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:

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!