New Arrival(s)...

It's been a very busy and awesome summer!  I'm way behind on my editing and blog updates.  Our daughter is at my parents place so we could pack and move.  I've been editing in between boxes and now, I'm finally updating my blog!  

My friends Breanne and Greg who I did the maternity shoot for welcomed their son Eric into the world in July!  He's very adorable, I just love him.  They asked me to do a shoot for them so I'm going to share a few of the pictures I did for them with you in this blog entry.  I've never done an official newborn shoot before so I was excited.  I give huge props to infant and newborn photographers because they make it look so easy, but it's really not!!  I forgot about all that involuntary arm and leg movement from when our daughter was just itty bitty.  However, it was still a lot of fun and I am learning volumes from all of my experiences.  Thank you B&G for giving me that opportunity!

I also have a new addition, my beautiful new watermark that my friend Megan's husband Benji designed for me!  I asked for something edgy, stars and for it to look tattooish.  :)  Thanks Benji!!

I've been getting a lot of photography requests lately and I'm SO grateful and blessed about that.  I'm actually going to break down and start a Facebook page for my photography.  I will continue to update my blog so stay tuned.  I'll have to share the link to my FB page when I get it all set up!  :)  This blog all started as a loose form of a 365 Day Challenge less than a year ago and now it's growing!  I'm super excited about it all. 

Thanks for your support!  Now, off to pack more boxes!

Welcome Eric! (July 2012) - 133

Family (July 2012) - 134

Family (July 2012) - 135

Little Feet (July 2012) - 136

Puddles...

A lot of people have been asking for the "puddle" pictures!  I have a few that I'm going to share with you.  :)

I've been feeling a bit jipped about the whole puddle situation!  Saskatchewan has had all the rain and storms and we've hardly had any rain here so the puddles Kaelynne got to play in are quite small.  I have been waiting what seems like forever to put Kaelynne's rain gear on because it's ridiculously cute.  My ideal puddle pictures with Kaelynne would be when it's actually raining or just after a huge rain with huge puddles.  Though the puddles were small she had a blast splashing around once I convinced her it was fine.  Saskatchewan, start sharing!!  LOL

Yeah!  So happy to be playing in the puddle. - July 2012 (129)

Splish Splash - June 2012 (130)

Stomp stomp - June 2012 (131)

Bleeding Heart after the rain - June 2012 (132)

Editing...

I've been out shooting a lot lately!  In June I went out to the country to my friend Tabitha's house and took some shots out there.  I took Kaelynne out to play in the puddles in the alley one evening and got some shots of that.  While we were showing our house Kaelynne and I spent time at Tyler's Grandma's and his parents'.  While we were at both places I set up a pool for Kaelynne, shot that, and took pictures of Grandma and Mom's flowers.  At the end of June I took my camera along to my friend Elaine's daughter Brooklyn's birthday.  It was a lot of fun, but kids are tricky to shoot, they're quick.  LOL!  My Mum was here for a weekend and we took Kaelynne to the zoo and I got some shots there.  Just this past weekend I took my camera out to the lake to a friends cabin and got some great shots out there.  Look at all that fun stuff coming up for you to see!  However, the more I shoot the more goes into my editing queue...

I don't like to change a lot when I edit so it doesn't take me too long once I have the time to sit down and do it.  The problem is finding the time!  Especially when it has been so nice out.  Thankfully it rained today and I was able to do some editing while Kaelynne napped and after she went to bed.  I like to try and keep my photography natural.  It gets hard sometimes because of all the neat things Photoshop (and I use Picasa sometimes too) can do.  What I mostly do when I edit is clean up a shot by adjusting the tone, sometimes polish the colour, occasionally I'll add a border or vignetting, re-size the files so they're easier to post on Facebook and I add the text for my blog.  I try to keep it simple because I look at my photography as art and don't want to alter it much from what I envisioned when I looked through my viewfinder.   

