Meet Dallas - Dallas Olga Photography

Meet

Dallas

You wanna know about me?

I'm putting all the cards on the table & being 100% honest about myself.

My life and my work, because I expect the same honest to document truthfully

My life is an open book...Chapter 4 comes highly recommended

BEfore we get too deep

LEts start with some humor & facts of life

I am notoriously the worst dressed person in the room

I have ZERO fashion sense. like at all, my clothes are all hand me downs from friends or souvenirs from trips. I own 2 pairs of shoes, one winter pair of rubber boots & summer wedding shoes- and by the end of the year they are so wore out from walking that your can see my feet bursting out the sides. If I'm not at a wedding, I remain barefoot. because I am actually a hobbit....That would explain my absolute obsession with food, round doorways and walking long distances to deliver rings.

01

I'm a brick shit house of a hobbit.

I eat....A lot.

But I also do a lot of farm work

All that farm work, lumber jacking and hiking has left me not with a toned body, but internal muscles coated with a soft protective layer of what I like to call fluff. Couple that with 5,4 height causing a low center of gravity...Makes me basically like the strongest hobbit you've ever met.

- no that's not a bikini- its my underwear- because when we stumble upon the ocean, bathing suit or not, I'm going swimming. And I'll probably make my friends go too.

02

Im actually a Goat whisperer

OK actually an animal whisperer in general. This all started when I was 6 years old crawling across the farm buck naked leading the kittens and chickens around.

Now that I'm all grown up, I wear clothes often enough and have goats, chickens, cows, cats and a dog to lead around.

I am slowly but surely become the wise old hippy woman I've always dreamed of becoming.

03

My Parents are my best friends and my muse

My "love for love" always rooted from my relationship with my parents, but mostly growing up within their love story. They are the definition of soul mates. My favorite thing in the world was to watch them dance and share real life love.

Since my Dad's sudden passing in 2021- We've been in hell and I have found comfort in the 1000's of photos and videos I have of him, especially the ones of him and Mom. Seeing their love in motion is one of the things I miss the hardest . If nothing else, I want to pass that gift onto others who have not yet been pushed through the hellish tunnel that is the lose of a loved one. One day they'll understand the importance of the photos they take today when they are all they have left.

04

My adult life- After school, I left Spruce View & worked my way through nursing school at a bar called Billy Bobs. I nursed for a few years and did photography for myself & once and awhile for clients. I had many opportunities see travel the world with my friends. It wasn't until 2016 that I started doing photography full time. It was really nursing that pushed me into it. For starters- I saw people die on the daily - life its self became much more precious when I saw how easily it is taken away. The calling to document it well became more important to me then ever. Also what I was doing with my own life became clearer. What was I doing working 5 or 6 12 hour shifts a week to buy objects? Why wasn't I travelling more, spending more time with my friends and family?

It was in the spring of 2016 that my dog Goober fell ill & needed 24hour care. The hospital was unwilling to give me time off. So I quit, Then my photography career was launched.

A little history

I live on the edge of the Rocky Mountains in central Alberta, with my husband and our dog Goober of 15 years. We live in a cabin we built in the woods, we have a hobby farm to grow and raise our own food. I like to call it a safe haven, where animals are treated well- roam free and everyone who comes is welcome to be their true selves. I grew up on a acreage outside of a one horse town called Spruce View, in a home with my parents and my older brother & sister. We lived in a house mostly built by my Dad, always full of good food & surrounded by a vegetable garden my mom keeps up.. My Dad worked away in the oil field & my mom was always by our sides.

By the time I was a teenager my Dad left the oil field and Mom and him started their own companies. We grew up in a home full of yard work, food, the stress of being self employed & a whole lot of laughter and inside jokes. My whole family, including myself have always communicate affection through humor and teasing- So if I make jokes with you I like you- If they are about you, I must really like you!

Since then I have been working from home

spending time with my family & my now healthy goober, travelling the world, meeting the best people and documenting their lives

ME

I honestly don't even know what to tell you- I'm me.

I stand for fairness, kindness, sustainability, honesty and humor

I genuinely like to help people

I think humor is the easiest way to communicate love and build relationship's

I share my life and experiences honestly and openly, with a few exceptions of parts of my life I'm almost ashamed of. In my earlier years I was a different person. I was a spoiled brat to say it plainly. I lost a lot of friends and opportunities in my teenage years because of jealously, self absorption, ignorance & the unwillingness to learn or be gracious.

My early 20's I experienced a lot of growing pains.

Loss beyond words, travel, my family, life experiences, nursing & my husband Paul had a lot to do with me growing into the person I've become today.

With a lot of grace & patience from the people surrounding me I have finally become someone I can be proud of.

My Work

Its difficult to describe my work & my driving force in photography without describing my life. So I hope I didn't bore you to death with the details of my life. So if your still with me- I can finally describe to you what my work means to me. My work is a representation of the person I've become. I want it to be deep, meaningful & bring joy to others. I want to document the details to retell your story over and over in the future. I don't want degrade your life, your story and your wedding to an social media trend.

My story has been long, complicated and full of 2nd, 3rd and 4th chances. I have received so much grace and acceptance from others. I have grown so much with my family & Paul's support, In 2021 the sudden loss of my Dad, my hero- took away any tolerance for drama, bullshit, waste of time or waste of life left in me. Life is short, painfully, heartbreakingly short. I support love, kindness and appreciation. As for photos- when all you have left in the physical world of a person you love so deeply is photos & video's, they become more precious then any earthly possession.

All I've wanted is to offer my couples- to understand them as people. To treat them with kindness and grace. To document their memories, their people and and treat those images as precious artifacts of days gone by. To capture photos that not only spark a memory, but the emotion they felt.

I care about the experiences we had, the memories we made together- the time I spent immersed inside your life, your family and your wedding.

Because you, your memories, your wedding is so much more then an Instagram post- You are a person, you are human, you and your loved ones are living in a diverse complicated story full of ups and downs and I'm dying to tell you that story. Because if you made it this far- you are my kind of person maybe a person I haven't met yet. But maybe soon.