Category Archives: Personal

Singapore Recap – International Lifestyle Photographer

Hi everyone,

We’re on a plane over Australia, and although this won’t be posted until we’re down on the ground again, I thought I’d write anyway, and give you a quick overview of our trip so far.

I’m looking out the window and I see clear blue water and red soil of the land down under, and it’s only hitting me now that I’ll be in Australia in a few hours. Australia always seemed like such a far-away land, and all it had was kangaroos and some funny looking people who now live n Whistler and speak with a strange accent, hehe. But now that I’m married to an Aussie and I’m flying over this distant land, it’s finally hitting me that there’s more to it than kangaroos and Whistler lifties! I can’t wait to explore Perth, meet some real Aussies, eat the famous Australian pies and perhaps get myself some comfy Uggs   :)

But let’s go back a few days and I will tell you all about my impressions of SIngapore. I’m not the most cultured person I know, all I’ve ever seen was  the snowy winters of Siberia, cool summers of the Altai mountains, all of Vancouver and Whistler, a little bit of Mexico and a few months of Europe, oh and the resorts of Cuba. So Asia was and still is a foreign land to me. Singapore was definitely not what I expected, and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at every corner   ;)

Did you know that they drive on the wrong side of the road? I didn’t. I thought it was only those who spoke English with an accent drove on the wrong side, but as it turns out Singapore’s main language is English, and they do speak it a little funny, thus it was only logical they drove on the left side.

It’s also interesting to note that it’s always summer dress season there! Can you imagine the life without sweaters, boots and winter coats? The only bad thing is that you’re always, and I do mean always, sweaty there! Not sure that I could ever get used to it or adapt to it, but I don’t think I’m cut out for living in the tropics, the humidity would kill me. You sure do begin to really appreciated air conditioned air. The one cool thing that tropical countries like SIngapore have is lots, and lots of green trees, namely palm trees. I love walking down the street and being shaded by green giants, although the shade does nothing to cool the hot air.

Something else interesting to note is that they eat a lot! They eat 6 small means throughout the day, the food is cheap and abundant. There are small food courts all over the place. We ate all the different asian varieties of chicken, duck, pork and seafood, but if you’re a clean freak, you might find it hard eating anything in singapore. First and foremost they don’t give any napkins anywhere, unless you’re in a fancy restaurant. You gotta carry your own kleenex and wetones. But all in all, I had a great time experiencing a little bit of the  culture in Singapore. I’ve got lots more to say about it, like their awesome parking systems, monkeys as city dwellers, nannies and their metro system. But I’ll save that for anyone who is actually interested and wants to hear about it. I’ll tell you all about if you ask   :)

Now, here’s the part where we go sightseeing: their markets are busy, their zoo is awesome, and their orchid gardens are magnificent. Here’s a quick photo to tie you over, we will have a slideshow of our adventures up very soon!

~Lena

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Women’s Curling – Vancouver 2010 Olympics – Vancouver Lifestyle Photographer

Hey guys, this Sunday’s post is a little late, but we had a very busy weekend watching the games! Most of the world is probably aware that 2010 Winter Olympics are in town, and if you don’t, you’re definitely hiding under a rock. Vancouver and Whistler are doing an amazing job hosting the world, everyone local is in Canadian spirit, and everyone visiting is displaying their country colours proudly. The streets are packed with people, and everyone seems to be having an awesome time.

We totally got into the Olympic spirit and got ourselves some sweet hockey jerseys. Jason (even though not Canadian just yet) is wearing his team Canada jersey proudly; whereas I’m the opposite, although I’m no longer Russian by nationality, I’m wearing my Russian jersey and totally cheering back a big “YEAHHHHH!!!” when people on the streets yell out “GOOOO RUSSIA!!!” Although it’s not cool when someone looks at your jersey and says, “You’re from Poland?” People, learn your flags!

So anyways, we scored some tickets to the women’s curling event, and although we had no idea initially what curling was all about, we learned quickly while watching the ladies hit each other’s rocks. It’s quite an exciting game once you get how it works, and we got pretty intense cheering on Canada, and Japan! hehe Japanese girls are just so cute, and it didn’t help that they were right in front of us battling against USA. Japan prevailed over the USA!! The last 2 rocks were soo close they had to bring out a special measuring device, the few minutes they were doing that the whole crowd was so quiet waiting for the results, and everyone cheered for team Japan!! To sum up, we had an AWESOME time!

Here are some photos for your enjoyment!

~Lena

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Going Crazy – Vancouver Lifestyle Photographer

Hey guys, week #7 of 2010, so here’s a blog post #7!

Jason switched over to the dark side, but he’s loving it! I’m actually going to let him do a review of his new camera gear since I’m not the techy one; however, I will say this, that Nikon D3s is sexy! It’s got sooo many buttons, so many features, so many options, it’s crazy! Hence when we went for a little walk to test it out, we went a little crazy, and here’s the proof.

Here’s a sneak peak of Jason’s new baby!

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Graeme’s Birthday – Vancouver Portrait Photographer

Blog post #4, 4th week of January and it was a sunny one! It was also our good friend Graeme’s birthday week, and he wanted to celebrate it doing something outdoorsy with his little family and good friends, followed by a quiet party at home filled with lotsa beers   ;)

We had grand plans to go snowshowing, since it is winter and all and there’s supposed to be snow on the mountains. But we were quite disappointed when we called the local mountains to inquire about snow conditions. There were no conditions, cause there was no snow! hehe I’m just quietly laughing to myself about the snow situation, Winter Olympics are about to start and we have spring temperatures and a bunch of mud on the mountains. Oh well, not my problem really.

Back to our grand plans, we decided that it’d be just as fun to gather up the car full of animals and head to Buntzen Lake for a short little hike. There car was filled with 8 legs, 5 lunches (one extra for good measures), a bunch of water bottles, 12 paws and 3 wagging tails!

First we let the dogs loose in the gated park at the lake, Razor being a crazy water dog swam circles in the water just for fun, he also learned a few new games from a few rambunctious dogs. Gina was going a little nuts trying to get me to throw rocks for her in the water. And Altai being the most mellow out of all the dogs just wandered around and said Hi to all the dogs.

Then we hiked to the other side of the lake, and this is where all the real fun began! Jelena and Graeme had a bright idea to try to make Razor jump off the dock into the water. Poor Razor didn’t know what he was in for! This is how it all went down:

1. Get Razor excited about fetching a stick.

2. Make Razor run after the stick without realizing that there’s an edge to the dock!

3. Laugh really hard once Razor falls in! (Check out Jelena’s head-roll-from-laughing-too-hard!)

4. Poor Razor didn’t know what hit him, and he frantically tries to get back onto the dock. And of course he’s got no leverage, so Jelena goes in for the save, falls on her butt in the process, and gets totally soaked!

After all that, it apparently wasn’t enough, so Graeme goes for attempt #2. But this time Razor isn’t that stupid, and he stops in time to just look at the stick and totally ignore it.

After all the water fun is over, Altai and I play a little tug-of-war. That little bugger is super strong, look at him snapping those twigs!   ;)

Razor joins in the fun! I’ve got nothing against 3 dogs, they beat me pretty quickly.

This concludes our fun on the beach! We headed off back to the car, and we were all pooped! The dogs slept like little babies on the way back home, and we had a nice little nap when we got home too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAEME, hope you enjoyed hanging out with us!

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Visit to Montreal – Vancouver Lifestyle Photographer

Week # 3 of 2010! And here’s a little blurb about one of Canada’s french-speaking cities, Montreal.

I got a chance to fly almost all the way across Canada this past week and experience a different side of our beautiful country. I’m used to being in different countries and hearing different languages, so being surrounded by French wasn’t anything new or exciting, but halfway between the airport and my hotel it really hit me. And that it was that I was still in the same old Canada, yet the everyday usual English was suddenly replaced by  French taxi drivers listening to French radio. It was such a strange feeling!! Anyone else have the same sort of experience?

I was visiting Montreal for work, so most of my days were occupied with meetings, but when the night feel, I got bundled up and went out exploring streets of Old Montreal. It was soo different to what we’re used to here in Vancouver. 3 out of 5 restaurants we walked by were closed on a Wednesday evening at 8pm. That would NEVER happen in Vancouver.

The cobble stone streets were dark, with only the street lights and left over Christmas lights giving off any kind of light; I really pushed my camera ISO capabilities to it’s limits. Here are a few shots of  the Notre-Dame Basilica, it’s not as big as the one in Paris, but it’s still very beautiful inside and out!!

I got a few hours of daylight to explore the city as well, and we headed off through the streets of Montreal towards Mount Royal. Somewhere in the foothills of Mount Royal within the beautiful old buildings of McGill University we took the wrong turn and ended up on a snowy path. All we knew that up was the way to go, so off we trekked in the true Siberian Explorer’s style up the mountain along an unidentified snowy path.

We found a bunch of good ol’ grey squirrels and it reminded me of our dear old Stanley Park. I tricked this little guy in believing I had something in my hand to give to him so he’d come closer. Unfortunately we weren’t prepared for squirrels and had absolutely no food with us, not even bread crumbs  :(  Sorry little squirrel for tricking you, but you make an awesome model!!

Upon finally arriving at the Chalet du Mont Royal we were greeted by this magnificent view of Montreal! It’s a beautiful mixture of the old buildings, picturesque churches, and modern glass buildings.

And here’s the last photo of the bunch, this statue in front of the funky glass building was a little creepy!! It was all good in the front, but when you go to check out the rear end of this group of people, there’s some serious strange nudity! The statue is called the “Illuminated Crowd” and it’s a must see if you’re ever in Montreal  ;)

Montreal was beautiful, but I’m glad to be back home, I really do love Vancouver!!

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