Van Daele & Russell

We postponed our August 2020 wedding to 2021, and through the uncertainty, Shawn was extremely responsive and kind. He offered a variety of dates which helped us form a new plan. We're certainly looking forward to celebrating next year, but my wife and I just couldn't let our original date pass…

It started as an ordinary backyard BBQ for our immediate family. When they least expected it, we had our officiant and string duo crash the party – we were having a pop-up backyard wedding! And Shawn was there to capture all of the shock, confusion, tears, and pure joy in the moment!

We can't thank Shawn enough for his role helping us pull off our surprise wedding! Not only did he capture everything beautifully – a mix of emotional candids, fine details, family group shots, and romantic newlywed moments – but he was responsive, flexible, dependable, and simply the nicest human being throughout the entire process, especially when the plan was unravelling. (Backstory: my brother-in-law had major car troubles on highway, so I sprung it on the vendors if we could delay our surprise ceremony time with very short notice. Shawn was incredibly accommodating and prioritized our special event over his own personal plans that evening, a testament to the professionalism, sense of duty, and high-touch service he provides.) Our afternoon ceremony became a golden hour ceremony and went off without a hitch.

Shawn’s passion for what he does and who he serves is palpable. It was evident that he was invested in our love story, our family, their emotions and their experience. As Shawn posted and blogged about our special day, I proudly shared his recount with family and friends who couldn’t attend – at a time when we’re forced to be distant, his storytelling has never been more valuable.

I can’t recommend Shawn strongly enough. We’re beyond excited to have him on our team for 2021!

We had a wonderful time doing our covid wedding shoot with Clint - he took a lot of time and detail to help us get comfortable and the teasers look amazing ! Highly recommended. We really look forward to working with him next year and appreciate the flexibility Clint and Shawn extended during covid. Our family was also very very impressed.

Shawn is AMAZING. He has been great since we first starting emailing about booking Van Daele and Russell for our wedding photography!
Our engagement photos had to be rescheduled 3 times due to weather and Shawn made sure to accommodate new dates and made himself available on very short notice to get our engagement photos done!
We finally got to meet Shawn just the other week to do our engagement photos and all I can say is WOW! He is literally AMAZING! Both Kyle and I were nervous and thought pictures may be awkward as we had never done anything like this before! But Shawn made it such a great experience, coaching us on how to pose and letting us be us; capturing amazing moments that we will cherish forever!
Kyle and I are so excited to work with Shawn for our wedding next year and can’t wait to see what beautiful pictures he captures!

When we became engaged in November 2018 we had only one photographer in mind and immediately contacted Van Daele & Russel. The time finally came to have our engagement photos this week and we cannot thank Shawn enough for an incredible experience. We felt comfortable throughout the entire session, his creativity and ability to capture our relationship in a fun loving way was outstanding. The resulting photos are more than we could have ever imagined. We are beyond excited to share our wedding day with Shawn and see the beautiful photos to come!

Shawn was our wedding photographer. He took phenomenal photos - so we hired him for my maternity photos when I was pregnant with my first child. We paid him IN FULL up front.
He took my photos March 5th 2021.
On April 5th I asked if they would be ready before my daughters birth and he promised them within the week.
On April 27th (after she had been born) I requested them again and was again told I would have them within the week.
On May 21st I text him inquiring where my photos were. No reply.
Each time I messaged him I would have to send multiple texts to his phone and messages to his facebook account just to get his attention/make sure he saw them. He took WEEKS to reply and often just never did. (Keep in mind I have him on all social media accounts and though he couldn’t find the time to reply to me he could still most multiple times each day on all platforms...)
I messaged him again June 3rd. He once again promised I would have my photos - this time by the end of the day.
It is now June 8th and Shawn has chosen to ignore every message I’ve sent over the last 5 days. I have sent messages to his phone, Facebook, personal Instagram account and photography account. All my messages have been “delivered” and yet no reply to anything.
I became so upset and frustrated I asked my husband to take over trying to contact him. He messaged Shawn many times over the last 3 months and has not received one reply.
We are out $370 not to mention the only maternity photos I had taken. I’m a brand new mom with zero photos of my pregnancy because of this horrible person. He has caused me so much stress and anxiety. He has withheld the photos I was so excited to one day share with my daughter. He is SO unreliable, unprofessional, and OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT CARE THAT WHEN SOMEONE HIRES HIM TO DOCUMENT A MAJOR LIFE MOMENT HE HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO DELIVER THE PHOTOS HE TOOK or at the very least RESPOND TO A PAYING CUSTOMER.
I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT HIRE SHAWN.

