The Lovable Quin!

Yesterday I got to go a family shoot for Jenn and her family. She brought along her handsome hubby and adorable little boy Quin. He has gorgeous blue eyes that sparkled with wonder and mischief as he wandered around the park. Of course he was much more interested in playing and running than getting his photo taken. That's par for the course with toddlers though! This was a special shoot as Jenn also owns a photography business here in Medicine Hat. I believe her business is called A Day in the Life Photography. (Please click on the name if you would like to view her blog. )It was an honor to do this shoot for her family.

Samantha

Yesterday I got to meet Samantha, she needed grad photos done to celebrate the end ofh er years at McCoy High School. she had brought along her date for a few shots as well. We started off inside as the weather was very unpredictable yesterday. It was fantastic to get to meet her. She has amazing brown eyes and super creamy fair skin. We did manage to get outside for the end of the shoot. The overcast lighting really brought out those great features!

shootin for fun

As I was busy at work today, I noticed the clouds rolling in before the rain set in. I figured I had about 20 minutes before I had to pick up the boys from school. So I grabbed my camera and ran out to the car. I was surprised that it was so chilly out. I forgot all about my nice case of carpal tunnel, (I wearing my brace of course) and managed to get a few keepers. I must admit, it was nice to get out there with just me myself and I!

Mason graces my studio

On Sunday, the day after the wedding I got to meet sweet little Mason. He was just 2 weeks old and cute to boot. I spend the majority of the morning in bed and he was just the ray of sunshine I needed on such a day. I think that everyone can admit that there is nothing like a newborn to refresh the soul. Mason is so intune with his mother, it was amazing. I have never seen a newborn calm so easily when the mommy "shhed" We shot some photos while he was awake, the cute little guy frowned every time the flash went off. We did finally allow him to sleep and cuddled him up in a little seashell and let him get some shut eye. Here are some of my faves from his shoot.

Jennie and Kelly

I must say that this wedding was classy, fun and romantic all wrapped up in one day. Jennie was one super classy lady and Kelly was super handsome as they went about their wedding day. Everything was pretty much perfect from the beautiful weather, the memorized vows and the uniting of family at the reception. I had a great time shooting their wedding. It took me forever to figure out which images I wanted to blog as I have so many favorites from the day. In fact, if I blogged tomorrow I probably would have a whole different swack of images to put on the blog. So I decided to post a few from different areas of the day, without giving too much away. Anyways without further ado...here is a tiny sample of images from the day.

I hope Jennie and Kelly take a well nice romantic break on their honeymoon!

something special...

On Monday I had a fantastic oppourtunity. One of my very best friends asked me to photograph his baby. Since we live in different cities this was the first time that I had seen his daughter. She was absolutely gorgeous. It's funny to think that her Daddy used to do sommersaults on the lawn for no reason. It makes me wonder if she will be like her parent. Her dad is an avid U2 fan, a whiz with technology and so funny when it comes to female matters. He's one of the few men I know that has an ABBA Cd. Her mom is breathtakingly gorgeous, a super hostess and funny to boot. I wonder if Caitlin will get these amazing qualities. I have to admit when I saw her for the first time i was overcome with amazement and tears. Looking back on her photos I can see the great physical qualities that she has inherited, I can only imagine that she will recieve many of their other qualities.

Grad Season Starts

Wedding Season is around the corner, but my the grad season has already started. I must say that Courtney was the perfect start to that season. She is amazing young woman and I feel blessed to have met her and her mother. She looked gorgeous and her dress was to die for. I hope she had a great time at the banquet and I wish her all the luck in the future!

This one's got the eyes of super model!

I had the opportunity to photograph another newborn yesterday. It took Declan about 40 minutes to get settled, but when he was ready he seemed to be happy as a clam. The mood of the baby is always worth the wait! but oh! is he gorgeous! He has this little newborn face, but with these adult eyes and manly expressions. I am so happy that I got to meet him and his little messes. I tell you Declan obviously eats very well. Please don't ask me how I know..a photographer never tells. Let's just say he holds the record.

