Yearly Christmas Photo #2 - Hamilton

It was time once again to shoot AACreative's yearly Christmas portrait.  He shoots my Christmas photos for me and I shoot his for him.  After last year's 'Sad Reindeer' theme I was relieved that he wanted something more upbeat this year.  Plain white background, simple, classic wardrobe and a Santa hat.  I have to admit that I was not very excited to be working a white shirt against a white background with only one light but I think it turned out really well.   I ended up taking some with the hat and some without so he could use them for non-holiday purposes if he'd like.  He managed to include the ever adorable 'Fry' in some of the shots as well.  That dog is such a ham!  I'll be posting his amazing work for my Christmas photos soon, but not until I manage to finally get my cards out.  I don't want to ruin the surprise. 

More Holiday Portraits - Port Credit

This is the 'first' portrait session I talked about in my previous post.  I think this family is incredibly adorable and I loved the fast and fabulous session we had together.  This was my first time photographing this group and when I arrived bright and early on their doorstep they were ready and raring to go in coordinating outfits and had tons of creative energy.  They were so accommodating and willing to try different ideas that I think we really got a lot of great stuff out of our time working together.  Thanks for the positive energy, great choice of settings and for one heck of a kid wrangler (aka Grandma).  Special thanks to my daughter for assisting on this one too.  Check out a small selection of images from this session below. 

Christmas Portraits - Georgetown

Christmas is fast approaching and that means Christmas card season and accompanying Christmas photo sessions.  I'm actually showing this session out of order, since it came after the one I will be posting shortly, but I was playing around with a new photo grid template using these images and I wanted to share this one first.
 It was so nice to  see Alexa and Justin again and what a whirlwind session we had together scouting appropriate locations that hadn't already been previously used, figuring out wardrobe and re-arranging furniture.  Dad took a break from hanging Christmas lights to brave the basement and haul up the Christmas decoration containers so I could sort through them for handy props while Mom had to sit this one out as much as possible as she'd put her back out a few days previous.  In the end it all worked out and I think it was another successful portrait session to add to their collection.  Many thanks to AACreative for his assistance with lighting and technical support on this one.

One Year Session - Mississauga

It's hard to believe that a full twelve months have passed since I photographed this little cutie for the first time.  We had an action packed day of shooting and since the weather was unseasonably warm we spent a lot of time outside.  My favourite images from the day are definitely mom and baby reading a book under the tree in front of the library.  Mom requested that we shoot inside, but the library was closed.  I think I love this idea even more.  My second favourite images are from inside the donut shop we stopped at to grab a quick snack.  The window turned into a clean white background with the full midday sun streaming in and the ugly plastic and vinyl seats look great once converted to black and white.  Happy First Year and here's to many more fun-filled years to come. 

 

To see more images from this session, you can view the slideshow here.

Nine Month Session - Mississauga

Where has the time gone?  I can't believe this little cutie is already nine months old, it seems like yesterday I was photographing her at her one month appointment.  This was our first time working outside together and I was exited for the chance to use different locations.  It turns out that grass was a new experience for this little one and most of the photos have her looking at the ground, exploring the various foliage and trying to get various plant life into her mouth.  Though it wasn't the session I was expecting, it was yet another reminder that sometimes you just can't plan everything. 

 

To see more images from this session, please click here to view the slideshow.

40th Anniversary...revived!

Over a month ago now my external hard drive failed and I lost all unsaved work that hadn't been backed up to a second or third location. It was a truly terrible time and having to tell people I'd lost their images was an experience I don't want to have to re-live, ever. One of the things that was lost was the collection of images from my grandparents 40th wedding anniversary. People kindly offered to try and help, the drive was sent off and attempts were made for the files to be retrieved, all to no avail. The drive was well and truly dead. Once I got the news that all hope was lost on salvaging the original files I was ready to put the whole thing behind me.

As I was in the process of backing up everything I had to a new external drive and burning to DVDs, I went through my Lightroom catalog to see if there were files missing that I hadn't yet realized. While doing this I opened the folder for my Grandparents 40th and started viewing the images from the day contained in my Lightroom library. I wondered if perhaps there was any way of salvaging the preview images to at least get some sort of useable files. I opened up each file in the develop module and did a screen grab of the image, then renamed and saved the new copy to my hard drive. After cropping back to the original aspect ratio I ended up with a file, though small, was still at least useable in some capacity.

I was so excited about my discovery that I wanted to immediately tell everyone, but I didn't. I was afraid that there would be some unforeseen complication and the images would be lost a second time over. Rather than getting hopes up for no reason I waited until I'd salvaged whatever images I had imported to Lightroom from the shoot and they were all safely stored in three different places. Now I'm pleased to say that I've put a selection of those images together into a slideshow and I'm ready to share them with my family. I'm so thankful that you allowed me to photograph your special day and I'm sorry that it's taken so long for you to finally see your images. Enjoy.

To see more images from this event please click here to view the slideshow.

Newborn Shoot - Ajax

I had the privilege of getting to do a session with a brand new baby girl at only six days old.  It was the earliest I've ever photographed an infant and I had a great time.  I'm so grateful to her mom, who is a facebook friend of mine and who happened to go to high school with me, for allowing me into their home so soon after coming back from the hospital.  It was incredible for me to be able to capture this wonderful time in their lives.  Not only did I get to photograph mom and baby, I also got some images with big sister and Grandma and Grandpa were there on the day of as well.  I love the images created in this shoot and am so happy to have had the opportunity to photograph an infant at this amazing time in her life.  Babies change so fast at this age and I'm sure this little cutie has already grown in the few short days since I was blessed enough to meet her.

 

To see more photos from this session, please click here to view the slideshow.