Easily one of the best decisions we made for our wedding!! Shawn was absolutely INCREDIBLE to work with and the photos are absolutely INSANE. We are not the kind of people who are comfortable in front of a camera and to be honest, we were a little intimated based on the amazing photos we had seen from his previous shoots. All of that anxiety immediately disappeared during our engagement shoot! He made us feel SO comfortable and captured who we are perfectly and I knew we made the right decision. We fell in love with the (many many) photos we were sent from our engagement shoot and I knew we would be in good hands for the wedding day. I was right - Shawn captured the wedding day so perfectly (and so far we only have the teasers). We are a 2020 couple, but the photos capture the love, happiness and hilarious moments from the day...not the restrictions, masks and distancing. There are so many moments that I didn't even know that happened that Shawn was able to capture for us to see. I can't tell you how many times during the wedding and now sharing a few photos how many people told us how much they loved his work, his attention to detail and his overall personality. Shawn customizes his style to each couple and is so thorough...but if you let him run with his creative styles and freedom you will be shocked at the type of pictures you receive! He is also incredibly responsive and just an overall pleasure of a human being. I could honestly go on and on about Shawn's work and who is as a person, but I will just leave it at: stop looking for a photographer and hire him. I promise it will be one of the best decisions you make!

Clint and Gord are simply the best photographers. They arrived early. Set up and 10 hours later they left. They never stopped taking pictures. The ideas they have for photos are amazing. 3 day’s after the wedding they sent us 60 “teaser photos”. Every picture was spectacular. We can’t wait to see the rest. We emailed these photos to our friends and families and they were all equally impressed. They were very professional, easy going and fun ! Due to covid our venue, time of the wedding, guest count etc all changed, however Van daele and Russell just rolled with it. No problems for them @ all. I would absolutely recommend them to anybody !

The only thing I knew I wanted for our wedding was Van Daele & Russell as our photographers! We just worked with Shawn for our engagement shoot and the photos are absolutely stunning! We were so nervous, but Shawn calmed us immediately. I didn't know that a photoshoot could be so fun! He found all our best angles, and the simple, everyday locations we chose turned out beautifully. From our first few emails, it really showed that Shawn and Clint love what they do and care so much for the couples they work with. Best decision we made!

There are no words that can describe the level of professionalism, creativity, and raw talent that encapsulates the quality of work that VanDaele and Russell produce. I knew from viewing my friend's wedding pictures on Facebook that these guys needed to capture our special day- and that has been the best wedding decision we have made thus far. We first met Clint at our engagement shoot. Prior to our initial meeting, he was in constant contact with us, trying to understand the vision we had for our engagement pictures. I felt HEARD by him.
Right from the moment my fiance and I met Clint, we instantly hit it off. He made us feel comfortable in-front of the camera and provided us with the perfect amount of direction the fiance and I needed to get the right shots. I wish I had a GoPro to videotape how dedicated Clint was in perfecting his angles-he was crouched in bushes, branches, and swinging over ledges just to ensure he captured the perfect shot for us.
What really blew me away, is how he asked how we met and re-created that moment through a picture (SO CREATIVE!) Emotions took over when we received our engagement teaser pictures. Each picture was absolutely perfect and flawless and Brough us back to that moment when it was just the two of us, together in happiness in our own little world:) Their motto really stands true: whimsical, magical, romantic and timeless. The magic that they create makes my Disney Princess heart BEYOND happy. We cannot WAIT to have them with us, as they capture our special day. I will probably need a box of tissues when I look at our wedding pictures (haha). Clint, you are absolutely amazing, professional, creative, and artistic! For any bride and groom getting married, they are the best of the best! Just look at their galleries and witness the true beauty of their work:) Love you guys! Can't wait for the BIG DAY! xoxo

First I need to say BOOK THEM NOW!!! Wedding photos were one of my very top priorities when planning our wedding day. I needed someone who would live up to my perfectionist standards and I can honestly say Shawn and the Van Daele & Russell team exceeded them in every way. From the moment Shawn arrived I felt like I had known him my whole life; he is very personable, fun, professional and REALLY knows what he's doing. He made us feel so comfortable throughout the day and we ended up having so much fun we didn't want the pictures to end. I cannot give enough positive feedback about Shawn and his team. We got our teaser album not even a week after our wedding and my jaw dropped at how stunningly beautiful every single one of them was. Shawn hand edits every single photo and the care he puts into his work and his attention to detail is clear. My husband and I could have not made a better choice when deciding to work with Van Daele & Russell; I cannot even put into words how amazing our experience was and how thrilled we are with every single picture we have received so far. I would recommend Van Daele and Russell to anyone for any event if they want truly stunning photos