Monthly Archives: June 2008

June 26, 2008

Kailee & Lee

Posted in Cherry Hill Golf Club, Holloway Bay memorial chapel, Weddings

Saturday was a beautiful day as Kailee and Lee were married at the Holloway Bay memorial chapel in Ridgeway. Kailee and Lee live in Ottawa but Kailee is from around here and had their wedding at Cherry Hill Golf Club. The venue, the bride and groom, and the wedding party were all fabulous. It was a day filled with tears, laughter, golf cart races and love. Here are my things that I love about these two!

I love …

The story of how they met at Home Hardware and that apparently Lee had long hair and a mustache that he was growing for a work party and that his first words to Kailee were “I don’t normally look like this…”

That Kailee’s dad hooked us up with an AMAZING location for the formals

That Kailee and Lee (especially Kailee) were up for anything to get nice photos (which includes Kailee balancing on the edge of the lighthouse and ducking under some wire to get to a “no trespassing” portion of the lighthouse, and then to boot – she climbed out onto these rocks at the edge of the water that were full of puddles.

That these two are always all smiles – especially when they look at each other

That they are constantly smiling and laughing when they are around each other because they are so happy to be together

Here are a few photos of their wonderful day . . .

This photo of the dress was taken in Kailee’s old room – now her sister’s and I just love the pink!

Isn’t Kailee gorgeous?

This is Kailee laughing to stop herself from crying :)

Arent they just adorable?

If i haven’t stressed it enough – I can’t tell you how much I loved this lighthouse

In the mud and tall grass – on her wedding day :)

Golf cart races! They were lots of fun to photograph and from the screams coming from the cart – lots of fun to participate in :)

Just after the cutting of the cake

The kids running away from the “monster” aka “red wolf” aka the Groom

First Dance

Save a horse ride a cowboy!

Thanks again to Kailee and Lee for a wonderful day! I hope you enjoy your honeymoon and can’t wait to show you the rest of the photos when you come back!

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Posted in Cherry Hill Golf Club, Holloway Bay memorial chapel, Weddings Tags: , , , , , , , ,
June 23, 2008

Letting people into your heart vs your head

Posted in personal

After WPPI I really got a chance to look at myself and do some introspection and I realized that some of the things that hold true for myself – are also true for a lot of people. We often let our own fears and self doubts stand in the way of achieving our dreams. We let other peoples successes and inspired ideas be our failures – just because you didn’t come up with the idea doesn’t mean that you can’t still follow the same path – you just need to figure out how to make it your own. This is what I mean by letting someone into your head vs your heart. If you look at a great painters work and admire it but think “I could never do something as good” then you have been defeated before you even try – if you in turn look at it and think “That is a beautiful piece of art – that inspires me” and then attempt your own masterpiece – you will have let the artist into your heart and into the process of creativity but from your perspective. We are each individuals with an absolutely unique perspective. No one has lived your life, with your family, with your experiences and dreams – in the exact same way that you have – so why not capitalize on your individuality? This is something that I am finding as a comforting and guiding truth in wedding photography. Photographers are first chosen for the style and then most importantly, their personality – we need to stop being so competitive because no one can copy that aspect of our businesses.

I am definitely one of those people that can have a self defeatist attitude about some things but I am learning to push past it. It is this part of myself that holds back and second guesses letting people see the “real” me. For some reason I have zero problem doing this with clients but I know I definitely have a problem doing this with colleagues and even some of my friends. I tend to shy away from being silly and even comfortable with them until I know i can trust them! I have worked really hard to surround myself with people I can trust – trust is huge for me – but I am learning to trust people more – but differently.  I am going to work on being less afraid of what people think of me and work more on what I think of myself.  I wrote to a new friend Jesh De Rox ( who is an absolutely amazing photographer ) recently and tried to put into words the immeasurable impact his platform class in Vegas had on me. It was funny, even as I was listening to his words that night and feeling little pings in my heart – I knew I wanted to let loose with a flood of tears but I held myself back – I turned to my friend and fellow colleague Krista and told her that I was trying not to cry – she said “Just cry” and yet I still couldn’t do it. I went back to my room that night and cried on my own and then wrote the first poem I had in a long time. It is as Jesh said in his reply to me ” we are all richer when we give unconditionally from who we are ” – and this is what I am going to try and do more of.

