Healthy Start for Mom & Me is a program that’s offered out of downtown Winnipeg to provide support to young mothers and their children. The government agency that funds the program is going to be putting out a book on its funded projects, and Davorka who is one of the longest serving dietitians in the group gets to be featured!

An environmental portrait assignment is always interesting – trying to capture people in context is a creative challenge I enjoy.  Props are fun too!  Shooting in a church gym and in black & white wasn’t necessarily ideal for a “food/diet” based shoot, but it was nicely lit in there and I got to play around a bit with my new Nikon gear during this quick and fun shoot.  Props to Healthy Start and Davorka!

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: