Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas

Years ago, I started photographing our Christmas tree for my children. It started with my daughter's very first tree. It was pretty pathetic! (I should have dug the photo out for you to see. You'd have had a laugh at it) but it was our tree just the same and it was beautiful to us. We also started a tradition that on Christmas Eve, each of my children get to open a gift and it's always a new ornament for the tree. Well this tree will be my daughter's 24th !!! Boy how time flies!!! Before you know it, I'll be photographing her wedding!


So, after an enjoyable year of photographing the joy's of people's lives and recording their memories to cherish forever, I'd like to thank my family for supporting me in my passion for photography, my friends for finding the joy in my images and providing me with encouragement, and of course my clients for sharing thier many smiles, laughter and joyous tears. Maybe some of you will be sitting down with family and friends sharing those moments on Christmas Day. It's been a pleasure working with all of the wonderful people who have come before my lens and sharing these moments with me. I've enjoyed every minute of it and I'm looking forward to another season of meeting new people and capturing more memories with past clients.

My only regret, I've been sooooo busy, I haven't had the chance to put the ornaments on my tree!!!...but I think it's just as beautiful anyway...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Wedding Photography - Pricing

JRecently, I came across another photographers well written point on what you may receive when hiring a wedding photographer, so rather than rewrite it, I'm simply posting his comments for your consideration. The only thing I would add to this is that pricing also has to be comparable to your location. A small town wedding photographer simply cannot compete if they are charging the big city (Toronto, eg) price points, so you need to look and compare photographers from the same locale.

A note to add: my images provided on CD / DVD are all completely edited. You will not receive the unedited version from myself ever!

"When searching for a wedding photographer you will be presented with a complete range of prices and services. So here’s the question...Are the prices of some wedding photographers too good to be true?Or, are the rest of us seen as being over priced?Because the majority of wedding photographers these days operate with digital cameras what has come about is the phenomenon many have termed "shoot and burn". It's the situation where a photographer shoots your wedding for what’s seen as a bargain deal, burns a CD with all of the images and hands it over at half the price of their competitors. So that’s got to be a great deal, right? Well so it seems, until you decide to get some really nice prints made and you then find out that the files need to be corrected, color balanced or worse still the exposures are too far off to produce a decent quality print. As a buyer of wedding photography, you should know that after the wedding, most professional photographers spend many hours, in front of a calibrated monitor, editing and adjusting the digital files before they go off to the lab or album company for printing. All this work is done to ensure that you get a great quality product celebrating your day. Some photographers claim they can do it in a couple of hours or so, which I know to be true with a few, but only after developing a lot of skill through experience and I might add accurate exposures. But for the majority this just is not true. The idea that you can just send those little files pretty much right off the card, to any old lab and expect to get beautiful results is based on unreality. It’s important to know that making proper exposures with the digital camera is also much more demanding. In the making of a properly exposed image (that will print beautifully) there is much less latitude than in the days of film. In other words, your exposures have to be right on. It's a fact! Ask any other pro photographer who also has experience with both film and digital and they'll tell you the same thing. So while some photographers will spend the hours working on your files (naturally at a cost) those offering cheap services simply won't be, resulting in a poor product.So, when you are searching for your wedding photographer, sometimes a "Great Deal" may not be so great after all. If the price seems too good to be true, the fact is it probably is. As a smart buyer you should ask a lot of questions and look at a lot of prints and not just the price and take a look at the results. I can't tell you how many recently married couples I've talked with, that come up to me while I'm working and tell me how disappointed they were with their own wedding photos. And, it's usually because some photographer pulled the bargain "shoot and burn".Another problem that I hear about is that many couples who go for a “shoot and burn” package is that they receive their disk, they copy the images to their computer and that’s where they remain. The reason being is that when couples get married these days there are just so many details in starting a life together that getting prints developed goes to the back burner.So if you really want quality memories of your wedding day look for the services of a real professional photographer who provide a full wedding package complete with prints and albums. A pro that will spend time following your wedding day to ensure that the final prints and albums you receive really will be cherished by you for years to come." ...Jeff Turnbull

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Eli - Christmas

Had to post a couple quick shot of Eli...I loved photographing this little guy. He was so much fun and had lots of smiles for me. He just didn't want to stay in one place for too long! Isn't he adorable with that blonde hair & blue eyes?!! I could just hug and squeeze him all day! tee hee

Eli's face lit up like a Christmas tree when I brought out this sucker for him!!!! Isn't this face just adorable!

Michael - hockey

So, despite my being busy with editing clients' sessions for Christmas, I took some time to go to my son's hockey tournament. I love watching him play. He's the smallest guy on the team, but skates with the biggest chip on his shoulder and loves to take down the biggest players on the opposing team...he's not chicken by all means...and it's funny, despite the years he's been playing hockey, I still get excited when he scores. So much so, that I'm jumping up and down while still snapping shots. Most of the time, I miss the actual goal, and just get shots of the ceiling of the rink!!!! lol Here's a couple before I get back to my Christmas sessions. He's # 2.



Friday, December 18, 2009

Lily - Christmas

Just a quick post for now. I've been so busy that I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet...ahhhh!! However, I'd rather be photographing little ones like this way more than rambling around a mall. lol I first photographed Lily a few months back. You'll remember her sitting in a huge pumpkin. She's a little pumpkin herself...what a cutie.



Monday, December 7, 2009

Maura & Ken - maternity

Maura & Ken are a handsome fun loving couple having their first baby and I could feel their excitement when I was photographing them. thanks for the opportunity guys, and I can't wait to see your little one when he/she arrives.







The Demore Family

Once again, I had the pleasure of photographing a fun loving family. Ashley had told me that it was her brother Adam that did most of the bugging in the family, so I gave her a chance to get back at him by wrapping him up in Christmas lights like the Ellen Degeneres and Opra cover.



in this next shot, I think Adam looks like the Grinch who stole Christmas don't you think?!!! it's the grin!











Friday, December 4, 2009

Cambell Panorama


I love capturing the joy and spontenaity of a child...and displaying them as a panaroma is such a fun way of showing that joy!