Blog Carousel - Summer Nights : : Cambridge Children's Photographer

Being a photographer can be a lonely profession.  After the fun of the session or event is over, there are many hours spent in isolation hunched over the computer; reviewing, editing, ordering, blog posting and scanning blogs and forums for inspiration.  To avoid full hermit-status, I am lucky enough to have found a wonderful group of ladies (who happen to be fellow photographers) to gather for a night out of food, drink and lots of photography talk!  We have been known to be the last table out of the restaurant, oblivious to the hovering staff who are eager to depart. A while ago it was suggested that as a group we should try a blog carousel.  Okay, I admit it, it was my idea.  Am I brilliant, or what?  LOL   Actually, it just so happens that I think that my friends are very talented photographers and I want you to see their gorgeous images and creative ideas.

My image for the theme "Summer Nights" was taken during a visit to Valens Conservation Area a few weeks ago.  You can see more images from this excursion here.  This image was included in the storyboards I created for that post, but I loved it so much I had to use it for the carousel (and make it a canvas for my wall!).

To me this image captures one way to spend a perfect summer night: fishing with a sturdy stick, some fishing line, a hook and a worm, waiting excitedly but patiently for the fish to bite.  I spent so many wonderful summer evenings fishing on the docks in my hometown of Port Elgin, with the sun setting around me and my sand bucket full of tiny perch.  Such a simple pleasure but one that I love sharing with my girls.

Check out my friend Sandra Medeiros' interpretation of the theme "Summer Nights" here.  She is an amazing wedding and portrait photographer and also happens to be my classmate at photography school!

Mandy

Summer Day : : Kitchener Family Photographer

Yesterday we spent the day at a local tourist getaway, Valens Conservation Area.  Located between Hamilton and Cambridge, it has a small beach, lots of camping sites, barbeque pits and hiking trails galore.  The perfect place to spend a gorgeous summer day. We were invited by my best friend, who was camping with her godson and friends, to come out for the day to enjoy the conservation area's natural beauty.  So we packed a lunch, grabbed our swimsuits, bug spray and sunscreen and jumped into Vannicus Maximus (my name for our minivan).  Needless to say, we had a fantastic day swimming, hiking, fishing and enjoying camping life.  A campfire and S'mores rounded out the day and we climbed back into the van for the voyage back to reality, sunburned, dirty and gleefully bone-tired.

One Hour Photo # 2 : : Kitchener Children's Photographer

I really loved the challenge of One Hour Photo the last time I tried it out.  It is a great way to force myself be creative and organized in a short span of time.  This time around, I had a bit of extra time, so I decided that I would attempt to imclude my post-processing time in the hour! My girls had been at the sitter's and were running through the sprinkler nearly all day long.  They were soaked, in their undies (because I forgot to send swimsuits), covered in grass and other undetermined debris,  and I sent them straight to the bathtub when they stepped through the door.  I decided it was the perfect chance to get some images, since usually they are in the tub at night and the light is atrocious.  Every time I try to get pictures of them in the tub they are too grainy and blurry to even try to process.  This is because we have an older home and our tub is not a lovely reflective white.  Oh no, it is urine yellow with black accents, as are the walls, counter, toilet, sink.  It even has a lovely tropical flamingo mural to enjoy while you are sudsing-up!  Not the easiest environment to get nice images.  But that is a whole other post...

I really wanted to get a candid shot of the girls together in the tub, but my little darlings, who I can't usually convince to look directly at the camera, insisted on posing and mugging like crazy.  Sigh.  Finally I decided I was going to have to take what I could get and just let them look at me.  The resulting image was my favourite of the whole shoot.  I just love the angle, the framing and their expressions.  I think I might even enlarge it and put it in the hall outside the bathroom (because the bathroom walls are covered in huge, impenetrable,  formica tiles).

Here is the image, entitled Tub Time.