Earlier in June Kaelynne and I went out to my friend Tabitha's house.  She lives out in the country, east of Beausejour, Manitoba.  It is so beautiful out there!  I went out to do some pictures of the kids but we didn't get a chance to do that because it was raining and we were busy visiting.  It gives me an excuse to get out there and do a family shoot another day!  Their yard is so awesome and makes me miss living out in the country a little bit...just a little bit though LOL.  Luckily the rain stopped later in the afternoon, the sun came out and we were able to walk around the yard and I snapped a few photos.  I was like a kid in a candy shop!  I just love the openness, the colours, sky, trees, etc.  The family pictures will be so much fun to do and I cannot wait to get out there again to do them.  But, for now, here are some shots I got of their wonderful piece of land. 

Love Bird House - June 2012 (121)

A Welcome Road - June 2012 (122)

June 2012 (123)

June 2012 (124)

The Back 40 - June 2012 (125)

I've been obsessed with Dandelions lately - June 2012 (126)

Rain clouds going away - June 2012 (127)

June 2012 (128)

Baby, Baby, Baby!

I'm not going to lie, my favorite thing to photograph is nature.  However, since I decided to do the "365 Challenge" I thought I had better branch out (pun not intended...well maybe) and try something different.  My friend Breanne was expecting (she just had baby Eric the other day, Yeah!) and I offered to do their maternity photographs.  I was nervous but also really excited because Breanne and her husband Greg are laid back and so much fun to work with.  It really helps to work with people who are very much in love.  I did my best to capture just that. 

The shoot was a two part series.  That wasn't intentional...but my batteries died near the end of the first attempt so I said, let's come back another day and finish up.  Of course we had a good chuckle about that.  Good thing their friends and I'm just starting out.  I DID tell them not to expect anything.  :)  It was nice to come home, load the pictures and see what I was able to capture.  Of course I'm my biggest critic so I picked apart my first shoot and was better prepared for the second part.  I was having issues with my exposure and sometimes the sun was my enemy so I was getting harsh shadows but couldn't see that on the playback at the time.  It was a great learning experience and has helped me immensely in other shoots.  I'm still shooting in P or Av, and sometimes full Manual mode!  It's getting easier to figure everything out the more I used it! 

At the second one I redid some shots and then we got the rest of the shots we were looking for.  It took me a couple weeks to get them all edited and onto a disc.  When I dropped them off we were able to look through them on Breanne and Greg's TV, which was really nice because I got to see their reaction.  It was all such a great experience and I enjoyed doing the shoot more than I had expected to.  I'm looking forward to doing more in the future!  Here are a handful of my favorites from the two shoots.

Greg & Breanne in their home Photo Shoot I (June 2012) 112

Bunn's Creek Photo Shoot I (June 2012) 113

Baby Love Photo Shoot I (June 2012) 114

Baby Belly Photo Shoot I (June 2012) 115

Walk Photo Shoot II (June 2012) 116

So In Love Photo Shoot II (June 2012) 117

Baby Booties Photo Shoot II (June 2012) 118

Photo Shoot ii (June 2012) 119

Photo Shoot II (June 2012) 120

And There Was Lightening...

I've always been a bit obsessed with storms.  I love the beauty of lightening, the sound of the thunder cracking and rumbling, the contrast of colours in the sky and the eerie feeling of the calm before the storm actually hits.  When I was still living in Saskatchewan I used to chase down storms just to sit and watch them.  I've always wanted to try and capture one but it's never worked out...until today!  I happened to be in the kitchen, looked out the window and saw this wicked, colourful sky and ran into the dining area where my camera was and quickly got it ready and rushed outside.  At first I was just happy to capture the colours of the sky but then I realized, because of the eerie calm before the storm feeling, that there was more coming.  I put the camera into continuous shooting, adjusted the exposure and just starting shooting, and shooting, and shooting.......and shooting.  Over a 100 pictures later it started to rain a bit so I came inside.  Out of those 100+ photos only 8 captured bolts of lightening.  After a bunch of deleting, I managed to put together the following from my first lightening shoot!  No editing other than cropping was done to the following photos. 

Cloud Contrast - June 9, 2012 (101)

Gray's with at hint of Blue - June 9, 2012 (102)

Contrast Clouds II - June, 9, 2012 (103)

My First Lightening Bolt!  (It's not the size of the bolt...LOL) - June 9, 2012 (104)

Gray's - June 9, 2012 (105)

Little Bolt - June 9, 2012 (106)

Broken Bolt - June 9, 2012 (107)

Bolt Explosion! - June 9,2012 (108)

Change of Mind - June 9, 2012 (109)

Bolt Across the Sky - June 9, 2012 (110)

Off Shoot - June 9, 2012 (111)

What I've Been Up To...

