Newborn :: Rayley (Part II)

Here are a few more photos from Rayley newborn session last week. You can see the first round of newborn photos here and you can see Brooklynn + Cory's maternity session by clicking here.

Family :: The Vogels

This weekend I might the Vogel Family for the first time. By the end of the one hour session though, I felt like I had known their two little girls for ages. They reminded me of that feeling when you're a little kid playing dress up. They reminded me how much fun sessions with kids can be when you let your imagination run wild. The session was a blast, complete with tutus, fairy wings, lolly pops and bubbles.

Newborn :: Rayley

Earlier this month I blogged about Brooklynn + Cory's maternity session. Last week I was very excited to their daughter Rayley when they brought her over for their newborn session. Their session was on Thursday, so technically this post is a few days late, but if you ask me: she's so cute she's worth the wait!



Mom and Dad gave her what will be the first of a lot of jewelry. It fits loosely around her wrist and tightly around Dad's thumb!





I'll be doing another blog post later with some photos from the family part of their session, so check back soon!

Casting Call Contest

I have a dream.

...Okay, it's more of an idea.

It's a themed idea for a photo session.

But... it's a secret.

For the last month or so I have been trying to figure out how I would pick the person who I wanted to photograph for this themed session. I knew I wanted it to be a little girl. But that was about it. Should I save the idea for a client? Should I kidnap (kidding!) a friend's child and just go for it? And then today it came to me. I hadn't held a contest to celebrate 200 fans on facebook and although I abhor businesses that use constant contests as a method of gaining likes and fans, facebook is the most convienant way to spread the word about the contest. I'm hoping for lots of entries!

So here's the details.... this contest is open to parents who want to enter their children...

The entrant must be female (sorry boys, maybe another time)

must be between the age of 1-4 years old

must like having their photo taken (c'mon, that's a given right?)

Parents must email me at thewishingstargallery@gmail.com to enter their little darlings. Please include your daughters name, age and a recent photo.

I will post the photos on the WSG facebook page. And then it's your job to vote (by liking the photo) for who you would like to see win the free session.

The deadline for entrant submissions is Jan. 27, 2012.

The deadline for voting is Feb. 3, 2012.

Lifestyle | Brianna

This is my second session with Brianna. (You can see the first by clicking here.) Like her last session, this was one was to commemorate her achievement of a very important title in her youth group organization, Job's Daughters.

Job's Daughters (or Jobies) is a youth group for young women between the ages of 10-20 who are related to a Mason. (Shriner, Mason, Knight Templar. You can find out more about Masons by clicking here.) Jobies is an organization where girls learn life long skills like public speaking, etiquette and business meeting skills. The group provides a sort of comradery and friendship, so much so that some girls are so close with one another that they identify themselves as family on facebook! They have fun events like sleepovers, movie nights and picnics. They also have a serious side to their activities, like fundraising for local (and international) charities, volunteering at public events and competing in competitions on a provincial and international level.

You can learn more about Job's Daughters at http://www.iojd.org/ or about Alberta Job's Daughters at http://www.iojd.ca/

Last March Brianna competed in the Alberta provincial Pageant competition. The winner of this pageant gets to travel around the province representing the organization to not only it's members but the the general public. The competition tests the contestants knowledge of the organization among other key elements. Brianna won the title of Miss Alberta Job's Daughters in March 2011. In August she competed in the international equivalent, the Miss International Job's Daughters. And she won!

In the months following her crowning, Brianna has travelled to several countries and been home for only a few days or weeks if she's lucky. I was so happy when she said she wanted to take time out of her very busy schedule to have a second photo session with me. Here are just a few from her session yesterday.

The winner of the International pageant can be from any of the countries in which the youth group is active. Job's Daughters currently has members in Canada, the USA, Brazil, the Phillipines and Australia. In the first 30 or so years of the history of the pageant, only a handful of Canadians won the title. In 2005 I was privileged enough to win the International Pageant. (That's right, I was a member of Jobies. How else would I know so much about it? :) Feel free to ask me any questions if you are interested in joining or know someone who might be!) Since then, Canada has had the honour of having 3 of their Misses win the pageant. And they have all been from Alberta!

So where am I going with this you wonder?

This is the part where it pays to photograph what you know. You get ideas that regular photographers might not.

Believe it or not, many folks from the other countries actually think that Canada is a icy winter wonderland all of the time. Even with 4 Misses from Canada, there are some that don't realize we get to enjoy summer and don't have to wear winter jackets all year long. I thought it might be fun to play up the Canuck stereo type. Here are a few shots we took outdoors.

Brianna was SUCH a trooper. It was at least -15 out and she even took her jacket off for some shots!

Cake Smash | Phoenix's First Birthday

This month Phoenix celebrated his first birthday. I was so happy when his Mommy booked me to help commemorate the milestone by photographing a cake smash session for him. I have to admit, I was immediately taken with him; his beautifully poignant eyes and ginger red hair is so adorable. I didn't think he could possibly get any cuter... until he was covered in bright blue icing! Here are a few of my favourite frames from Phoenix's Cake Smash session.




Cake.


Baby meets Cake.












Phoenix a lot of fun painting the backdrop with the icing.

Maternity | Diana

I'll be the first comment on how this session was not my usual style. I've never shot an entire session in black and white nor have I ever played so much with lighting and shadows in a session. But when Diana told me about the style of photos she wanted for her maternity session I couldn't say no. After all, how can you decide that something is not your style without at least trying it once? And I'm so glad that we tried this route for her session because I was so happy with how these shots came out.