Based in Ottawa, Ontario, Colleen Anne Johnson creates wedding photos that convey emotion and capture the moments between the couple and with their family and friends on the wedding day. While her focus is primarily on reportage, Colleen also supports these images with natural portraits and thoughtful images of wedding details. Her quiet and calm demeanour help put her clients at ease during their big day. She approaches each wedding with a profound respect for the cultural traditions both new and old that are a part of this special day as well as for the emotional significance the event holds not just for the couple but for all the family and guests in attendance. Colleen Anne Johnson is the lead photographer and owner of Colleen Anne Photography. She began photographing weddings professionally in 2005 and is an active member of the Wedding Photojournalist Association. Her photographs have been published in the Globe and Mail, BeerAdvocate magazine, and in Photo Life Magazine. Her wedding work has been featured on Offbeat Bride. Colleen's artwork has been exhibited at the Canada Council Art Bank; The G2 Gallery in Venice, California; the Canadian Museum of Civilization and Ottawa City Hall. Colleen studied black and white fine art photography at the Ottawa School of Art and, in 2005, she earned a Photography Diploma from Algonquin College, graduating with honours. Colleen has also earned an Honours Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Carleton University, where she studied art history and film, which continue to inform her photographic works today. [Ottawa Wedding Photographer]

If you told me ten years ago that I'd be a wedding photographer today, I would have drawn a blank face. You see, ten years ago, I was knee-deep in academia. I was a researcher, studying parenting. I was having babies (three). I was moving from Toronto to Kingston then to the Netherlands to pursue said studies... All my life I've loved to draw, to write fiction, and to make music. But I tried to put those things aside when I turned 18 because it was the 'sensible' thing to do. I got a BSc and an MSc and a PhD. With every extra letter, my soul died a little bit more. That all changed in late 2015 when I photographed my friend's baby being born. For money. The same amount of money I had to pay the university monthly just so I could use their crappy little office space and feel alone. It was the birth of an idea. Five years later, I'm happily knee-deep in photography (sometimes literally wading through water or mud to do the stuff I do). My kids are older now, which means I can take more time away from home, to develop my career, attend workshops, retreats, and faraway weddings. Without trying to be cliche, wedding photography energizes me. I look forward to Saturdays and Sundays because I know that I'll be dead the next day, but in a good way. Because I give it my ALL. I relish the 'wedding hangover'. Crazy? I dunno. I take inspiration in photography, not from other wedding photographers. While there are a lot of brilliant photographers in this field, it's also full of trends and fads. It's nothing I want to be involved in. My favourite photographers of all time include Storm Thorgerson, Max Pinckers, Alain Laboile, Richard Billingham, and Elinor Carucci (whom I've been mentored by). Next year, I hope to be mentored by David Allan Harvey, who is another idol of mine. I believe that all people are beautiful and have become a sap in my older years (I'm 38). Maybe I've always been a sap. I get super emo while photographing weddings, and not always at the parts that you might expect. I love to see families rallying around the couple, helping them, sharing tenderness and love. This is why I love to photograph the getting ready & the dance party. I feel people are at their most genuine and care-free state during those parts of the day. [Kingston Wedding Photographer]