Manuela & Kent

Kara & Andrew Burns

July 11, 2008
Destination Wedding- New London Connecticut

The long car ride to New London Connecticut was well worth it for Kara and Andrew’s wedding. Neither Kara or Andrew are from New London Connecticut, but the town held great importance for Kara as she lived there for 4 years while attending the Coast Guard Academy, and it was impressive how many people made the trip!

The day before the wedding I was toured around to find the best spots for pictures, this is probably the most challenging and the most exciting part of a destination wedding, not being 100% familiar with the location. Ideal picture spots were not hard to find and we narrowed it down to the grounds at the Coast Guard Academy and Harkness Memorial State Park. Here are a few photos from the wedding.
Congratulations!

First Mothers Day

Right before Mother's Day I received an email from an excited new father who wanted to do something special for Mother's Day. They were coming to Niagara and he was trying to arrange a family photo. Although the carosel was not open, little Noah loved his first swing experience and we had a great time watching his ever changing expressions!

First wedding of the Season

Congratulations Karla and Michael
It is always great when the first wedding of the summer season has an amazing couple, great weather and fantastic locations!

I mentioned weather as Karla was worried the week leading up the wedding that it was going to rain, with the unpredictable weather so far this year it was understandable, but I assured her that with a trunk full of umbrellas we would make any weather work.

I arrived early to Port Colborne the day of the wedding and came across teh Port Colborne museum, a fantastic little spot for photos, the green musuem building caught my attention immediately as it matched the bridesmaids dresses! The addition of a red barn, timber frame building, anchor and boats provided us lots of different spots for photos and was well worth the detour from the original photo plan for the day!

I hope you had a great honeymoon in Vegas.

Maternity Shoot

In April of this year I was contacted by an expecting couple wanting a few maternity pictures of their first pregnancy! Although most maternity photographs focus mainly on the belly I tried to incorporate both Tim and Erica into the pictures. To add a little whimsy to the photos I turned to my collection of rubber duckies, originally intended to be used in a blubble bath scene, but because of their colour and their association to babies it was a great opportunity to use them here.
All the best to Tim and Erica and the little one that should be arriving any day now. I can't wait to meet the little one!

Chicks, Bunnies, Eggs and all things Spring

In early March I teamed up with Petrullo Floral Design to welcome spring in, with so much snow and so many storms this winter it was nice to think of bright colours, animals and kids! With easter baskets, fake chicks, bunnies and some old props we turned a corner of Petrullo Floral Design into a set that looked like a corner that time forgot. The photo shoot was a great success and the prop closet is already filling up with props for both a Fall and Christmas shoot!

Engaged!

A new meaning to Engagement Photographs
Traditionally engagement photographs occur after the proposal to not only capture that time, but also as a test run for the potential wedding photographer to photograph the couple before the wedding. A relatively new trend has emerged in Canadian wedding photography, photographing the actual wedding proposal, although this type of photography now coined “engagerazzi” has been popular in the US and Austrailia for a few years and is now slowly catching on here. The idea behind this is to have paparazzi like photographs taken of the proposal, the photographer hides and takes shots as the proposal happens either revealing themselves at the end or having the photographs arrive a short time after surprising the bride to be. My first request came a few weeks back, Kris wanted to surprise his now fiancée Christine at the location where they first met, after numerous emails back and forth we devised a plan that captured the moment and most importantly the emotional response, including a few tears, from Christine.

First Birthday!

Happy First Birthday Madison
A request came in mid February from a new mother to have her daughter Madison’s first birthday party photographed. I jumped at this opportunity, what could be more fun than a group of barely toddlers, cake and a clown to capture some great candids. Unlike some children who are shy when a stranger, especially a stranger holding a large object in front of their face, enters their space Madison was anything but camera shy. A few hours spent following a handful of toddlers around the house resulted in some great shots.

Mississauga Potters

In February I was asked by the Mississauga Potters Guild to photograph the guild, potters and their work for their promotional material. Shooting at the guild was an interesting experience as there was limited space and to obtain the best shots I was standing on chairs, and even on top of where all of the pottery wheels are stationed! Although we got some great shots my favorite shot of the day came when I spilled a pot filled with pottery tools, the way the tools came out of the pot could not have been staged any better! The guild requested that images be made available in both colour and black and white this gave me the opportunity to play with some new black and white techniques.
If you are in Mississauga April 24-25-26 don’t miss their annual sale!
www.mississaugapotters.com

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
2008 will be an exciting year as the new web page is up and running and different opportunities and ideas are already popping up for photos! The goal of this blog is to be able to post a few photos after a shoot to be able to show, it is always nice to see even a few right away instead of waiting until the proofs are ready! For 2008 the proof format is also changing to a proof book containing a large amount of photos in a coil bound book, especially for weddings it gives a great overview of the entire day and lets you see things from a new perspective or better yet things you may have missed!

2007 ended well with a photo shoot at a new and very interesting shop in Niagara Falls, Petrullo's, a flower and gift store that offers a little bit of everything, but specializes in creative arrangements for weddings. Perhaps the best part of Petrullo's is the owner Marty who has created a shop full of character and old world charm and is determined that his generation can reclaim downtown spaces that have been abandoned in favor of large malls. If you are in downtown Niagara Falls be sure to stop by.

Melissa