Hanging out with Hannah

What a great smile!

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit with another brand new soul this morning. She's only 3 months old and her family is soo in love with her, it is easy to see why. It's cold outside so we stayed toasty inside to get a few fun shots. I have photographed this family before so today was Hannah's special day but of course her big brother wanted to get in on the action too:) Of course who am I to say no - they are soo cute together! Bonnie and Wade will be test driving my new client proofing site so that is a bit exciting too as they have so many great shots to choose from.

....Bonnie, I hope I spelt her name right - I never actually asked you how to spell it....

Not sure if she wants to hold hands.

Checking eachother out.

Such cute little toes!!

The Models

Remember I talked about shooting some models with a bunch of other photographers when we were in Florida. Well I had to get the girls some of their images so I have a couple to put here online. We headed out to the Tampa university grounds in the morning and did a shoot there with these three ladies. They did well considering we (Omari and I) don't ever do models. We were trying to go for the relaxed casual look we are know for and they kept posing and changing their face everytime we clicked the camera. It was kinda funny to us. In the end we did get a couple that I really like....

Alison wasn't a "model" per say but has been a photographers assistant for awhile. She did well on the other side of the camera. We liked how easy it was to get her laughing and chatting with us.Julie wore this wedding dress not long ago at her wedding so it was fun for her to get dressed up again for some more pics.
Cindy brought along an entourage with her which included her little son. He was hungry but managed through the shoot with us without too much complaining. He even lost his first tooth on our drive back to the hotel (it was already wiggly).

Much thanks to Stephanie who coordinated the morning shoot and Alicia who coordinated the afternoon. Both were a great time!!

Scrapbooking Tips...

I was deleting old files while waiting for some data to transfer this morning and I came across these scrapbook tips that I used at a class once. I thought it would be fun to post them here on the blog for all those new scrapbookers out there :)

Important things to remember:

Journaling is the heart and soul of your albums!! Scrapbooks are created to remince with your photos. Without the stories or information your memories will be lost whether you have made beautifully decorated pages or not. You could work 6 hours to create a gorgeous page that will tell nothing about you or the photos on the page or you can create a page in 20 minutes with words that will go on forever.

Error on the side of simple. It is far easier to add to your scrapbook page than it is to undo your work. Very easily pages become overdone and the decorations begin to overtake the photos. The object of scrapbooking is to enhance your photos and stories. Unless you have a special event to highlight, it is best to place your photos down, then add the stories, then if the page looks like it needs something else…then add some decoration.

Try to create a decorative edge, border or title rather than to just “splash” stickers and die cuts into every blank spot on your page. Your page will look cleaner and more “professional”.

Tips:

* Match the colors you use on the page with the photos you are using. Generally it is not appealing to mix bold colors with pastels. Try to keep softer colors together and brighter colors together. Of course there is always exceptions to every rule.
* Try not to use more than 3 colors per page as the colors start to overwhelm the eye. Remember we are enhancing the photos.
* Decorate more on the pages using 4 or less photos if you have only a little journaling to add then decorate less on the pages with 5 or more photos so as not to distract from the pictures and their stories.
*Cropping will allow you to add more photos to the page but you must remember not to crop out all the details of your life. It is a good idea to leave one “whole” photo for each situation to show the area in which the event takes place. Remember that the photos with the price of gas in the background and the cars show the era of time we are in. If you take all the excess background out you are also editing how your family will be able to view their history, let them see the “yucky couch” you once had.
*Memorabilia will enhance the stories in your scrapbook with variety and interest. Treat them as decoration; things you put in are generally detailed and/or colorful and you won’t need to add much more color to your page once the photos and stories are along side.
*Keep the photos and memorabilia separate. Do not let the photos overlap the memorabilia as it can contain acid that will harm your photos.
*Newspaper deteriorates very quickly. The best way to preserve an article is to copy it onto acid-free paper.

Bridal Fantasy....

Wow, Thanks to all the wonderful couples who stopped by our booth on Sunday. I have enjoyed talking with a few of you who have already called today and look forward to meeting even more couples in the near future. Sorry to some, who I know were upset when they found out that we are booked for their date. We are definitely now booking into 2009 and the summer of 2008 has very few Saturday dates left. Call to check your date availability soon. This was Omari's first year joining us at the booth to hand out our fliers - he was amazed, as was I, with how many brides told us that they have checked out our site already. Thanks for taking the time to browse our work and give us all the fantastic comments, our heads "swelled" just a bit ;)

My Sister-In law Shauna did a fantastic job helping us out again. I always owe her a huge Thank You by the end of the day. She took this pic of Omari and I at our booth. Thanks again Sis!

And the winner is.....Marzena M.

