Awake, Asleep (pictures of a girl and a chihuahua)

So, in less than a week Caesar has managed to push his way firmly into our little family.  I have a feeling he may well be staying on past his engagement with the ladies.  LOL  Of course, I can’t say for sure one way or another just yet…  but if I were to place a bet?  It would be that he may very well have found his forever home.  When kid-kid announces “I think he needs to belong to me, he just loves me TOO much”?  Well…  that says a lot.  And what says even more?  How about a quick iphone capture or two?

Awake and getting settled in, ready to listen to a chapter or two from the second Harry Potter book.

 

Asleep shortly afterwards (my movement woke Caesar), time to douse the light.

 

The Mayfair Community School Family Tree

Early in the school year, the staff at Mayfair Community School invited students and their families to come in and have their picture taken by a fauxtographer at no charge.  Normally, we wouldn’t have been interested.  However, this particular set of photos was going to be used for a special project – and we definitely wanted the girl to be able to be involved.

Since I have such a HUGE aversion (and rightly so) to posed studio portraiture, we dressed in a corny theme.  I figure if we’re going to have it done, let’s poke a little fun at the whole process while we do it.  So we each put on our Blue Jays jerseys – and headed off to the girl’s school.

It was everything I hate about studio shots by folks who really don’t know what they’re doing as far as composition goes (which is about what I expected).  Sit here.  Lean this way.  Turn your head towards the camera.  No, not that much.  Tilt your face to the right.  Put your arm here.  Now hold it….  There you have it!  The world’s worst family photo!  BUT!  It’s for such a cool project, so I suck it up, smile, and say nothing – until I blog all about it, and then I can rip on the entire process and mock the whole thing – ’cause that’s just how I roll.  heh heh

So, what was so cool that I felt the need to force us to endure such torture?  Well, it was the Mayfair Family Tree:

I couldn’t fit it all into the frame on my little iPhone…  but I think it gives you a good idea of what we’re looking at.    And it’s pretty darn cool!  Even better?  They put our family photo near the bottom, where the kid can actually reach it to show people.

Very much worth the humiliation of a terrible family photo, don’t cha think?

A Photography Preview for Reche & Family

When I first received the booking form filled out by Reche, I knew hers was going to be a fun shoot.  You see, the two of us have a past connection.  Her brother and I were very good friends back when we were still teenagers and young adults.  It seems like a lifetime ago now, but good friends never really stop being friends – even when they lose touch.  So getting to see Reche, meet her family, and work with them all really was a treat. 

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… the best family sessions, are those when the kids are allowed to just be themselves.  Let them play, let them show off their personalities.  Sure, it’s nice when everyone is looking the same direction, but those captures that really show how a family is together, that shows those connections?  It really is SOOO much better.

Thanks for the chance to work with your family, and reconnect with you Reche.  It really was a treat!

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A visit with family (pictures)

My youngest brother (the baby of the family) came for a visit today.  Coming to town for a six hour visit meant six hours on a bus (three hours each way) for him.  Not a fun trip, but I’m so glad he did it.  We don’t get to see him often enough, and we love him very much.  Not much to say other than that.  I love that so much of our family is local, but we dearly miss those who aren’t.

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Goodbye Christmas!

Well…  looks like the holiday season has come and gone.

First we bid a goodbye to Yule.  Then it was so long Christmas Eve.  Followed by a fare thee well to Christmas.  A “don’t care where ya go, but you can’t stay here” to Boxing Day.  Then today it was our family feast of leftovers…  See ya next year!

It was a gooder, full of fond memories (and some crummy breaks too – gotta love a holiday car accident).  The holiday season of 2011 will be generally looked back upon with joy.  And here’s a little scrapbooking layout sharing a wee bit of our Christmas morning:

 

Pictures, beginning at the top left, are of:  Riki, Jewles and the kid,  Ron, Wilson and kid kid, my Dad and Lily-Ann, Lily and Marie, my Mom and her grandgal, and finally Steven and Lil’.  Not pictured but also present (get it? present?) were myself and Damon.  Not present, but loved none the less, my brothers Aaron and Earl.

 

Penguin 1st Christmas kit by Peekaboo Designs, available at Polka Dot Plum here:

http://www.polkadotplum.com/shoppe/product.php?productid=19470&cat=0&page=1

Summer with the Kzyzyk family – photography preview

It may seem like some cruel and unusual punishment to share photographs taken on such a gorgeous Summer day on a day like today, but better today than mid-January when it’s -40 out. 

Wow.  Okay.  That’s really all I’ve got to say.  LMAO  I’m still having trouble fighting off that stomach bug and I’m about ready for bed right now.  So instead of dwelling on that, let’s focus on something lovely – a gorgeous family enjoying the sunshine and one another:

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I’m sorry not to write more.  The Kzyzyk family were absolutely lovely to work with, and I don’t meant to downplay that in the slightest.  I really am just too exhausted and too ill to form any more cohesive sentences.  Hope you’ll forgive me.

Why might a photo not make the cut?

After my post a couple days ago, outlining my basic editing process, I have had some inquiries.  It seems you’d all like to know a little more about why a photo might not make it past the purge.  Well…

A photo might not make it past the first round of cuts based on a number of things.  Sometimes someone has blinked.  Sometimes an insect, snowflake, or raindrop has crossed between my client and the lens in an odd way.  Sometimes there was a movement I hadn’t accounted for.  But honestly?  Even more than the obvious things (like those I just mentioned) it’s often just a feeling.

For me to accept an image into my final 40-50 images, the final cull, those worth investing my time into…  It has to speak to me.  It has to have something interesting to say.  It has to make me smile.  It has to share a story.  It has to resonate.  It has to have a certain spark.

A photo won’t make it through my purge if it isn’t special – and that’s the biggest test of them all.

Celebrating Family on Thanksgiving Weekend

For me, celebrating with family is what the holidays are about…  and that is something that in and of itself should be celebrated.  We are so lucky and so blessed.  We have a large, diverse, gifted, beautiful, amazing family.  And I am truly thankful for each member of it.

Over the years, we’ve lost many members of our family but we’ve gained many too.  Our family shrinks, grows, changes…  it’s an unfinished tapestry of lives woven together in an amazing intricate pattern.  A pattern that has bound us together in love and in spirit.

Tonight, I’d like to remind you all to celebrate your family this weekend.  We’re all a little crazy, we’re all a little dysfunctional, but we are whole through the love that exists between us.  So whether you are family by choice, by blood, or by circumstance – celebrate those whom you consider family.  You are lucky (just as I am) to have them.

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Lily-Ann and Khalid…  Cousins, separated by a year and a half, and generally by hundreds of kilometers.  Family.

Bowtie Man

A day, like many others, with multiple photo shoots… one after another…  But today, a hidden gem.

The first time this fellow walked by us, we remarked to one another how he looked like he should be meeting a photographer in the park.  I’d have loved to photograph him, but I was there working for someone else.  But then, near the end of our shoot when we happened upon him sitting on a bench, I couldn’t resist again.  So I snapped a couple shots, handed him my card… and 30 seconds later we were on our way again.

But seriously, did he not beg to be photographed?  I could let him pass by once and feel a small sting of regret…  but to have passed by him, seeing him a second time?  For the 30 seconds it took to raise my camera, shoot twice, hand him my card and walk on?  I’d have been kicking myself.  So yeah.  I took advantage of a spare moment – because someone looking this fabulous just MUST be captured. 

Andy Warhol Made Me Cry!

On the Saturday, we all bundled onto a city bus in Edmonton and headed to the AGA (the art gallery).  For a few of us, there were loads of goose bumps and chills.  The idea of seeing Andy Warhol’s work in person was… well… thrilling.

We walked into the gallery in a coagulated pool.  People jostling against people, trying to fit our large numbers into a small space.  Like blood through arteries and veins, we were rushed through doors, stairs, and corridors.  We were split into two groups, and I – quite on purpose – waited to see which direction Zac and Robyn were ushered.  Zac was as excited as I was, and I knew I wanted to be near someone who understood, and got just how amazing an opportunity this was.

Sitting at long wooden tables, now split apart into two rooms.  We were each passed a sticker.  A red word bubble with the letters AGA in white.  I was wearing a button featuring a photograph of myself that Zac had taken earlier with the words “in flux” boldly displayed.  So I figured how better to wear a speech bubble than to have myself proclaiming the text located within it.  I stuck it to my portrait.

me and my button

 

From there, we were further split into another two groups.  Our table and one other went off with a tour guide who’s name I had written down with a bunch of other things I’d hoped to share – including artists names, quotes, and other tidbits…  I, however, seem to have lost this paper – much to my disappointment.

We went up several flights of stairs, and were stopped at the top of a particularly dreadful set.  We were instructed to look up, which almost sent me spilling backwards.  Zac and I both chose, instead, to look at Robyn’s shoes – as we were both feeling rather nauseous at the effect.  Staring at her shoes for several minutes we waited until instructed to move forward.  We listened to what was being said, but chose not to look back up again until we were off the steps – and then encountered no problems looking around and enjoying the interesting architecture.

Our first stop took us directly into the Warhol exhibit.  At first I found it interesting.  Moving around that first room, seeing such famous and highly popularized images.  It was very cool seeing his work in person.

Then I moved on, into the second room – slightly ahead of the group which was still (for the most part) enjoying the work in the first room.  It was there that I saw her.  Marilyn Monroe.  In black and white, her face blown up to what had to have been three or four feet.  And I was overwhelmed.  The tears came on instantly.  No warning.

The woman working in the room, an expert on the exhibit, came over…  She understood.  She said the same thing happened to her – but it was when she saw Jackie Kennedy, who’s portrait hung on the next wall over.

This instantaneous flood of emotion was completely unexpected.  This was an iconic image I had seen over and over again.  I grew up with this piece of pop art, this bit of culture.  In books, on posters, in magazines.  This was an image I thought I knew, but discovered very quickly I knew little.

It was beautiful.  So much more so then I ever could have imagined.  Larger than life in every possible way.  It really was overwhelming.

I found myself having to look away.  I thought the feelings would pass, that I would be able to see her, see how he saw her…  Just appreciate being able to have this glimpse of this iconic beauty through his eyes…  but no.  The longer I looked, the more emotional I became.  In the end I had to walk away.

I had no trouble seeing all of Warhol’s smaller works: his wigs, photographs of himself dressed in drag, screen tests, photographs, all fine.  But witness anything large?  Famous works like The Last Supper screen printed in duplicate on pink as tall as I am and four times as long?  Yes, that too sent me into the same overwhelmed state.

In one way I was relieved when it was time to move on…  in another, I wished I could have laid on that gallery floor and just let the release continue.  I can’t quantify exactly what it was that caused such an overwhelming rush.  I can’t identify one emotion even.  It was just a sense of being totally and completely overwhelmed by something I thought I knew, but so clearly did not.  I wish I could go back to the gallery today.  On my own.  And just BE in that space.  No tour.  Just me, Andy, and Marilyn.  I’d like the opportunity to get to know them both a whole lot better.