Years and years ago in high school, a few friends of mine saw a picture of Brooklyn on Facebook - actually, they thought it was me. We all crowded around the computer and clicked between her few tagged photos and looked back and forth between me and her. Back then, Brooklyn had darker/red kind of hair and at first glance it was somewhat unnerving because we looked so alike. I've thought about Brooklyn every once in a while since then, always wondering what it would be like to meet someone who looked similar to me - and one day when she showed up in my explore page on Instagram, I knew that I had to start following her. In fact, I took it one step further.

About a year ago I messaged Brooklyn on Instagram, laughing basically saying "I hope this isn't creepy, but me and you look so similar we could be twins". It probably was pretty creepy, but luckily Brooklyn laughed along with me. When she started her blog and was working on her social media a few months back, I offered to get together and take some photos.

The day that we had planned for our shoot and finally crept up, and of course it was pouring. And I mean absolutely pouring. Brooklyn had a beautiful flower crown by Floralista and pearl earrings and sandals and it was January and all we could really do was laugh. She had driven all the way from Aldergrove, gotten her hair and makeup done, and now found herself in Vancouver, in the pouring rain, with me, so there was no way we were just going to cancel and go shopping or something. Nope. This photoshoot was happening. If we got soaked, so be it.

So we laughed and talked our whole way to Lighthouse Park - and incredibly enough, the rain stopped. We got out of the car into sunshine and all we could do was look at each other and go "HOW is it not raining"... There was even sun. We climbed over rocks and joked around and got lost in the woods - but came out with beautiful images and a load of awe that we got so lucky that it stopped raining. Our day ended with us grabbing some dinner and trying to take some selfies where we looked the same to prove our twin-ness (stay tuned to the end for one!). It was so cool to start the day off strangers and end as friends.

It had turned out to be such a fun day of connection, laughs, and crazily enough the beginning of a friendship. Social media like Instagram is such an amazing platform and I'm thankful that Brooklyn laughed along with me the day that I suggested to her that we look alike. When we met I knew that we were kindred spirits - there was such an ease of conversation and of similar views and goals. It felt crazy to me that we had never met before even though we had grown up with mutual friends and in the same hometown. Brooklyn is someone that is going to accomplish great things in her life - there's a spark and a drive and a passion for life that is so present. She's also absolutely hilarious and every time we've hung out since then she's reduced me to tears (hysterical laughing tears that is). She's definitely going places and I'm thrilled that I was able to photograph her now, and hopefully as she progresses throughout her career.

I love these images I took of Brooklyn. You can visit her blog here and read her version of this day here. Enjoy!