Kids Photography

Kids have become some of my favourite subjects to photograph which I never thought would happen. As I said to a friend recently, they can be the most challenging to photograph but also the most rewarding. They definitely have their own minds; they can choose not to smile, look at the camera, nor even face the camera! Every now and then, however, you can catch them just at the right time and end up with a gorgeous photo!

We spent the day yesterday visiting friends on Vancouver Island, and we went to play bocce ball on the beach. While we did, I had fun snapping shots of their adorable little boy, Sebastian. Here are my favs (especially the first one):

Wedding Rings

I spent most of this weekend and some of last week editing all my best photos to get them ready for the launch of my new website (which should hopefully be going live tomorrow - stay posted!). I only have a few wedding photos and am always trying to think of ways I can get more photos for my website galleries without actually doing a wedding. Fortunately I am doing a wedding this weekend in Seattle (again, stay posted for photos), but I decided to play with our engagement rings to create some wedding ring photos for my website. I had lots of fun and it gave me more ideas for the wedding this upcoming weekend.

I'm probably only going to post one of those on my website, so maybe you can help me decide. Which one is your favourite (holly, shells, petals or coffee beans)?

a few of my favourite things

Here are a few of my favourite photography-related resource websites that I'm browsing right now:

where I bought my website (stay posted...)

great blog and inspiring photography by brookelyn

a three-"man" team of photographers from fort collins, CO, whose style I love

Here are a few of my favourite baby websites that I'm browsing right now:

nursery design, I think I'm looking at green and brown, with maybe a touch of pink!

i've read so many helpful articles here!

helpful product reviews by mums

Some music I'm listening to right now:

i need to get this album, but in the meantime, she makes an excellent pandora station

i've been re-listening to keith green again - good stuff.

love all songs on this album

A few other randoms of my favourite things:

my new incase iPhone case

my lovely singer sewing machine, given to me by my sister-in-law, tracie bonjour. i don't use it as much as i want, but hope to start using it more.

ultrasound photos!!! i can't get enough of little baby girl burtness!

It's a girl!

I am just over 22 weeks pregnant (about 5 and a half months). We found out two weeks that we're having a girl. We got to see her for about half an hour during our ultrasound and we both fell in love. As all our friends are leaving soon since our school is over, we had our baby shower last week. We got all kinds of cute little girl clothes that are making me even more excited for little baby girl's arrival!

I've been able to recently feel her kick more and more. And John was able to feel her for the first time the other night. It is still so crazy to me that this little person is growing inside of me, hanging out in there while she gets ready to come out. Soon she is going to be so much a part of our lives and we are so excited! We're not officially announcing a name yet, though if you ask either of us, we'll tell you. We can't wait to meet this little munchkin!

Wedding Shoot

This weekend, I was able to assist Heather Armstrong, an amazing local photographer, at a wedding shoot. I have only done one wedding before, so I was excited to go with her and shadow/learn/glean anything from her that I could during the afternoon.

Heather was very generous to let me use her Canon 5D during the shoot and I had lots of fun with it (and walked away coveting it!), as well as fiddling around with her lenses. My favourite from the day has to be her 70-200mm 2.8f lens. I was able to take some beautiful shots with this one.

Things that I learnt:

- Be bossy and take control. As photographer, you have to work hard to make sure you get the photos you need. Don't be afraid to block people's views, stand right behind the couple during the ceremony, order people around, etc. to get the photos.

- You'll need lots of memory. A wedding shoot will require much more memory than a one hour portrait/family shoot, which is mostly what I have been doing. Fortunately, Heather was getting rid of her old 4GB and 2GB CompactFlash drives, and I walked away with an extra 10GB of memory for my camera on top of the 4GB I already had.

- Move fast, and stay focused. The shooting time, particularly the formal shoot, can sometimes be short and you've got to move fast to get all the photos in.

- Lenses, lenses, lenses. She brought with her the six lenses that she owns, and had rented two extra. Sadly, I'm not at the level to own six amazing lenses (I own two mediocre ones, and one decent one), but it has got me looking into them a lot more!

I get to shoot my friend's sister's wedding up in Seattle, WA at the end of the month, and I am very excited to take what I have learnt and use it there. Thanks Heather for this opportunity!

Here are my favourites from the shoot: