With the autumn season moving along, often times the challenge is to fit in a shoot before you run out of daylight.  With Stephanie & Dale’s engagement portraits, we decided to embrace the early evening and try out some cool sunset shots.  Even with a stiff breeze, a quickly darkening sky, and a warm supper waiting for them at their family’s place, Steph and Dale were more than game and were wonderfully patient as I slopped through mud puddles and fiddled with my gear in the dark.  Some faves from the session:

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This has been one of the nicest Octobers that I can remember for taking pictures – cool and crisp days with big blue skies and that slightly softer light from the autumn sun.  Though a little breezy, Amanda and Dwayne picked as nice a day as you could ask for to do their engagement session.  I met them at the St-Boniface Basilica and got to take some great shots of them in that golden afternoon light.  Though we started out with just Amanda and Dwayne, it wasn’t long before we decided to rouse the little man Jackson, who had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the shoot.  It didn’t Jackson long to shake the cobwebs out and start motoring around and exploring the church grounds – he must have felt pretty rested because we must have followed him around the entire ruins a good two or three times.  Most importantly, his catnap didn’t mess up his awesome little mohawk.  Some faves from the session:

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Usually early April is spent mucking about in mittens & rubber boots, stomping on puddles that froze overnight and form that thin covering of ice that’s so much fun to stomp, and wondering just how high the river is going to get. Not the case at all this year, as I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the warmest, driest, and nicest spring that I can recall since moving to Winnipeg.  It’s also afforded some much earlier opportunities to shoot portraits outdoors.

It had been a few years since I’d last been to King’s Park so I was looking forward to meeting Christel and Tony there for their engagement session. The weather certainly cooperated and it was almost surreal – bright sun & blue skies like summer, but with all the foliage still hidden away making it look quite like late autumn.  Made for some very nice combos of blue and yellow/orange.

And what a fun-loving couple to shoot!  Whether they were sitting patiently as I fiddled with my gear, or sending text messages to each other, or trying to strike a serious pose in front of the camera, it seemed hardly a moment went by without one or the other bursting out into laughter.  I must have spent half of the time either waiting for them to stop laughing or waiting for myself to stop cracking up. It’s always a pleasure to photograph couples who clearly enjoy each others’ company, and Christel and Tony exuded it in spades that day.  With this much fun on the engagement shoot, I can’t wait to see what their wedding day is like…

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As I walked out to the car today, it was hard to believe that it was the middle of March and that full-on winter was only a few weeks ago.  With the fields poking their heads out from under the snow and the evenings suddenly one hour longer thanks to daylight savings, it’s as if someone fast-forwarded us into spring…

But before we leave the cold weather behind completely, here’s a wintry engagement session with Anjali and Arun.  We pretty much closed our eyes and picked the date of the shoot a month in advance, and much to our luck and delight, we managed to pick out the first weekend that kicked off our current warm spell.  There was still plenty of snow on the ground at the time and the Forks was packed with snowboarders, skaters, and people out and about enjoying the sunshine.

We started the session outside and Anjali and Arun were kind enough to appease my whimsy and muck through drifts of snow for me – there were some nice wintry blues to be had!  And though it was a nice enough day, 45 minutes of standing around in the snow is enough to chill anyone, so we wandered inside to warm up.  I don’t often get to sit down and chat with my subjects in the middle of a shoot, but we sat down in a patch of sun with our hot chocolates and got a chance to talk about the Olympics, traveling in Europe, and East Indian food.  Even though I’ve shot my fair share of Indian weddings, I definitely learned a thing or two with the inside scoop from Anjali and Arun.  An informative coffee break!

We finished up the shoot inside the building, playing with patches of light from the setting sun.  All in all, a great way to kick off the engagement sessions this year.  Here are a few of my faves:

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It’s been a busier than expected fall so I’m a bit behind in keeping the blog up to date.  Thankfully it’s been a pretty nice autumn so far and being busy has meant that I’ve had the chance to take some nice fall pics.  One of the first fall sessions was with Della and Phil for their engagement portrait session.  Through the course of their recent travels outside of the city, they had come across this great little parcel of land out in Blumenort. With the owner’s permission, we spent a lovely Sunday afternoon wandering through woods, fields, an old farmstead, an old manger, and amongst some retired heavy machinery. I was like a kid in a candy store with all the colours and environments to work with, and Phil even brought his guitar along to boot.  A very pleasant way to spend a fall Sunday afternoon.