I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to kick off the spring wedding season – blue skies, green trees, and a lovely young couple that couldn’t wait to get married.  There were some excited nerves at first – Crystal waiting on the final touches of her hair and veil, while Nathan patiently paced in the dark at the back of the church.  But everything got off without a hitch and after a very pleasant ceremony, we spent the afternoon roaming about Whittier Park and the Forks, capping off the evening with a reception back at the church. I was impressed with the details at the wedding, particularly the flower arrangements which Crystal put together herself.  Congrats Crystal & Nathan!  It was a vibrant day and entirely fun to shoot!  Some faves from the day:

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Our second child was delivered by a midwife tandem and it turned out to be a very positive experience for us (thanks Janice & Jen!).  And with the Midwives Association of Manitoba looking to launch a new website, it didn’t take much convincing to get behind this shoot.

The studio saw a steady stream of babies, their mothers, and the midwives that helped bring them into the world. As always, it’s an enjoyable challenge to shoot under some creative direction. The aim was to create fresh and happy-feeling images so we stuck mostly with a clean white look.  And though I really appreciate the use of colour harmony in pictures, I don’t often get a chance to purposefully apply it myself, so it was also fun working with the brown and green accents throughout the shoot.

Some of my faves from the session:

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I was excited when I got Crystal and Shane’s e-mail: not only was it a chance to work again with one of my great former wedding clients, but also in that they were keen to participate in this maternity series idea I’ve had floating around for awhile.

At this first session, Crystal was about 5 months into her pregnancy and, for the most part, was hard to tell that she was even expecting! I look forward to documenting her progress as she gets closer to term.  Some sneak peeks from the first session:

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I love having the time and freedom to mess around with different styles and lighting setups for headshots.  This was the case with Kevin as we took our time in the studio trying out different looks in the quest for some good shots.  For someone who’d never had their portraits taken before, Kevin seemed pretty comfortable in front of the camera.  With creative license and an easy subject, it was a very enjoyable shoot.  Some of my favorites from the session:

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As you probably already know, I’m really into great lighting for portraiture.  I like to say that you can have the most beautiful background with the most amazing colours and composition, but if you have poor lighting, you’ll end up with a bad portrait.  On the other hand, you can have the ugliest or most non-descript location in the world, but add good lighting, and you’ll still get a good portrait.

So I’m definitely excited for our studio (the Creative Exchange) to be hosting the Real Light Workshop by Troy Moth.  Troy is a fashion/editorial photographer out of Toronto who has done work internationally for magazines including Rolling Stone and Vogue. He’ll be stopping in Winnipeg on July 10th and 11th to give a two-day workshop on fashion photography and on-location shooting. As an aficionado of light in portraits, I really enjoy the lighting that Troy uses to create his high impact portraits and I look forward to getting an inside look into how he sets up his shots.  Likewise, if you’re a photographer and you’re interested in learning some of the latest techniques for shooting fashion or just want to get a fresh angle on how to improve your portrait-taking, I recommend you come out to the workshop.  For more details or to register for the workshop, visit the workshop information page on the studio’s website.