I’ve already ruminated in a previous post about the privileged point of view us photographers have into the lives of others. My story with Katia goes way back to before I considered or realized that photography could be more than just a weekend hobby. We’re talking about first year at the University of Toronto Innis College Residence. Five girls, total strangers, assigned to the same suite simply because (as we later discovered at our first frosh pub night) we had each answered in our questionnaire that we listened to ‘anything but country’. Fifteen years later the roomies (this also includes Heather, another story) still gets together every Christmas and the six of us have added spouses and children and grown to nineteen.

Along with Colin, another photographer they are friends with, I’ve had the pleasure of adding to Katia and Mark’s family visual history. Last time I shot them Perun had just turned one, you can see some of the photos on my old blog. Katia called me to capture some images of the entire Galberg family as they gathered to celebrate their parents 40th wedding anniversary! With an infant, a toddler and a preschooler amongst the group I had to keep the session moving at a whirlwind pace and was almost a bit disappointed when I managed to get all the combinations of people done in 45 minutes! But even then, I was pushing the limits of the kids. As you can see little Odin decided that it was a good time for a nap.