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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Three Girls and a Boy

This was my first time getting to photograph Lanelle and Paul and their four beautiful children and I felt so spoiled to get to work with such bubbly, cute and loving people. The thing that stood out to me the most during this session was how with four kids, they could each be so much their own person. Each of the three girls has her own stage, her own walk, her own flair. And then of course, I’m sure you can imagine that one sweet little boy – wandering off, wanting to do his own thing, and also thoroughly loved on and taken care of by everyone else in the family, and just soaking it up. The photo of him sitting on his own while the rest of the family tried to coax him back tells the story of that family dynamic!

Neumann Family b-11 Neumann story-1 Neumann Family b-5 Neumann story 2

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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

One Saturday Morning

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending time with this family. As some of you may know, it can be tricky to find the exact right location at the perfect time. We had talked about wanting trees and a natural setting, and decided to meet up on a Saturday morning at Arastadero park. It was us, a lot of cyclists, and very little parking. After driving around a little, we came upon this gem. I really love how the trees in the background and the vantage point we had up on a hill allowed for some beautiful light and background. And these children were delightful! It was another morning where I found myself so blessed to get to take photos as a job. The perfect combination of creating art and meeting kind, fun, and exciting people.

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Monday, September 15, 2014

What to Do? Part 1

How many of you are like me – lots and lots of photos, piled up since before we even started having children, never mind since then, but not very many ideas of how to use them? They sit there on the computer, and on the computer’s backup, just taking up space, but not being enjoyed. I find that my clients, very generally speaking, fall into two categories. The ones who do things with the digital images I give them, and the ones who don’t. Whether they’re too overwhelmed, don’t have ideas of what to do, or just don’t have the time, the outcome is the same. Images using up hard drive space (if they even got uploaded onto their computer from the thumb drive), and not making you smile. This summer, as I worked on my business plan, I decided that I wanted to move in a direction of helping my clients to use their photos – giving tips (like this blog post!), offering canvases and framed prints, creating custom albums, and making Christmas cards. So, if you need ideas, the tips will help. And if you’re just too overwhelmed or simply don’t have extra time, then I can help you all the way until you have a picture hanging on your wall, cards in the mail, or an album on your coffee table!

As a photographer, it has been my quest to find cool ways to actually DO things with the photos that I have, and I am pretty giddy to show some of these to you! My plan is to share a couple of ideas each Monday until I run out of ideas – feel free to send me your ideas, too, or put them in the comments! I’m always looking for more!

1. Photo Mod-podged on canvas

This can be completed in less than an hour, and the finished product looks great! It also makes a fun gift. I just print the image at Costco or Shutterfly – the quality is not a big deal, as there is going to be mod podge covering it anyways. The how-to instructions are at this site: Canvas Photo DIY (the picture below is from that site)

Cost: Approximately $7 (once you have the Mod Podge, the cost is minimal, and canvases go on sale at Michaels all the time)

2. Photo polaroid style wall decals

My newest find. You upload 16 images to the site, and can write a little caption under each. Then once you have them, your next job is deciding on the placement – asymmetrical, a square, a long line… the possibilities are endless! You could even attach a few hooks to the wall for towels in the bathroom, or for jackets and backpacks in the entrance, and put one of these above each hook with a picture of the corresponding person. My choice was to do an asymmetrical placement in our kitchen in the area that a backsplash would be, and I’m LOVING looking at the photos while I’m chopping up veggies for dinner (I decided to give that example because it makes it sound like we eat extra healthy:)

Details: Paper Culture, Custom Photo Stickers. They also happen to be 20% off right now. http://www.paperculture.com/eco/16-custom-photo-wall-stickers-p-10061.html Paper Culture Custom Wall Stickers

Cost: $29.99 + shipping

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Thursday, September 4, 2014

Cute Aiden

If I was to describe this session in three words, they would be: relaxed, laughter, and real. This cute boy, Aiden, is 5 and a half months, and already a little charmer! His big, sparkling eyes had me at first glance… and that smile! I so enjoyed my time with Tonya and Michelle, and we shared plenty of giggles as Aiden spat up, drooled, and did all those cute things that babies tend to do:) He timed things perfectly, leaving his biggest spit up for after he finished his bottle near the end of our time. How thoughtful.

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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Sisters and Cousins

I had the joy of doing a session with a family I worked with a couple of years ago… and her sister with her family, also. That made for four adults, six kids, lots of laughs, some tears, and a whole lot of fun. As you will see, each of the kids brought their own character to the time. The oldest boy was quite the charmer and seemed to intuitively know how to work with the camera. The second boy collected feathers throughout the time, and I’m so glad that we were able to get some photos of his prized collection. Each of the girls had a turn not wanting to be in front of the camera, and each had a heart-melting smile when she chose to use it. One extra special element of this session was that these sisters are from South America, and now one of them lives in the United States and the other one in Germany. So, to get to capture some of their precious moments together with their husbands and kids was an honour. Here are a few of my favourite images from our time.