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Posted in personal Tags: , , , ,
June 20, 2008

Shooting people and being free to succeed

Posted in 101 things, WPPI, personal

Interesting title eh? Let me explain – over the next few months I will be attending two seminars – One of them is the “I shoot people” tour in Toronto with JB & DeEtte Sallee - http://www.salleephotography.com/

and my favorite – the Free to Succeed tour with David Jay (http://www.davidjay.com/) and Jasmine Star (http://www.jasmine-star.com/) in New York. I love Jasmine Star – she is literally the most successful but down to earth person I’ve met so far in this industry. Getting to go to New York is also pretty high on my wish list so as soon as I saw that location I was pretty excited. If you are a photographer going to this seminar or from the New York area drop me a line :) I’ll be there for a few days!

Seminar’s like these get me excited because i always walk away with so many new ideas for my business. I am excited to go to the first one because I really loved the album software as well as designs that I saw from them at WPPI. The second seminar is pretty close to my heart too because (being a big fan of David Jay’s business model) the focus on trying to free up my time is huge. As you can tell from my blog postings lately I haven’t had a ton of time on my hands. In the next year I am looking at streamlining my business and making sure that the things I spend my time on during work hours benefit my customers – and that I get time aside from work to spend with my husband and family.

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Posted in 101 things, WPPI, personal Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
June 15, 2008

Kara & Jamie

Posted in Beacon Harbourside, Weddings

This ones a long one so get ready!

Yesterday was a hectic but fun filled day as I shot Kara & Jamie’s wedding at the Beacon Harbourside in Jordan. I love this venue as the big windows open up to the water with a gorgeous view and not only that but Cathy the co-ordinator there is pretty awesome. I was doubly excited for this day as I love Kara & Jamie – they are two of the nicest people ever who are so so so so in love with each other and also because I was shooting with two new photographers. Check out some of the beautiful photos and for more on the talented photographers that came with me please read below the photos. To continue the tradition I started with the last post ….

I love …

That Jamie & Kara are completely themselves with each other

That Jamie always wraps his arms protectively around Kara and truly envelops her with his hugs & Kara always – always looks at peace in those arms.

All of the cute faces they both make!

That both bride and groom wear their hearts on their sleeves – happy to share their love and support

with anyone.

The look on Kara’s face when we gave her a lucky ladybug for a wedding present

That I cried when Jamie’s best man came up and gave a speech about who Kara & Jamie are because even though I have known them such a short while – I could indentify with all of the things he was saying

That Kara & Jamie are a fun loving couple who are who they are without any worries over what other people will think of them

and most of all – I love how expressive they are in photos :) – here’s a few to check out!

For those of you who might be following my blog – Sam my assistant is expecting a little bundle of Joy in September (although she says August) and so I am working with some new very talented people as assistants. For this wedding I brought a long Josh Moody who has his own business – you can check out his work on his website – I met Josh in a photography course awhile back and I was always blown away by his work. With his definite talent behind the camera and sharp wit/sarcasm on the wedding day – he got great shots but also had everybody laughing. I also had the pleasure of having Nataschia Weilink from Life’s Journey Photography come along as part of an exchange we are doing. Both Nataschia and I are looking to develop our candid photography more, being lead photographers on all of the weddings we do means that we are often in charge of moving people around and not able to see a lot of the things that are happening around us or even if we do – we’re so occupied with what we’re doing that turning around for a second and trying to grab the moment is most times impossible. This is why a lot of photographers are now bringing along second shooters – just to grab the candids. So when I posted something recently about looking to shoot with someone Nataschia responded and we agreed to each allow the other to follow on a wedding and shoot whatever we liked and try and develop that eye. Nataschia was truly a joy to work with and definitely has a similar approach to clients. I know this won’t be the last time we shoot together as I will be going with her on a wedding in August and I can’t wait. If any other wedding photographers are looking for a second shooter feel free to drop me a line!

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Posted in Beacon Harbourside, Weddings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
June 15, 2008

Michelle & Justin

Posted in Weddings, engagement

So I have decided from now on when I post photos I am going to post three things I love about the couples or families I am shooting. I love how Jasmine Star has these stories before each blog post about weddings she’s covered, but since I am nowhere near as poetic I thought that this would be something a little easier for me but still help tell my clients story a little bit more.

Michelle & Justin

I love . . . .

How Michelle is always giggling

That Justin is the reason she is always giggling

That they chose me to be the lucky person to cover their wedding

That they were willing to dance in a field together with no music

That Michelle can dip Justin better than Justin can dip Michelle

Here’s a few photos from our engagement session adventure all over the Niagara region

For friends and family members of Michelle & Justin – even though the big day is a ways off you can pre-register at http://www.pictage.com/492286 to be notified when the wedding photos will be posted online

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Posted in Weddings, engagement Tags: , , , , , ,

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