Destiny's Child

I have always loved flowers.  My grandparents on my father's side were avid gardeners, and Summers in Vancouver, were filled with roses, peonies, dahlias, and sweet peas.  For my fifth birthday, Grandma baked one of her homemade cakes, iced it with yellow icing, and decorated it with yellow roses from the garden.  My mother hand embroidered our Summer blouses with "belles petite fleurs" of pink, yellow and white.       

I took my first photograph when I was five, and promptly dropped the camera!  Nearly a decade later, when high school friends were going on a mountain hike, my father gave me his camera, along with carefully hand printed, detailed notes on lighting and exposure settings.  Teaching me photography, was an everlasting gift.

Yesterday, I discovered old black and white photographs of myself as a still in diapers toddler, exploring my grandparents garden.  I vaguely remembered one of the photographs of me, captivated by the beauty and fragrance of a lush peony.  Up until then, I had spent my entire life in Quebec and Newfoundland, surrounded by snow and granite.  The Canadian West coast was paradise! 

 

I took the photographs to my friend, Nick Cassinath, of Northern Artists (he's been printing my photographs for years).  We both laughingly agreed, that I was destined to be a floral photographer!  It's what he saw in the next photo, that brought me to tears...

 

As Nick was removing the dark shadows in the photo, he said, "Look what you're carrying!  Is that a camera?!"  Out of the shadows, my Dad's old camera emerged.  Destiny's Child.