Unique Images Photography | Weddings | Portraits | Fashion » Wedding, Portrait, and Fashion Photography Blog

A little over two years ago I photographed Mark and Melissa and their dog, Luke, and they recently got in touch to tell me the exciting news that they have gotten another dog! Oh, and they also had a baby. Their baby boy, Ryder, is super cute and has such great expressions.

We started their family photography out in Fish Creek park in Calgary, which is where we went for their first portrait session, though this time we used different spots. It’s a great place for photos, with wide fields for the dogs to run around in and a little stream running through not far from where you can park your car. After this we went back to their home and photographed in Ryder’s room. I love the bright colours they’ve chosen for his room!

Here is a small selection of my favourite images from their photo session:

I recently got a call from Corey and Krista asking if I would photograph their newborn baby, Conner. Of course I was honoured to do it! I love being able to record new additions to our clients’ families.

We photographed Corey and Krista’s wedding back in 2008 and their engagement session in 2007, before this blog was even born. I did the portrait session with Corey, Krista and Conner in their house in Calgary, which has lots of nice big windows to let in the sunlight. Some babies will let you put them into certain poses while they sleep, with their head resting in their hands and that kind of thing, but Conner was determined to sleep in his own positions! Lol! I actually much prefer these shots, because they have so much personality to them. And he may have a modelling career ahead of him, with those Blue Steel expressions.

As well as getting wedding portraits in Banff, Guannan and Renee asked if we could do a second day of photography that would be more casual and would show a different aspect of the Southern Albertan landscape. So on our way back from Banff we stopped in Cochrane, just outside of Calgary, to create images that capture a taste of the rolling fields and rural life in Alberta. We ended up on a family farm on the outskirts of Cochrane and climbed through a barbed wire fence to sit on the fields and get our photos. The horses in the field were really curious and came right over to see what we were doing, hanging around until Guannan, who had stood in an ant’s nest and gotten stung, sprayed himself with bug spray. They didn’t like the smell of that, apparently, and wandered off to the other side of the field until we left, even though we tried to win them back over with apples.

For their Romantic Fashion Session (aka Trash The Dress, Day After Session, Bridal Session, etc.), Guannan said he really wanted photos that would show some of the Albertan landscape, so that their relatives overseas could get a picture of the place they have made their home. We both agreed that Banff was a must! It’s such a beautiful location, with the Rockies and lakes and forests.

We started our day with some photos of Renee getting ready in the hair salon, just like I would for a wedding. Renee had a very cool birdcage veil that looked awesome with her dress. Guannan had asked for some photos with his car, so we did those as soon as everyone was ready, because the weather looked a bit iffy and I didn’t want the car to get rained on or muddy—it was so shiny! The sky was very overcast, so I went with it and created dramatic-looking images with the dark clouds.

Since stylish imagery was a big priority for Guannan and Renee, we mainly did posed photos, so this blog post is almost like a Unique Images Photography guide to posing couples! The goals for our session, apart from getting great images, were that the photos have a stylish and somewhat romantic feel, that the time be relaxing and not rushed, and that the photos show off the Banff area.

Thanks to Guannan and Renee for being such a wonderful and hospitable couple!

I’ve had the pleasure of photographing these guys a couple of times now for their charity calendar. The first time was on St. Patrick’s Day and we did a lot of candid photos as they tuned up. (Does tuning bagpipes make a difference? ) Then we did another photo session with a vintage fire engine on a stormy afternoon. They are a real bunch of characters and were fun to work with. They will be selling a calendar at some point to raise money and it’s a worthy thing to support. Contact the Lethbridge fire station for more info.

Dan and Cait and I got together the day after their wedding for this romantic fashion session—or ‘trash the dress’, as it is popularly known, though I much prefer my name for it. Plus, Caitlin would have been understandably reluctant to actually trash her rather nice Lazaro wedding gown. It was good to see them again and we were able to relax and create some portraits without the rush of the wedding day.

We shot mostly around the Liberty Grand again, using some locations that we weren’t able to get to on their wedding day due to weather and a tight wedding schedule. Right near the Liberty is a really cool historic house with a beautiful garden. I love the first few images from there—with the dappled sunlight streaming through the tree branches it just looks so summer-y and secluded, like we were on a farm somewhere. And check out the last photo of Dan with the Toronto skyline—it looks like a Batman poster!

Now that’s a long blog title!

I got together with Lethbridge boutique bridal store Once Upon A Bride and wedding venue The Norland for a bridal fashion shoot. Some of the staff of Once Upon A Bride were involved in the shoot and they were so awesome to work with—and that’s just in helping me during the photos, so the customer service in their store must be incredible! And the Norland is always a great place to shoot at. It is the nicest outdoor venue in Lethbridge and they are always friendly there as well.

I won’t be putting the images on my wedding site in my portfolio, because although they look like getting ready photos from a wedding, they were taken in a more controlled environment, but I wanted to share some of my favourites here on my blog.

If you are not a wedding or portrait photographer you are probably wondering what the WPPI 16×20 Print Contest is all about. Well, as far as wedding and portrait photography contests go, this is the biggy. It is an international contest and thousands of photographers from all over the world send in thousands of images for live judging by a panel of very highly-regarded photographers over the course of a week. Something to note is that this is not just an image contest, because this involves getting the best prints possible. Getting great prints that show the images well under the harsh competition lights is really a whole separate skill set and most photographers rely on pro labs to do this for them. In my case I printed all of my images myself, so I was in control from the very beginning of the image creation to the final product. Wait, let me just pat myself on the back. There. I feel good now.

Anyways, I’m happy to say that I received eight Accolades of Excellence awards for the images I submitted. Yay! Here are the images below, roughly in chronological order, with the most recent ones at the bottom.

Chantal and I have worked together once before, on a Global TV commercial, and although it’s been a long time coming, we finally got back together for this speedy Calgary photo session. We chose a location on the south side of Calgary and when we arrived I saw they were doing some construction work. As soon as I saw the trucks there I thought, “Photo props!” The workers were knocking off for the day and they let Chantal clamber over the equipment in the name of photography, which was pretty cool of them. I suppose she’d have to try really, really hard to break one. I like the juxtaposition between the trucks, which are all dirty, imposing, and grungy-looking and Chantal, who . . . isn’t.

After doing some photos around the machinery for about forty minutes, I had one specific photo in mind that I really wanted to try out. It involved quite a bit of prep work, since we’d never actually done this before, so Chantal and I got to sit in the car with the heat pumping out while my assistant put it all together for us—thanks, Doug! I wanted to create a wall of fire effect behind Chantal and so I’d brought a pre-assembled wooden wall that Doug rebuilt and fixed in place. Then I set up my lights, called Chantal over from the warm car, and had two minutes to get the shot. And, yay, we got the shot!

I look forward to our next shoot, whenever that may be.

As most wedding photographers already know, Neil van Niekerk is one of the foremost lighting experts in the field of wedding photography. As well as being a working photographer he also travels the world doing lighting workshops and teaching flash techniques. He is also a published author with a book detailing all this stuff, too. But the main thing Neil is known for is his blog. Among wedding photographers it is one of the best learning resources out there, and has been for quite some time.

Last November—has it been that long already?—Neil contacted me and asked if I’d do a guest spot on his blog. I asked what I should talk about and Neil said, “Something lighting-related”. So, of course, I ignored him and did my own thing. Actually, I just got thinking about stuff I do and somehow got onto a tangent of my own. In any case, if you want to learn all my secrets and inner-most thoughts, click on over to Neil Van Niekerk’s ‘Tangents’ blog to see my little article. Ok, so you won’t learn all my secrets, but maybe there will be one or two things that interest you.

Oh, I also thought I’d explain a couple of things here, quickly, because my Tangents post is very much slanted towards complicated portrait setups for weddings. So I want to kinda state the obvious and say that during the ceremony and reception times I am as unobtrusive as possible. However, when it comes to the portrait time, I like to put all my energy into getting something that is unique for my couples. If you read through the Tangents article you’ll see that my main idea was based on something the bride had requested, because I always base my ideas on what each couple will like. Essentially, I tailor my coverage to suit each client’s personality. I’m saying this in case anyone is horrified at the thought of their portrait time being a circus. That won’t happen. (However, if you are planning on a circus, let me know; I can juggle).

Also, if you are a former bride, please don’t feel left out if I didn’t send you a sketch. Although I frequently jot down ideas this was the only time I ever revealed one. When you see the sketch you’ll understand. Anyways, enough preamble, click, man, click!