THE REAL DEAL - CALGARY FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER

I photographed the Hassman's this afternoon..we really wanted to take this shoot outside and had actually rebooked it for this weekend in hopes that we would be out of the deep freeze of last weekend, apparently I have ticked off Mother Nature because she is keeping all the good weather for the days I am not booked and brining out her worst for the days that I am!!
I had sooo many good ideas for this shoot for outside, I was briming with inspiration and creativness, but alas it had to be moved indoors due to the -28 temp. today!
Everett and Max were super cute and  for the most part happy to have me there...we did struggle to get some great family pics, but Holly stayed relaxed and kept laughing saying "these are real family photos".  When I left I laughed and said "yup these are the real deal!!" but once I got home to download and backup I was overjoyed to find some awesome images!!!  I am so excited to post these for Holly to see!!

I hope you will love them Holly, I really do!

And finally my two most loved of the session....they really don't get more real than this! I LOVE that Holly is holding Everett's bottle in the first one!

BOYS WILL BE BOYS! - CALGARY PHOTOGRAPHER

These two's picture is probably right beside the definition of "boy" in the dictionary! Busy Busy Busy and Oh so adorable they are!
These guys Mom runs the bootcamp that Oliver and I have been going to since the summer ( http://www.fitnesswithkids.ca/ ) Erin is awesome...she works you hard, even harder on the days she can tell you are slacking! But my arm and leg muscles are thanking her!  Since the summer we have been trying to set up a shoot for her family...this has proven to be difficult with both of us running very busy schedules and before we knew it we were working around busy schedules, naps, illness, and the evasive sun!  Wednesday we decided to power through the fog and huge snow flakes that decided to start falling but hours before our session (don't even talk to me about the beautiful sun and warmth that were out on Thursday at 3:30!!)
So I made my way over to Erin's fighting through bad drivers and even worse roads (yes Dad and Brock there are worse drivers then me out there believe it or not!) to meet Cooper and Jack! Jack thought it would be best if he just watched me take photos, but didn't take him long to warm up and give me some great smiles while telling me everything he knows about everything and a very special gift he wants from Santa!  Cooper fresh off a nap was harder, he didn't like me much as I kept taking his soother away! But he still gave me a smile or two, between his daily exercise routine of jumping from couch to couch and running from living room to front entrance!

Have you ever seen two cuter Brothers than this....

If you have ever had me photograph you, you know I LOVE the "stuff" I love to photograph all the details at a party, the tiny hands, toes, belly buttons, shoes, buttons...that is really where my passion in photography is! Not everyone I photograph likes these photos but they are always my coveted images, I even have a section just for them in my portfolio book!!  This one is up there with some of my favs!!

A SPECIAL DAY FOR ELLA - CALGARY PHOTOGRAPHER-PERSONAL

Oliver was NOT impressed that his sister was having ANOTHER special day!! When you have an older sister that dances, musical theater, plays piano and violin, is in grade one and numerous other activities he hears "Oli its Ella's special day!" ALL THE TIME!!

Yesterday was a very special day for Ella, her class performed at the Christmas Liturgy at the Church!! Oliver, having been brought along to many a special day thought differently....he thought maybe just once it should be his special day! so when I sushed him and "said Oli be quiet, its Ella's special day!" he yelled out in the midst of a silent congregation " NO Mommy, IT MY SPECIAL DAY! MY SPECIAL DAY TODAY!"

Ella was a star as she always is, a performer reveling in her craft!! She smiled big, with her bouncy curls, diamond clip, perfect black cardigan and shiny polished black heels looked out into the crowd, found us and gave a big wave and tiny giggle and gave it her all. Belting out the song with hand actions bigger than life itself! Could she have been any more excited?? maybe...could Brock and I have been any prouder?? Not a chance! As for Oli, well he'll be heading over to Shelley's where he is so loved that everyday is Oli day!

Since there is no photographing at the Church I only got a couple images of Ella before and one after.  Here is Ella and her good friend Keegan

and Ella after the concert.

