A September Day with Dahlias

Hello friends,

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians and bring on the pumpkin pie!

Today I wanted to share some photos that I took when I attended “A Day With Dahlias” styling workshop a few weeks back, which was hosted by an amazing local photographer, Tracey Ayton.

photo from House and Home website

I have been following Tracey for years and am a big fan of her work. She is an interior, food and lifestyle photographer and her work is often featured in Style at Home magazine, which is one of my favourite publications. Her own home was recently on the cover of House and Home magazine and it is a modern farmhouse dream come true! If you want to peek at the gorgeous photos from that feature, you can click here. I could go on and on about how talented Tracey is, and about how much I love her work, but let me just tell you, girlfriend has serious skills. You can link to her website here and check out her amazing portfolio.

source Tracey Ayton Photography, kitchen by Karla Amadatsu Design

When I found out that Tracey was going to be hosting a photography and styling workshop, I swear my heart skipped a beat. When I read that the workshop was to take place, first on a farm full of dahlia’s and then at her home  (ya, the beautiful one that, did I mention, was on the cover of House and Home mag a few months ago?) I may have swooned. I mean come on, a Dahlia farm followed by Tracey’s house? It was almost too much for me to handle and I couldn’t register fast enough!

Today I want to share some of the photos that I took with you, but there are A LOT, so in this post I am going to focus on the pictures I took at the farm ( and then I can share part 2 in a subsequent post).

We all met at Schoolhouse Farm in Delta, which is such an amazing little place and I highly recommend dropping in and checking it out. They are actually having a Fall Festival now through Halloween that sounds super cute!

Click here for their website.

The weather did not cooperate on the day of the workshop, which is a bit of a bummer. It was pouring rain pretty much the whole time we were there.

While this posed a it of a challenge in terms of keeping ourselves and our cameras dry, there were a few benefits. The first of which was the lighting… it was actually kind of perfect. One of the first things I learned about photography is the importance of lighting, and that taking photos in bright sunlight is not ideal. Bright yet overcast skies actually provide amazing lighting for photography and I love the way my photos turned out! Here are some shots from in the fields:

One of the coolest outcomes from an artistic point of view, is that you can actually see drops of rain on the flowers, which I think is beautiful.

I absolutely loved the farm and felt really inspired by the whole landscape. Everything from the chicken coup, to the large willow trees to the rows of flowers and vegetables…it was all so beautiful!

The rustic little building had a seating area on one side and a little market on the other, and again, made me feel inspired to snap tons of photos!

The market was adorable and I ended up buying some mini pumpkins, squash and flowers as well as a giant watermelon.

With the exception of the watermelon, I had fun creating some vignettes and styling the items I bought at home and then taking some photos. These mini pumpkins look so cute on my counter and they have been here ever since.

I am so grateful for this workshop and for the opportunity to practice something that I am so passionate about. Being able to meet Tracey was just the coolest. It can be intimidating to meet someone that you greatly admire, but she was lovely, kind and funny. What’s more, she was so open to sharing her knowledge and was eager to help all of us with our particular questions and challenges. I aspire to master her photography asthetic so this workshop was invaluable to me.  The other ladies that attended the workshop were also lovely and it was so nice being surrounded by such amazing creative energy. I know for me personally, it is so very important to feed the creative part of my soul and when I do, it feels so darn good.

With 3 kids and 2 dogs, I struggle to take care of this part of myself and it can be hard settling into my creativity when I always feel like I am racing the clock. But when I am styling vignettes, taking photos and editing them, I loose track of time for a bit and get lost in doing something that makes me feel alive. 

Whatever it is that you love doing, whether it’s physical or creative, figure out the activity/hobby that makes YOU loose track of time, and do more of it! Take care of yourself and choose joy friends!

Thanks so much for reading,

xo, Kerri