After I got the girls out of the tub, dried and into fresh clothes.  I went to let out the water in the tub.  They had left their toys  behind and I couldn't resist snapping a shot.  I have entitled this image Secret Synchro Practice.

Just for the record, I completed this round of One Hour Photo in exactly 53 minutes and 13 seconds, including processing for both images! Ta-da!!!

Canada Day at the Cottage : : Tobermory Family Photographer

My family is the kind of family who actually like to vacation together.  Weird, right?  We enjoy each other's company, we love to play games and cards and we cherish every moment we spend creating new memories. Tobermory, on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, has long been our destination of choice for a summer getaway.  In fact, my mom has been going since she was a child and my parents honeymooned there!  About 14 years ago my parents invested in a cottage and we have spent countless summer hours enjoying the peace and breathtaking beauty of our little log cabin.  Purchased from a retired school marm, it was sold to us fillled to the brim with furniture, dishes, decor and various oddities and art.  We kept much of the kitsch, just to maintain the cottage atmosphere...we are firm believers that a cottage should be the bare essentials and tacky decor , not a second home!

As the years have passed, we have made it a family tradition for everybody to load into the car for the three hour drive up Highway 6 to our little haven to celebrate Canada Day.  Some years we had up to 21 people and 4 dogs, all crammed into a cottage (with a separate "bunkie") that sleeps a maximum of 7 at best!  It was not unusual to have to step over numerous bodies on the way to the bathroom in the morning.

However, now that my parents are getting older and the family is growing as more babies are born, there is an unspoken understanding that the Canada Day weekend is now reserved for only my parents, me, my girls and hubby and my brother.  Sometimes my Grandma joins us too.  It feels so good to have our little group together, enjoying books, swimming (if you are crazy enough to jump in when it's only 56 degrees Fahrenheit!) and eating.  We love watching from our front deck as fireworks explode in the sky, holding our collective breath as my girls scramble over the rocks with expert balance and coordination, the dog swimming and chasing ducks that stray too close, breakfast cooked solely on the BBQ and talking and reading late into the night, with a sure promise of an afternoon nap the next day.  Cottage life is the best!

Here is a collection of images from this past Canada weekend that represent my family and our cottage.  Here's to many happy memories yet to be made!

1.  Wildflower bouquet  2. Kitschy lamps  3.  My girlies  4.  Mom  5. Dad  6.  Fire for roasting marshmallows  7.  Nightly rituals  8. Ben  9.  Old School doors  10.  Photos of the cottage from the '70s  11. Carl and Brielle  12. Fireworks!  13.  My favourite seagull mobile (they are two!)  14. Rustic chairs with well-used cushions  15. Games cupboard  16. My favourite painting, love the mood  17. Bathroom sign...classy  18.  Cottage clutter creates atmosphere  19. The official name of our cottage  20. The bunkie  21. Grandma 22. Emery making pancakes  23. Me!  24.  My favourite view when reading  25.  Happy Canada Day!

52 Weeks - Week 23

Well, I am a bit behind on this project (again), but I do have an image I would like to share. This week's image is one that I took during their first night at the family cottage this summer.  It may not be the most technically sound or creatively composed, but it makes my heart happy.  For me this image represents two thing: sisterhood and growth.

My girls have always been close and while there are days that I think they may acutally kill each other, more often than not they can be found snuggled togther on the couch or off playing some game they have devised to pass the time.  I am so happy that they cry when they are apart, laugh when they are together and are each other's best friend.

And every day, the inevitable march of time creates growth in their minds and bodies, which I love and detest at the same time.  I want them to slow down and stay small so I don't miss a thing and at the same time to grow and learn and become the people they are destined to be...ahh, the trials and triumphs of motherhood.  In particular, this photo expresses growth as it shows my oldest daughter reading to her younger sister.  How I love to see them curled together, Brielle sounding out the words, more confident each day, while Emery listens raptly, adoration in her eyes. I am glad my girls will always have each other.  Wow, this is a super sappy post.  I guess I need them now and again, right?

