Erin and Brett were married in 2007 and I had the privilege and pleasure of being the photographer for their wedding.  A couple of the shots from the wedding – the ones of the bridesmaids and groomsmen smoking cigars in the Exchange District – remain my favorite to this day.  Fast forward two years and they’ve swapped cigars + wedding attire for diapers + one very cute baby named Nico.

Just like his parents, smiling comes easily and naturally to Nico and he seemed happy as a plum to just hang out with his parents in front of the camera.  I especially enjoyed the little “karate kid” pictures we took – a tribute to Brett’s Japanese ancestry.  Congrats to the new & beautiful family!

I’ve done my fair share of Filipino weddings and have worked with some pretty big wedding parties, but I think the entourage for Ariane and Ryan’s wedding takes the cake – this one nearly filled the stairs at the St-Boniface Basilica!  And though it’d be easy to get lost in a group that big, Ariane and Ryan never had a problem standing out from the crowd – with their great smiles and quickness to laughter, they were easily one of the most expressive and easy-to-photograph couples I’ve had the pleasure of working with.  It also didn’t hurt to have their cute little son Alexander around to help steal the show.  Congratulations to the newly married family!  A few sneak peeks:

It’s been fun mixing up the shooting lately.  On wedding shoots, I usually try to keep everyone comfortable by working quickly and not taking a ton of time to set up any particular shot, relying more on spontaneity and whatever catches my eye at the moment. It’s fun and challenging to be creative on my feet, while also aiming to keep the wedding party reasonably relaxed, happy, and on time.

Studio portraits are always different in that they allow for a lot more control of the lighting and the background.  With Heidi’s shoot, there were several specific looks that we were after from the outset, so it was an enjoyable challenge figuring out how to use all this control at my disposal to try and achieve those looks.  And despite never having modelled before (not to mention having recently cracked a rib), Heidi was a natural in front of the camera and was a great subject to work with.  Here are a few of my faves from the session:

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, so haven’t been able to update this blog as frequently, but it’s time to start catching up.  Julie and Dan got married on what was one of the few surefire nice weather Saturdays of this summer. Just a super nice couple who were really great to work with (plus Dan is an Oilers fan so you can’t go wrong there).  The wedding party was a lot of fun and full of characters too, but I think Dan’s father may have taken the prize for the most “expressive” moments in front of the camera.  I’ve been to Pine Ridge Hollow many a time, but this was my first time shooting at the Pine Ridge Golf course and I was surprised by not only how nice it was, but also how much freedom we had to shoot on the course itself.  A beautiful day for a beautiful wedding – here are some of the sneak peeks:

Summer is mostly taken up mostly by wedding shoots for me, so the chance to shoot a portrait session during the week in the studio is often a welcome change of pace.  This was especially the case with Anroup and Nathan who wanted to do a theme shoot.  I had the privilege of shooting their wedding several years ago, and ran into them again earlier this summer when I photographed Anroup’s sister’s wedding.  It was during a break in the action at her sister’s wedding that Anroup mentioned she had picked up a dress she thought would look good in a 50′s style shoot.  My interest was definitely piqued, and a few weeks later, she and Nathan came down to the studio loaded with outfits and props.  After getting their hair done up in proper 50′s fashion (hat-tip to Laura Loewen who did a fabulous job of the hair on-location), it didn’t take long for them to get right into their roles, whether hamming it up in the studio or being kitschy out and about in the streets.  A definite blast to shoot – here are a few favorites from the session: