes, Sam, Andrew Van Beek, Ron Zeitlan, and Bonnie Findley .

photo by the lovely assistant from Miv Photography

A special thanks to Stacey and Marry Me Productions, as well as the folks at Lago for hosting this event and your warm hospitality!

Much love,
Mary ( & Sam)

I (Sam) had tons of fun taking these scenes of New York on my recent trip.  This actually brings me back to how I first got hooked on photography... shooting street photos!

Check out these parking garages!!!

The pigeons of NY city and there were a lot of them everywhere!

The infamous Gray's Papaya.

It was cool to be in a place, where people are so proud of their city... I love where I live, but what are the odds of finding an "I love Ottawa" sticker?

From the 31st floor at sunrise... I almost expected Spiderman to be swinging by.

I love this shot!

Taxis were our main mode of transportation.  Since they're everywhere, they're very easy to flag down.

And of course, Times Square!  The lights were so bright at night, it was like walking around in broad daylight.

We stayed two blocks away from the fashion district, so the shopping was wild!

The Empire State Building...Where's King Kong?

You can't beat greasy street pizza... my last meal in New York!  Yum!

My favourite shots and most memorable of the streets of New York. I love the tasty light streaming through the streets and buildings.

Next stop... Cancun, Vegas and maybe Arizona...

Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!

After a canceled flight back and returning home a day later, I (Sam) have finally been able to recuperate from all the hard work at the DQ Quikeys booth, the late night partying and singing karaoke until I lost my voice, and all the friends, old and new, that I was able to meet up with. New York was a blast.

Here are pics of some of the people that made my trip so memorable:

(and some I didn't get a picture of, like meeting Jesh De Rox, Jerry Ghionis, Becker and Jessica Claire, to name a few amazing photographers that I've been honoured to finally meet and chat with.)

Here we are enjoying lunch at Gray's Payaya, a hot dog restaurant and the place to go if you want to grab a quick bite to eat in NY. They had amazing all-natural exotic fruit drinks, but of course that was washed down by their greasy hotdogs!

Mike Dickson, from Photos for Life showing us how to eat a New York hotdog, with onions fried and simmered in ketchup, of course!

The uber-cool and talented, one and only, Dave and Quin from DQ Studios hailing a taxi cab:

My favourite shot of the trip

Here is the gang hanging out on our last night in NY. From Left to Right is Dave Cheung, Jesh de Rox, Jason Leon, and Quin Cheung.

My most memorable night (ironically due to my cancelled flight!) was all of us just sitting with, listening and talking with Jesh about photography, life and love - how all of it flows into one another. It was really scary how it really resonated with all that Mary has been sharing with me over the past year (and she wasn't even there!).

This is me the day after, waiting for my flight and walking the streets of NY on my own.

My friends were long gone and all had flown back to their respective cities. I had realized just then, how lonely New York really was with no money (long story!) and no friends. The city became a different place. I roamed around taking pictures one last time of the city (which we'll post later this week!) and soaking all of it in. The good times, the laughs, the conversations, and now the quiet, but yet bustling dirty streets, the experience of this alone-ness.

Here is a fitting quote I found on my Starbucks cup, as I sat to have my coffee and breakfast.

"The Way I See It #141 I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stumped by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say "Hi." They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word. -- Augusten Burroughs, Author of Running with Scissors."

I think it sums up the city for most of those who live here quite well, whether they know it or not. New York or any where else you live, regardless of how lonely it feels, is really a city full of hope, change and possibilities.