A Vancouver Island Adventure Engagement Session

Fossli Park, Port Alberni

Vancouver Island Adventure and Elopement Wedding Photographer

These two recently moved back to Vancouver Island from Alberta, and were quite happy to take up my suggestion of photographing their engagement session in one of our beautiful Vancouver Island parks. I asked them if they’d like a more adventurous engagement session, taking them to a beautiful maple forest in Port Alberni via logging roads. They had never heard of Fossli Park before, but trusted me and said yes! The day turned out to be a typical West Coast spring day; drizzly but not frostbite cold with random bursts of sunlight. We embraced it. These two will take rain over snow any day!

Our adventurous Vancouver Island engagement session took us through a second growth maple forest, with a waterfall, creek, suspension bridge, fields of ferns, and of course the lake at the end of the thirty minute trail. Fossli Park is a 130 acre park located in Port Alberni on the Stirling Arm of Sproat Lake. It was generously donated to BC Parks by Helen and Armour Ford. The original owner of the property, Mr. Faber named the park Fossli after a village in Eidfjord, Norway. The Norweigian translation of this word means, “waterfall in the valley.” It’s almost surreal-looking, with moss covering every inch of available rock and maple trunk, ferns growing wherever your eyes swept, foliage reaching for sunlight out of every nook and cranny. We were especially captivated by the mammoth maple tree; it towers into the sky with an incredibly thick trunk and branches that could pass as trees themselves. This tree is blanketed in a thick moss adorned in ferns, it is definitely a site to see. I dub her, “Mother Maple.”

Using prompts and little games, they became quite comfortable in front of my lens and were able to focus on each other and the moment. I love using these prompts during my engagement sessions as it really opens them up, allowing me to understand and know the couple better. The better I know you, the greater I will capture your wedding through your eyes. Thank you for trusting me with this adventure session, I look forward to capturing their spring wedding! :)