Seriously though...he was amazing!

the Importance of a Wedding Coordinator

I have been meaning to blog about my meeting with Laura for awhile now, but the studio has been so busy. It's funny we met last weekend so that I could show her my new wedding albums and to show her my newer portfolio, and I haven't stopped thinking about her. Not in that weird kind of way though :)

I have only worked with a coordinator barely a handful of times, but I can tell you the good ones are worth every penny. I have been to a ton of weddings where everything does run smoothly, but mom and dad and the aunts that help are so busy making sure all of the details are in place that they are literally exhausted by the time the speeches are made. Laura from Noteworthy designs is professional, fun and personable. I have met with her twice now and she has finger on the pulse of what is going on in Medicine Hat wedding circuit.

The other element of Laura's business is wedding stationary. The stationary that she creates is astonishingly beautiful. She also designs everyday stationary as well as special occasion cards. In fact I was so taken with some of her ideas I hope to be working with her for the creation of my baby announcements.



I want to personally thank Laura for being there when I first was starting out and for sharing her great info on Becker. You are awesome and I already have read everything that was written and watched every video.

If anyone is interested in checking any of her work and want to view her site you can find it here

New Gear!

I spent the last few says researching and making final decisions on what gear I wanted to add to my arsonal for the summer of 2008. After a ton, and I mean a ton of deliberation I settled on a new 40D and another beautiful piece of L Glass. For those readers who are Canon users, the L lens professional series is a group of lenses that we all apsire to own and collect. They are sharp as a tack and sturdy as a tank. Here are some of my first few shots that I have taken with it. Again, a special thanks to my daughter for allowing me to photograph her even though she had just gotten home from school and really wanted to watch family channel instead!

family portraits

I had a very nice ending to a weekend of shooting. On Sunday afternoon I shot the Selwood family's family portraits. The four of them had such an easy attitude! It was fantastic to catch a few shots of Brody stroking his brother in a such a gentle way. I had thought that we would take these photos into a direction that I hadn't tried before, we went for more "relationship" style photos. I really think we managed to catch them "in the act" of being a great loving family! Thanks for the lovely afternoon guys!

It's getting hot in here!

This weekend I got to do another TFP shoot with Adriane. She took me out to this garage where her and her boyfriend have been working on their Lotus. For anyone who knows me knows that I know nothing about cars except for washing them. It was pretty cool and I would have to say that even I was floored by such a fun looking car. We shot some in the one that she is currently working in and then shot a little with one that was already finished and for sale!

Sitting fees

I rarely post anything here but photos and studio happenings. I want to talk about sitting fees, and since it's directly related to Madchen Studios I think it belongs here. You will find sitting fees at most portrait studios. Why do we have this weird fee some may ask. This fee includes a ton of different elements in getting you to the studio to posting your photos on your gallery. The studio fee session includes;
1. The initial phone consultation (advice about backgrounds and clothing choices)
2. Setting up the studio for your session. (every session in completely unique and I try to get everything ready before you come.) Typically the hour before you come I spend setting up lights, putting up the appropriate backdrop, making sure that the props we need are all ready to go, and doing test shots.
3. The time spent shooting. Generally this is only an hour, but sometimes it happily runs over.
4. Clean up of props and backgrounds. (lol...sometimes we have little ones who pee on the props, those definately need to be washed!) Seriously though, all of my toys, blankets and backgrounds are cleaned after every use.
5. Unloading and indexing the photos onto the computer.
6. Backing up the session's raw file to an external hard drive and burn it all to disk as well
7. Going through all of the photos, taking out the "blinky" eyes and weird expressions as well
8. Making minor adjustments to photos
9. Developing each photo into an image. (because I shoot raw I go through each photo individually and convert it into a tiff or jpeg image after making some adjustments.
10. Fully photoshoping a few selected images so that they are remastered for colour and clarity.
11. Loading everything into an online gallery
12. Customizing your online gallery (everyones password is different!)
13. An email or phone call letting you know that your gallery is ready for viewing
14. All consultations and advice about your ordering process.

Suddenly the $60.00 sitting fee looks super reasonable! Honestly, I love doing it and I love the entire process especially when my clients get exactly what they are looking for in their photos and their photographer.

I just want to remind my clients that the sitting fees are due at the time of the session. IF not, I do all the above work for free and that doesn't seem to be the right way to run a business.

These are my kids letting me test some lighting on them. Note the dirty knees, faces and the fake hey I like you smiles!


and then my hubby allowing me to test some things on him.