Wow, it has been WAY too long since my last post.  It's been a very busy few months!  I've been keeping busy with the photography I'm doing for work.  The first shoot was a group shot for a Early Childcare course we have.  It turned out great and will be featured in our Annual Report, so I'm excited about that.  I had the opportunity to go off site and shoot the launch of the report on the Family Resource Centres from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.  It was an amazing event and I was able to get some great shots.  The Program Director from the Family Support Program was very happy with my photos, again, that made me very happy!  The most recent shoot I had at work was the big group staff photo!  It's tricky to shoot a group of 45 people but it turned out pretty good.  I also shot the management team photo.  One of each will be in the Annual Report!  I'm so stoked.  The Executive Director and her assistant told me they are the best photo's that they've ever had done, better than professional photographer's they've hired in the past so that definitely made my day!  I will post the link to our website when the AR is put up! 

I had a chance to take a photography seminar from a couple really great Manitoba photographers (one of them was a Master Photographer) and it was awesome!  I learned so much and have been playing around with some of my newly acquired "skills".  Before the seminar I hadn't taken many photos so it was nice to get inspired and motivated again!  There are so many cool things that I'm going to be trying in the near future and I will be sharing them with you, aren't you excited??  :)  I'm becoming more comfortable using my Manual settings.  It's scary at first but you learn quickly.  Tyler's friend Trevor gave me my first lesson just after I got my camera and said "from now on you will shoot in P, nothing below that".  All the settings below are all presets and that's just cheating!  LOL  Since the seminar I've started shooting in the higher manual settings on the dial and I'm loving it!  So much to factor in but it just gives you that extra element of control over the photo.  Exposure, aperture, shutter speed, oh my!  ;)

A friend of mine and her family came to Winnipeg and I was able to go see them for a bit and had a 5 minute photo shoot with their little baby Celeste!  It was literally 5 minutes because she got hungry and Kaelynne was getting into everything into their hotel room but I still managed to get a few cute shots.

I stumbled across this really cool photography project in the Metro one day, read more about it at www.aday.org.  People were asked to set up a profile, take pictures of their daily lives on May 15th and then post them onto the site.  It's SO cool and should be done soon so you can view everyone's photos from that day from all around the world.  I submitted 3 pictures and am stoked to look through the site when they're done compiling everything!  

Stay tuned for my first attempt at a Maternity Shoot (which ended up being 2 parts)...

Hopefully this time it won't be MONTHS between posts.  Happy Summer everyone!!  Get out there and SHOOT!

Daffodil's from a co-worker! - March 2012 (94)

Daffodils - March 2012 (95)

Miss Celeste - March 2012 (96)

Miss Celeste - March 2012 (97)

Miss Celeste - March 2012 (98)

Chevelle (she's going to be famous on aday.org)! - May 2012 (99)

Our Street (I was so happy there weren't any cars parked on the street!) aday.org entry - May 2012 (100)

Nova Scotia Part III

There's been a lot happening lately!  I ordered and received my flash, I did my first official photo shoot for work and I finished editing all of the pictures that I'm going to post on my blog from my Nova Scotia trip! 

I love my flash, it makes a world of difference.  My husband tells me that's my last toy for my camera that I'm allowed to order for a while.  LOL!  It is quite an expensive hobby, I will admit.  I don't really need anything more for now anyway, so I'm okay with not ordering accessories for a while.  :)

My first photo shoot for work went well.  It was a report launch for CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives of Manitoba) called You Know You're Not Alone, Community Development in Public Housing.  It was a lot of fun, I got to meet some really incredible people and I got some good pictures.  I can't post them on my blog but there will be some posted on another blog from the CCPA and The Family Centre of Winnipeg's website.  I'll keep you posted! 

Here are the last few pictures from the Nova Scotia trip!  I hope you enjoy. 

In the town of Shelburne, Nova Scotia - March 2012 (89)

Shelburne, NS - March 2012 (90)

Harbour in Shelburne, NS - March 2012 (91)

Harbour in Shelburne, NS - March 2012 (92)

Harbour in Shelburne, NS - March 2012 (93)