Emily

I got a phone call a month ago from a client, Brenda I had  worked with quite a long time ago.  She asked if I did talent headshots as her 16 year old grand daughter,Emily was asking if I could photograph her as she knew of my work from the photos of her dad in both her house and her grandmas.  Brenda told me that it would be fun to have me work with Emily for the nostalgia and all. She also said that Emily likes to straighten her hair.  Even daily  for school.  I asked if I could see a photo of Emily in her natural curls and to my surprise I thought I was looking at a young Vivian Leigh. I asked Brenda if she could convince Emily to challenge herself to come to our shoot with her natural hair and no makeup.  -satisfaction guaranteed.  This is what we came up with. Btw, Emily was such a delight to work with!

Strathcona Fire

I’ve been keeping an eye on this beautiful tree since autumn started.
God lit it for me to share it with you today

enjoy!

4th Annual Strathcona Harvest Festival

 

About the Harvest Festival Vision [ http://strathconaevents.ca/ ]

The Harvest Festival is a multi cultural, all ages, free community celebration where everyone can join in the festivities, sing and dance to the music of local talent, play some good old fashioned games, enjoy feasting and spend a fun filled afternoon with old acquaintances while having the chance to make some new ones. Having a sense of community in this big city is just as important for those who have lived here for years, as it is for any one who has just arrived in this neighbourhood or this country. The Strathcona Harvest Festival is organized by several families, friends, local businesses & organizations and in this way many people of all ages, backgrounds and interests are contributing to the building and celebration of our diverse community.

This year we would like to focus on Food Security and help feed our community, encourage healthy living and honour the Earth that provides for us. We will be raising funds to support the many food programs at the Strathcona Community Centre where many infants, children, youth, families and seniors are fed everyday.

See more fotos:  www.jonathancruz.com/clients/StratHarvest2011

Sidney

When we first moved into Strathcona, we were very excited to find that we had a little neighbor the same age as our  Sofia . It took them two summers to truly hit it off as amazing friends. It is beautiful to watch as they mature from toddlers to beautiful little girls and now both big sisters. Even though they are alike in many ways, and love to do similar things, they are different in very complimentary ways. We are looking forward to watching them grow and learn through many more years of friendship.

Winteruption In Vancouver Feb 2011

So much for getting away from the nasty weather predicted before winter started here in Vancouver. As of Saturday morning the snow came and by the evening Vancouver became a winter wonderland. It’s the snow we never got to see during the 2010 winter Olympics just a year ago. What to do ‘when life deals us lemons…’?
I had a shoot that evening with the lovely Shannon Heth and George Vergette  as they celebrated their wedding at the beautiful GreyChurch/Gallery on Fraser and Kingsway. I managed to talk Shannon into going outside to brave the elements for a few snaps. Here is one of them

The lovebirds headed south to Turks & Caicos to miss the rest of this. too bad for them! 😉
My buddy Dan had joined me and the first video above was shot on the way home from the reception, [with a little short cut through South Granville]. As Dan drove his jeep through the snow and I with the 5D[Dan has done these time laps vids before without another hand to man the camera]. I shot a frame each time the windshield wiper swept by. We used the moving wiper blade as our makeshift intervolometer and shot as we drove all the home. – so that’s why my arms were so sore the next day!

The Following morning Sofia woke early but i was actually excited to see how much the snow had fallen. by 7am Sofia and I were outside to make fresh tracks and to get the first snow man up before the rest of the neighbors got out to play…

By the next morning it most of it had melted away. -i kinda miss it.

How to Make a butterfly: Sofia’s Crafts for kids intsructional video #001

 

One of our regular morning routines, is “craft time”. After watching some you tube videos on how to make some simple crafts, we have mostly done the ever loved butterflies. For months we have been perfecting them, each of them made with care and love. Most of these butterflies have been given to loved ones as cards or just a special gift. Some have been made to keep forever. Sofia now is able to share her lovely morning glory with others who might want to give it a try. Hope you enjoy her first instructional video.  shot  on  iphone.

Let us know how your butterflies turn out!!!

Sofia, the craft kid and papa day today.

 

It’s 7am. Gab’s off to work and Sofia just woke up saying “Papa color with me?”
she loves doing crafts all day. and yes, she sings like that all day and night long.

– I love it

Sweet Daze and a camera to help me remember

Gratitude:
I’m grateful for my home.
I’m grateful for my family.
I am so grateful for the life i have…
I’m grateful for having a camera and an ability to document such things.

Strathcona Sleet Puddles

She sang and sang,  ♪♫ I Love Puddles!♪♫

Thursday Morning Rain

Thursday Morning rain.

I was disappointed that it was raining so hard this morning as I headed to the car to drive my wife to work at 6:45am. After dropping her off, I decided to stop by my favorite coffee shop on the way to the studio. I’m usually the only customer there at that time of the day. It was so cold and wet out there and it felt great to see Stephan’s smiling face with the standard question, “Coffee?” I sat down and Stephan brought my coffee and added a little plate of Christmas cookies saying, “You’re looking like you’ve lost weight Jonathan”; a big smile was on his face. A young man looking a bit rough and jittery suddenly walked in and began talking to Stephan. I’m not sure why, by probably due to my car being recently broken into, all I could think of was “did I lock my car?” I sure had the wrong impression. I then heard him asking Stephan if he could call someone to help a woman in a parking lot 2 blocks away on Cordova and Abbott St. He said hates to be the one to have to do this but she needs help and she refused help from him when he offered it. He then said, “I just can’t leave her there like that”, he explained, telling us that he found this woman lying on her face on the wet parking lot with barely a shirt on to keep her warm… As he spoke I noticed that he himself was wearing merely a wet hoodie, definitely not enough to be warm. As Stephan talked on the phone with emergency, describing where the parking lot was, the guy spoke out and said “tell them I’ll go back there and wait so that it will be easier to find her”, and off he went. I looked outside to see the guy grab his loaded shopping cart, turn it around and hobble down the middle of the street with a limp I hadn’t originally noticed.
He went off into the cold wet rain and I suddenly became overwhelmed with his kindness towards the woman. I could still hear his voice in my head saying that he just could not leave her out there like that… In a rush, I grabbed a hot chocolate and some cookies and headed to find the man. As I passed the intersection on Abbott I could see him with his shopping cart on the dark sidewalk beside the Army and Navy parking lot. The ambulance had arrived and was taking care of the woman. I pulled up as close as I could to the shopping cart and came out with the hot chocolate and I gave it to the man along with the cookies I had wrapped up. I told him that I thought it was great of him to do this and asked him for his name. “Josh” he said, and I had to shake his hand. I went back into the car and the photographer in me saw the great silhouette of Josh standing in the rain with the ambulance lights glowing and flashing as his background. The camera was well within my reach but I just couldn’t dishonor the moment with the feeling of gratitude I had having met Josh. As he looked back at me, giving me a thumbs up, [‘click’, I thought] I put my thumb up right back at Josh and drove off. Crying my eyes out as I drove back to my studio. I felt so grateful that I have a warm bed to sleep in and a family who loves me.

I will forever remember this image of Josh standing on the dark street on such a miserably, cold and rainy morning. A reminder that we are all so capable of helping one another, or at least stopping for a moment to be grateful for what we have.