Out of the 250 people who entered to win our basket of scrapbook supplies my son Khaalid pulled out her name. Congratulations!



There were alot of unique booths at the show this year. Among them stood out a fantastic carriage that I haven't seen before. Check out http://www.horsesence.ca/ to see this amazing way to get around on your wedding day - you get to be Cinderella for real! I look forward to one of my brides using them. Nope there is no compensation for this plug - I just loved it soo much I had to pass the info along.


This is a busy week with a few photo shoots, client meetings and yep still some retouching to do. I will try to get some more of those Florida pics online when I get a chance. Thanks again for taking the time to stop in and read my chatter!!

E-session

Last weekend I got to spend some time with Tanya and Mike while we took some pics to document their engagment.

First we went to the park and had a little fun walking around. It was really neat because I had the opportunity to go to the firehall with them next - Mike is a volunteer firefighter. We had a great time finding ways to include the firetruck in our pics with them. I'm looking forward to their wedding coming up in a couple months.

Tomorrow I'll be hosting a booth at Bridal Fantasy here in Edmonton. If your going - make sure you stop in to say HI.

TTD in Florida

So it was freezing cold in Floridian standards :) Of course this was scheduled on the coldest day of the year for them...so we weren't in the water long. I think the shots turned out great for Rosalind - she was soo fantastic to work with and very brave to get right in the water for me! I felt really honored to do this shoot with her.

10 years in the making

This year was Omari and I's 10th wedding anniversary.

Some of you know the story of how we got married and didn't honeymoon cause we had a little guy already and didn't want to take him along or leave him behind - as well, Omari started work the day after the wedding. So, way back then I decided for our 10th anniversary we would go on a cruise with the kids (yep, I planned on having 2 right from the start). After years of planning - I finally got my wish!! For Christmas this year we went on a fabulous 7 day cruise with Carnival on the ship called Freedom. The ship took us through the Carribean where we stopped at Cozumel, Caymen Island and Ochos Rios. The food of course was fabulous and we all way over-ate all the time. It is funny to see my pics at the start of the cruise and the end cause I gained about 15 to 20 lbs in the week! My favorite part of the trip was not having to cook of course :) Thankfully the weather was great the whole time. The kids totally enjoyed hanging out in Camp Carnival so Omari and I got to have some alone time as well (this was the original plan, so I'm glad it worked out). It was nice to just find a quite space on one of the decks and just sit together looking out at the ocean. The staff on the ship were fantastic as well. We made friends with out servers Daniel and Felix - Daniel showed the boys new tricks each night at dinner, much to their enjoyment. I soo appreciated the housekeeping staff that came in each morning and evening to tidy up our room and even left us the famed "towel animals" to enjoy. I would recommend cruising to everyone as we all had soo much fun!

Khaalid took this pic of Omari and I on the ship one night at the beginning of the week.
Our Cruise Ship - The Carnival FreedomOur room - an inside stateroom with bunks for the kids.Our awesome dining staff on the ship.
L-R: Nubian, Trina, Daniel, Khaalid, Omari and Felix.
After our cruise we headed up to Kissimmee in Florida to a vacation villa that we were meeting Omari's family for the remainder of the holidays. I was worried about this leg of our journey because I booked the house online and as you all know - sometimes the internet doesn't quite give you all the information as to what you are really going to walk into. Once again I thanked God for leading me cause this house was an incredible vacation spot!! We walked into to a spotless home (I was worried about insects but didn't see any) with a TV in every room (so great cause everyone could watch their own shows with no arguements), 5 bedrooms (enough for us all to have our own space), an outdoor heated pool (the highlight of the kids stay - they practically lived in it), and even laundry (of course we had a tonne to do after cruising for the week before) and an internet ready computer (another of the kids favorite things to do was sit on the internet going around to kids games sites). All I could say was WOW. I will totally recommend Florida Villas and Homes to anyone who is making a trip to Orlando and area. This house was all the site said it would be and more. The whole trip was so successful - it all went smoothly. I kept waiting for something to go wrong and nothing did.

Khaalid enjoying the pool in the back yard.Omari watching one of the TV's in the living room.
Me with the kids in front of WonderWorks.
L-R: Trina, Nubian, Khaalid and Davu (my nephew)

On the last leg of our journey Omari and I attended a Wedding Photographers Convention in Tampa. It was nice because we got to leave the kids with their Grandma back at the house in Kissimmee. We got to meet all sorts of top notch photographers from all over the world. Of course we did a little shooting too. A little later I will post some of the images we took while we shot brides, some models and even got to trash a dress in the bay.

So stay tuned....first I need to do some major unpacking.....

Happy 2008 everyone!! I'm looking forward to more great images this year!