A FOURTH BIRTHDAY, BUT A FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY!! - CALGARY PHOTOGRAPHER

Today Danika turned four years old.....but she celebrated her very first "real" birthday party! In the past Danika had celebrated her special day surrounded by family, but this year she got an amazing party for her and some of her friends, a party full of balloons, princesses, dragons, stories, songs, games, friends, family, hot dogs and cake! and was it ever amazing!! Danika has some really great parents, who I have met a few times through friends, but I had no idea until just recently how great they really were, so loving and caring! but beyond her fantastic parents she's got an Auntie who really rocks!!! Words just can't describe what a lucky little girl Danika is!  I feel truly lucky that I was asked to photograph Danika on her special day, I seen her eyes light up and a smile spread across her beautiful tiny face all afternoon and it left me feeling great for the rest of the day..I can't help but smile everytime I think of her standing at the door looking out the frosty glass as her friends arrived, getting even more excited with every approaching guest!  I had to giggle when I took her to the side for a couple portraits and she said "well I guess, but I only have a second, I have to go back to my party!!"

I took plenty of images of Danika's guests but I wanted to keep this post about the Birthday Princess herself since it truly was her day to shine and that she did!!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Danika wishing you a year full of big smiles and exciting things to come!

This next image is Danika making a VERY special wish for her birthday unicorn!  She thought long and hard for the perfect wish, this was not to be taken lightly!

And finally my FAV. image of the day....isn't she the sweetest little girl you've ever seen!

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL FAMILY - CALGARY PHOTOGRAPHER

I went out to Okotoks this afternoon to meet up with the Barry's.  I love it when I am photographing people that know EXACTLY what they are looking for, it makes everything so easy on me! and Christie knew exactly what she wanted. The first time I talked to Christie about family photos she wanted snow, normally in Calgary this would have been an easy request two days before December first! We are usually up to our waist in snow at this time of year, but it didn't look like that was going to happen for her this year, however, we ended up having such a perfect dusting of snow on the ground for these shots! The only problems with getting exactly what she was looking for were a strong willed soon to be two year old who kept yelling "no!" everytime I came close to him with my camera! Good thing he's so darn cute, and it being a bit chilly and windier then we had thought!  I can't say we ended up getting exactly what we hoped for with these shots but I took a couple hundred and think I came out with a handful of really great ones, which in the end is all that matters!

I had a blast chatting up a storm with you guys this afternoon and taking a couple pictures in between!

This first shot was the very first shot of the day...it was a test shot to check settings!

This last shot was not an easy one to get...Jevyn was well past done having me over, but I think it turned out not too badly....I should post one of the ones before to show the trouble his parents were having trying to get him to sit still...but I am sure anyone who has had photos taken with kids this age can picture in their minds what it must have looked like!

BEAUTIFUL FAMILY..CALGARY PHOTOGRAPHER

I was a little nervous when Marie contacted me to take these photos, they were going to be the biggest group I have done and I was so worried about not getting everyone is focus and not making them pose all silly.  But this family knew what was going on, what they wanted and we banged it out in one of my fastest sessions yet! That could also be due to the number of children in the group...with only one happy baby girl to force into position we were set to get things done!

Thank you so much for having me at you home to photograph you beautiful family, it truly was a very enjoyable session on my end!  Enjoy a quick look at your photos!!

This next one is one of my fav's from the session...I love the way they looked at eachother when I asked them to!

OLIVER - CALGARY PHOTOGRAPHER

For the past two and half years all Brock and I hear from people is "oh my gosh, he's soooo serious"
When Oliver was born he was five tiny pounds of serious! I thought he possibly didn't like me too much he NEVER smiled, we didn't even really get those baby gassy smiles from him.  At four months old we noticed that he didn't react to ANY sounds, we could stand behind him and scream as loud as possible and he didn't flinch, we set the smoke alarms off and he didn't flinch, my heart litterally stopped the day the Dr slamed the door of the office and he just layed there, she looked at me and said "we are going to have to have his hearing tested"  Two weeks later we were told "your son hears perfectly fine" and from that day on I have known Oliver takes life with a grain of salt, nothing shakes him up, he is a serious boy!!
Now when people say "oh my gosh, he's so serious" I just smile.  Oliver likes to smile on the sly....he gives big chessy grins when you are giving up and putting the camera away..sometimes I get lucky and catch one.

I took these pictures this morning when the sun was coming up and the snow was bright, I love them because they are Oliver, some people might look at them and wonder why I would love a picture that seems as though my son is giving me dirty looks, but he's not......and I caught a big cheesy grin when he thought I was done!!