Here is the culmination of the portrait series I shot of Crystal, documenting the pregnancy and birth of her new son Andrew.  Crystal and her family were amazingly patient with all the shoots through the months and were just great to work with.  It turned into a real labour of love for both of us, and I think the end-product – an album that captures the story of little Andrew’s arrival into the world – turned out wonderfully.

Catching up on the portrait sessions, here is part 3 of the series I shot for Crystal and Shane.  The previous session documented Crystal at full term, shortly after which she and Shane welcomed little Andrew into their family.  Accompanied by his parents and older sister Allyson, Andrew came into the studio just a few days into the world.  I’ll soon be posting the culmination of all these shoots: a series that shows the full progress of Crystal from pregnancy to birth.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.  In the meantime, here are some select faves from the latest shoot.

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I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of wonderful families and photographing their young ones as they grow through the years.  This particular series of little Jasper will be one of my most in-depth shoots as I document his passage through each of the seasons of his first year.

It’s always amazing how quickly babies change in their first year.  Having taken his picture as a newborn earlier this summer, Jasper had clearly moved beyond the fresh new baby look and was now filling out his little “I rock” t-shirt.  No longer a sleepy newborn, he was fully awake for the entire shoot and gazing intently at the bright colours of the fall evening as Julie and Devin pushed him along in his stroller.

It was interesting to see little hints of his developing personality come through.  Jasper seems to be a pretty stoic little guy, but already in possession of what looks to be a keen sense of humor: it usually took some patience to catch a smile, but to my and Julie’s amusement, Jasper seemed to like smiling whenever Devin was forced to fetch the stroller, move a bag, or perform some other chore (apparently this wasn’t the first time he responded happily to watching his dad exert himself).

We stopped along Wellington Crescent to take advantage of the sunset colours before going back to take some shots of the family hanging out in the home. Looking forward to next time and getting Jasper into a little snowsuit in the snow!  In the meantime, some faves from this 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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