Here is my image, entitled First Night at the Cottage.

One Hour Photo

One of my favourite photographers to check out for inspiration and new ideas is Brandy Anderson of Fresh Sugar Photography.   She is based in Calgary and creates stunning child and family portraits.  She recently posted on her blog that she was going to attempt to complete an image (including brainstorming, model-rangling, light-finding and image-snapping) in just one hour and included her first attempts, which are some gorgeous images of her girls. I thought it would be fun to try this little challenge, if for no other reason than my only willing (well, mostly willing but mainly bribed) subjects are my own girls, and getting an hour of shoot time out of them is a miracle!  Not straying too far from Brandy's idea, I headed out to the backyard with my girls and gave myself an hour from start to finish.  As usual, the first five minutes were fine, and then chaos began to reign.

My oldest, Brielle is usually pretty good at taking some direction and listening, but she had a case of the giggles, so I just kept snapping away, hoping for something where her face wasn't completely goofy.  I was standing awkwardly on the top of the playcentre, which she found hysterical and kept asking if I was going to slide down the fireman's pole to get down (the answer is NO.)

Meanwhile, my youngest, Emery managed to strip herself naked and was careening around the driveway at a pace that would surely result in the eventual need for several Band-Aids.  I had to abandon my giggle girl to get control of my little exhibitionist before my hour ended in tears or a hospital visit.

I managed to corral her in the garage (Brandy was right, great light in there) where she got her underwear back on (backwards, of course) and let me brush the grass out of her hair (not sure where it came from) and we got situated.  I'm not gonna lie, the idea for the image of Emery is exactly the same concept as Brandy used, but I used a different angle for a new perspective, and to try to get a shot of her great lashes (they must be from my hubby, my eyelids are practically bald!).

So, here is my first attempt at One Hour Photo.  Thanks again Brandy for the great idea!

52 Weeks - Week 22

Here are a couple of images from this week that I took of my girls.  They only cooperate for so long and rewards don't seem to be working as well as they used to...I guess they have finally wised up to my games.  Oh well, at least they will never be able to say that there are no pictures them when they grow up!

Little Miss Paula

There has been a spring baby boom around here!  I love seeing all these new little babes born in the spring, as the world blossoms around them. My session with Miss Paula was an eventful one, with lots of stubborn eye-opening and squirming, peeing and nursing, but I managed to get a few precious shots of her, and even a couple of her proud new big brother (though not together, unfortunately!). 

Thanks Julia, Gerry and Declan for letting me capture (and snuggle) your new little princess.

52 Weeks - Week 17

This week I put together a little collage of one of my favourite activites with my girls - pedicure night.  About once a month I set up a mini-pedicure at home, where I soak and massage their feet and then trim and paint their nails.  They love it (of course) and it gives me a reason and chance to do some  nail care without any argument.  Sometime I do their fingernails too, but with one nail-biter and one who sucks her fingers occasionally, I prefer to keep the nail polish out of their bellies! This time, I went a step further, with a mini-studio set-up, including a book rack with a selection of their faves, lemonade (sugar-free) to sip, and new Webkinz puppies waiting to be their spa companions.  I just felt like after a long winter, they needed a little extra special pampering in readiness for spring and flip-flop season!

As you can imagine, it is pretty trick to get shots while massaging, polishing and keeping them still,  but I snapped a couple and put them together for this week's post.  Here is the image, entitled Pampered Princesses.

Now, if only I could get them to do this for me! LOL

 

Manulife Family Day at KWAG

Manulife is currently sponsoring an exhibit at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, and to encourage more culture among its employees (whom they force to sit in grey cubicles in a grey building staring at grey computers all day, and thus are going slowly colour blind), they offered a free family day at the gallery.  My hubby got the invite at work and we signed up to take the girls for an art adventure. We had a fantastic time, making clay bugs, painting portraits (well, the girls were more abstract, but fun nonetheless), designing buttons and creating finger puppets.  In the end, we had a large collection of colourful art and lots of great memories.  I took some shots as we made our way through the different galleries and activities, though not as many as usual, since I was busy feeding another creative outlet with art! 

