These were all taken on a cloudy + rainy day in my parents’ backyard.   Jenny and I headed to Value Village for some ‘interesting’ wardrobe inspiration, and found this awesome 80’s hat/veil and old-school nightgown.   (Yes, I do realize how lucky I am to have a sister who will put on somebody’s old night gown and a hat veil just so I can have some fun.)  :D

I was inspired to shoot this after picking up the latest Grace Ormonde – love that magazine!  Here’s the cover shot by Philippe Lee that inspired me to pull out the chair:  HERE.

And here is what I came up with:

Cold, wet, dirty leaves + pretty Jenny = cool shot.

I think hat veils should come back in style.  :P  Did anyone out there (or anyone’s mother) actually wear one of these at their wedding?  I’m curious as to how popular they were…..

Second favourite:

Favourite:

I like this one too.  Very classic.I hope this was proof  enough that all you need for a super fun shoot is some weird old clothing and a willing model.

Get out there and make some pretty pictures!   I hope you’re all having a great Thursday.   :)

So here is my gorgeous little sister, who was willing to have me work my amateur make up and hair skillz on her, and force her to lay down in the cold wet grass.  What a trooper.  Thanks Jens!  :)

Brrr…. it was pretty soaking grass. The two below may be  my favourites.   Again – brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

These were outside as well,  on a red blanket that happened to be the same shade as the dress.  By this time Jenny couldn’t feel her feet.   (Ooops.)

Fun hey?  I also dressed her up in a white dress and an awesome veil/hat straight out of the 80’s – I’ll post those in a few days.  Hope you’re all having a good Wednesday!

Note: If you are super serious about acting or modeling and are looking for a headshot photographer, I’m not your gal. There are tons of photographers in Vancouver who specialize in this type of photography, like Gordan Dumka or Kevin Clarke.

It felt a little strange not shooting wide open – (I wanted to make sure Laura’s entire face was tack sharp for these, whereas normally I just worry about the eyes) and it also felt strange not doing any ‘moving’ pictures – normally during a family or kids portrait session I’m looking for a laugh or a ‘real’ moment… but for headshots images like that wouldn’t really work.

I think if Rachel McAdams and Anne Hathaway had a love child, it would look just like Laura:

We took some of these shots at the old abandoned mall in Cloverdale. Not gonna lie, it was a tad sketchy – but the cool brick was worth it.

I love the angle and the moss in this one.

Fun fact for you all: I used to dabble in acting when I was younger.  True story!  Here’s my first headshot, age 16! (taken by Gordan Dumka).  Anyone else think I look really scared?  I probably was.  :P

I hope you’re all having an excellent Monday!

Now, this post has absolutely nothing to do with the seminar.  :P

Before I posted pictures from this weekend, I figured I should update the blog with something I did a couple weeks ago.  I’m a part of a group called Vancouver Photographers and Second Shooters.  It’s basically a bunch of Vancouver photographers who hang out, share ideas, and help eachother out – it is awesome.  I don’t get to go to the events too often because I’m pretty busy way out here on the other side of the bridge, but I manged to make it out to this one and it rocked!

Amber Hughes is an amazing Vancouver photographer (as well as my sister’s wedding photographer this past July!).  She led a photowalk to help teach everyone her awesome off camera lighting techniques.  What I ended up with looks quite a bit different than my usual style, but it was so cool to learn a new skill that I can put to use if ever want something a little different, or need to shoot at night.

As I was mostly focusing on learning the lighting, anything cool is totally thanks to the posing ideas of our fantastic models.   Thanks girls!

Thank you SO much to Amber for teaching, and Tracey & Libby for organizing.   I had a great time, and learned a bunch!

Right now Adam (my fiance) and I are almost finished our Marriage Prep courses (to be married in a Catholic Church you have to take some  prep classes).  One thing they stress a lot at these classes is that marriage is something that you constantly work at.  One of the couples that came in to speak to us at a class really stressed the point that even when you have kids, you have to keep your relationship with each other your priority (even over the children).  Their logic for this is that if you don’t, you will drift apart – and end up not providing a good loving example for the kids anyway.  I thought that was a really good point.  So then along came Jen and Brad, providing a real life example of just that.  I think that it’s the coolest thing ever that in the midst of raising two busy little ones they managed to remember how important their relationship is, and to book a portrait session with just the two of them.

We met up a little before sunset at one of my new favourite locations in White Rock:

Apparently this field was crawling with spiders.  Jen is not a huge fan of spiders.  Thank goodness the only one who noticed them was Brad, and he kindly waited until we were out of the field to let us know (cause I’m a pretty big fan of these shots):

I swear I didn’t even notice this spider web when I shot this  (it came out a lot more pronounced after editing than in the original image).  Might have been a good clue as to spiders being in the field though.  :P

I like sun a lot, but cloud cover sure is nice for shots like this.  Did I mention I love fall?

Pretty pretty Jen.

We found this cool semi old car and junk pile on our walk.  I was pretty stoked.

Love this.

And this.

Thanks again you guys, I hope you love them as much as I do!