Portraits | Casey Lessard Photography

Due in two (weeks)

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Casey Lessard • 9 Comments

The countdown is on for our Iqaluit, Nunavut baby

The time is ticking away before Anjhela becomes a mom and I become a dad. These are exciting times for us, and I’m not sure you’re ever ready for the change that comes from becoming a parent.

Anj’s belly is quite big, but she doesn’t look any different from the back, other than the fact that the bump is visible at the sides. Otherwise, it’s sometimes easy to forget she’s pregnant.

Anjhela keeps saying she wants to go into labour now, but I’m going to miss the bump. That said, we’re both looking forward to seeing the person behind it.

People keep asking if we will be having our baby here, which of course we will. Qikiqtani General Hospital is just around the corner, and the doctors take a midwife-style approach to childbirth, saying it’s a natural life event, so they embrace that.

We plan to head to Ontario for vacation at the end of August for four weeks, so hopefully by then our baby will be ready to take her first trip with us, and ready to meet her grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins, as well as our friends.

Becoming a dad is not something I ever thought about, so I hope I am up for the challenge! If you have any advice, please tell me in the comments section below.

P.S. I now have a newsletter notice below, as I plan to update this site quite regularly once the baby comes. If you’d like to stay up to date on what we’re doing, please sign up. I won’t be a pest!

Iqaluit, NU - Anjhela Michielsen at 37 weeks pregnant.

Filed Under: Iqaluit, News, Photos, Portraits

Eight weeks to go

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Casey Lessard • 8 Comments

You may or may not know that Anjhela is pregnant, with our baby due June 4. We’re very excited, but as you can understand, we’ve been occupied for a while with our latest creative endeavour.

Iqaluit, Nunavut - Anjhela at seven months pregnant. A Casey Lessard and Anjhela Michielsen production.

Filed Under: Iqaluit, News, Photos, Portraits

2011 Portrait and Wedding Highlights

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Casey Lessard • 0 Comments

If you are familiar with my work, you will know that I’ve had an eventful year. Most significantly with my photography, I would suggest that my SubFusc project had the most profound influence on the evolution of my style of portraiture, and it certainly also affected my methods when shooting weddings.

I abide by a few rules with respect to my portraiture: shoot RAW, shoot a LOT, and shoot WIDE OPEN. And more than before, look for good natural light.

Here you can see the results of work I did over the past year. Most of these photos were taken with a $500 Canon EF 50mm f1.4 lens I have had for more than a decade. Talk about earning its keep!

What will the next year hold, and what will be my priorities to continue my photographic journey?

Filed Under: Oxford, Photos, Portraits, Weddings

Arthur Wilson survives bullet that grazed his head

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Casey Lessard • 0 Comments

Bullets are coming through the house on NNSL.com

Caught in the crossfire of an early hours firefight Nov. 23, Arthur Wilson could not bear to look at the young man handcuffed and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest as the two shared an ambulance to Qikiqtani General Hospital.

Wilson was relieved to hear from emergency personnel that the bullet that woke him at 3:30 a.m. was not embedded in his head, but had only grazed his scalp.

“I was not very happy with this young fellow,” the 24-year-old said of the person he assumed had almost taken his life. “I heard the paramedic say, ‘Stop yelling,’ because he said the bullet had punctured his lung. ‘You have a bullet hole in your lung, save your energy.’ He was yelling a lot about his hands hurting from the handcuffs.”

Wilson and the suspect ended up in the ambulance together after the RCMP was called to the city’s 100 block for a report of shots being fired. The police arrived to find a male pointing a gun at them. Shots were fired and he fled the scene, a police press release said.

“I woke up with a very sharp pain in my head, like someone hit me over the skull with a baseball bat,” Wilson recalled. “Right after the pain, I heard two gunshots. So I immediately jumped on the ground, ducked for cover, crawled to the back bedroom where my sister and her family is, swung open the door and yelled, ‘Bullets are coming through the house! Get down! Get down!’”

He doesn’t know how many shots were fired or how many came through his house, but said one went through his pillows to graze his head, and another went through the wall two or three feet from his bed.

“As soon as it was over, I saw the blood on my hands and I bled quite a bit,” he said. “The shock started setting in, like, I’m going to die here. I have a bullet in my head. I was pretty scared for my life.”

Iqaluit, NU - Arthur Wilson, 24, had only been in Iqaluit two weeks before he was caught in the crossfire of a firefight

Filed Under: Iqaluit, News/North, Photos, Portraits

The Waters sisters

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Casey Lessard • 0 Comments

Umbilical tie triggers fundraising on NNSL.com

Every little bit helps, and that’s the motto of Donna and Kim Waters, the owners of Iqaluit’s Water’s Edge Seafood and Steakhouse restaurant and Kickin’ Caribou pub. Each Wednesday and Friday, their patrons pay a $2 cover charge to listen to live music, and all of the proceeds go to worthy causes in Nunavut.

“The program is called Ikajuqti Toonies, which means ‘helper toonies,’” Donna said. “A lot of places that have live music have a cover charge. We didn’t really want to charge people to come and listen to the music, but thought ‘wouldn’t it be interesting to charge a small sum that everyone can afford and contribute it to a worthy cause?’”

The definition of a worthy cause is wide open, and the recipients do not need to be registered charities. Among the groups benefiting from the fundraising initiative are the Iqaluit humane society, the women’s shelter and the Iqaluit library. September’s funds went to the Iqaluit group home. Depending on the season, the donation ranges from $1,000 to $1,500, Donna said.

“We need every penny we can get for our daily operations,” said Sheila Levy, executive director of the Kamatsiaqtut help line, which benefited from the program this summer. “The money we get from the government doesn’t even cover our rent, let alone all of the telephone and other costs the help line has. We wouldn’t be able to exist without the support of the community.”

For Donna Waters, who is celebrating her 25th anniversary of living in the North this year, it’s a way to give back to the communities that have meant so much to her and her sister over the years.