Here is a collage of images from the day.  I realized, as I put it together, that I once again managed to forget put myself  in the photos, but as I said, I was too busy having fun and making art!

Family Photos (or "The best we can get while my kids are standing still").

So yesterday, with the advent of some lovely warm weather and four fresh haricuts, I decided to attempt some family portraits.  Big mistake.  Firstly, I chose the wrong type of light.  The sun was too high for backlight, and was mostly in our eyes.  I just got so excited that there was sun, I just didn't take the time to plan timing, location, lighting conditions, etc.  I know, I know, what a rookie mistake!  Thanks goodness they are only for me!  Secondly, I chose the wrong location.  It is a forest near our house that I have had good succes with for some previuous shoots (as well as great hikes).  However, I didn't anticipate how muddy and slippery our adventure would be.  Well, actually, I did anticipate it, but shooting fever swept me into deep denial.  Not to  mention, there was no open shade in this lovely forest, just a deadly combination of a million tree branches and low sun.  This equals a bazillion shadows on our faces and  it forced us to duck, dodge and squat to avoid some of the worst shadows,  especially me!  Needless to say, moving is painful today.

Thirdly, I had two little girls, who love mud, traipsing around in white shirts and new ballet flats.  Enough said, I am clearly insane.

So after begging, bribing, swearing in my head, running to beat the self-timer (at least ten times), misplacing my tripod, a toad scare ( the damn thing jumped right on my foot!  I love toads but not by surprise) and a treacherous hike in and out of the woods, I ended up with a few nice shots of the girls and ONE of the family.  That's right, ONE.  Sigh.  I guess we will have to do this all over again...but not anytime soon.

(Please excuse the inconstent editing styles.  They are just for me so I had some fun playing!)

Okay, This last one is unedited, right-out-of-the-camera,  but I think it captures the essence of what we went through to get these images.   

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Spring has sprung around here and what better way to get out and enjoy the warmer weather and light breezes than with a little kite-flying.  I grabbed my girls and headed for the huge parking lot down the street to test our kite skills.  The first day (when I left my camera home, of course) was a smashing success, with both girls getting their kites up and away, at least for a few minutes. We had such a blast that we decided to head out againg the next evening, with the neighbour's son in tow, and this time I came armed and ready to capture our glorious feats of aerodynamic prowess.  However, we quickly discovered that the strong wind gusts were causing the the kites to nose dive recklessly at break-neck speed, scattering the child spectators in every direction as I tried mightily to keep it airborne long enough to pass off.  I did manage to succeed a couple of times, but then I would have to spend ten minutes getting it flying again before the next attempt.  Obviously, they quickly lost interest and I had to resort to getting them to run with the kite on a short string.  Oh well, not the beautiful images I conceptualized, but better than nothing, right? 

Adorable Cousins

The winter blahs are in full swing over here at MBP and I am going stir-crazy!  I need to get out and shoot, but really, who wants pictures in a landscape that is comprised of grey-brown snowbanks and yellow grass and naked trees?  Nonetheless, I put the call out on Facebook to see if anyone would be kind enough to indulge my need for shutter speed and thankfully, I got a response! My friend Lara and her twin sister Tara have been kind enough in the past to let me photograph their little duts and were up for the challenge again.  We all headed to our local city hall for an impromptu session, me armed with my camera and a package of Skittles and they with armloads of adorable clothes.

Little Miss Ava and Mister Nate were absolutely fantastic (as usual) and we got some great images!  Here is a sneak peek for you, ladies, since I know you are anxious to see what we got!

Summer Dreams

I just thought I would share this image of my daughter Brielle enjoying some "inside sunshine".  It was -9 degrees outside but the sun was shining bright.  The next thing I knew there was a towel spread, a bikini and sunglasses donned and a plate of snacks being nibbled.  Nothing like a indoor winter picnic to make your summer dreams come true!

Winter Mini Sessions

Brave the cold for some beautiful images in a snowy, winter wonderland!  Take advantage of these glorious winter days with a 30 minute mini session.  A limited number of sessions will be available on weekends between January 22 and March 5, 2011 (dependent upon weather and previously booked sessions).  Contact me at info@mandyblakephotography.com to book your session now!

Practice Makes Perfect

I have been a bit lazy about getting out and just taking pictures for the sake of taking them.   I decided that with school starting this week and my first shoot of the year next weekend, I had better get in gear!  The last couple of days have been beautiful and sunny and the snow is powdery and light, so I coudn't pass up the opportunity to get out and practice.  I actually had a willing participant (she is trying to earn "good girl stickers" to get a new video game), so I grabbed my gear before she changed her mind. 

I have recently joined a new photography discussion forum and have been reading up on all sorts of tips and tricks and I was eager to try and use what I had learned.  In the end though I just ended up working purely on focus and exposure, which still need work!  Oh well, if nothing else I had a wonderful little session with my big girl and a few great smapshots for the family album!

Lots of black and white...seems I got so caught up watching histograms and trying to get my focus just right that my colours went right out the window!  LOL 

Oh well, one day it will all come together!

My Beautiful Little Cousins

My mom's side of the family all came down for New Year's Day to celebrate a late Christmas.  It was really rainy here, which melted all the snow  and made the temperatures pretty mild.  My cousin had booked a session with me for some extended family photos back in Novemeber, but she wasn't able to work around all of her family's schedule to make it work so we postponed.  Since that session didn't happen, I thought I would at least try to get some quick shots while the kids were all here.  The rain was a bit of a challenge, but in the end I  just opened one of the garage doors and had the kids stand inside to keep dry (I was soaked of course, but thank goodness for waterproof camera covers!).  I managed to get a few nice ones of all four of my little cousins   See if you can pick out the siblings (I'll give you a hint:  there is a boy and a girl in each family).

Good genes, eh?

Christmas 2010

Well, the holiday season is (finally) over.  The official tally is: 4 family events, 2 get-togethers with friends and 3 work parties.  I am actually a bit relieved to just get back to the grind!  I loved spending time with my girls and my family and friends, but I think we all need to get back into a routine.  The late nights are catching up with us.  Here are a few snapshots of what we did during the holidays:

2011, here I come!

Declan in the Snow

Firstly I should say: this was not supposed to be a portrait session.  The mother of this sweet little man is an acquaintance of mine, who happens to be a very talented jewellery designer and artisan.  I offered to try to get some updated product shots of her pieces for her website, since I like to try all kinds of photography, just to see what tickles my fancy.  Wow, that is a really dated expression...I need to get more "with the times"!  But I digress.  So, when I arrived at my friend's house to photograph the jewellery, my buddy Declan was there too.  I knew that in the end, I would just have to get some shots of him, he is so darn cute.  I learned so much about how hard it is to be a  five-year-old while he sat and ate his lunch with me as I worked.  Once the bologna was comsumed and the jewellery photographed, we headed out the back door for a quick session in the very wet snow (when I say quick, I literally mean five minutes...you know how hard it is for boys to sit still!).

Jen and Family

I have know Jen for about ten years.  She is a wonderful friend whose door was always open. In fact, there were so many people coming and going we used to joke that it was the community center!  I have watched her children grow from babies and toddlers into preteens and teens, and it makes me feel really old!  Anyway, Jen asked me to take some photos of her family and I was really excited to get to the session.  On my way to their home in Dundas, it was snowing like crazy and I wasn't sure we would be able to take any photos, but the skies cleared (a bit) and we braved the cold to get some fun family photos!