Meredith, Age: 10

Meredith and her family are some of my favourite and most rewarding clients.  Meredith is strong, beautiful, charming and has a gorgeous smile. She also has cerebral palsy as a result of a lack of oxygen at birth.  Her mom, Julie Keon, writes a blog about their journey at www.whatiwouldtellyou.com and she is writing a book.

I've photographed Meredith twice before: when she was five and when she was eight.

The love in this family is so very strong.

Olivia & family

Olivia is the tiniest, sweetest little kindergartener I've ever met.  She and her family are not afraid of a little cold weather. In fact, they love being outdoors, especially in the winter. When Olivia's mom approached me about a family photo session involving their snowmobiles, I thought it was a great idea! Mother Nature cooperated, giving us beautiful sunshine and blue sky.  Here are a few of my favourites from the day.

A family of four

I had the great pleasure of photographing this family over three years ago when they were expecting their daughter.  It was such a treat to hang out with them again. I was thrilled when they took me on a tour of their house, proudly showing off all the photos I had taken last time.



After years of trying to have children, they started the long process to adopt a child from Colombia.  Well, miracles do happen and they discovered that they were indeed expecting a baby girl. Meanwhile, the process to adopt continued and now they have two happy, fun, kind children who were born eight months and thousands of miles apart.  What a most perfect family of four.

Josh, Noah & Family

This is a family of tough cookies!  They braved a very chilly, very early morning to make some beautiful images with me.
Did I mention that Kelly also had a badly sprained ankle?  Troopers, I tell you.

Also, you wonder what to wear to your own photo session?  Take a lesson from these guys!

Brody & Family

This little guy is pretty awesome.  He told me he was going to be Woody from Toy Story for Halloween.  Perfect.

Sabrina, Ginny & Tavia

I'm so lucky to get to photograph beautiful people all the time.

Sometimes people ask what to wear to a family photo session. I'm never sure what to say.... coordinating colours are good... nothing to matchy-matchy... no character t-shirts, but beyond that, I'm at a loss.
I think these ladies nailed it.

 

Sisters

What perfect models these ladies were! It was a pleasure to capture "now" for them.

Kriegers at the Shaw Woods

I was delighted when Kristen (an awesome repeat client - see here and here) suggested we do this year's family photo session at the Shaw Woods.  This family is so fun and easy going.  Ashton and Kyla are awesome - smart, fun, and great listeners!

Shaw Woods is an Outdoor Education Center in Ottawa Valley that that features and old growth forest and a network of walking trails, among many other things. It's simply a treasure to visit.  They have a school program, too, which has allowed practically every student in Renfrew County to visit and learn about our environment.

Edith

I love to photograph newborns.  I think they're my all-time favourite.  Especially healthy, chubby, sleepy, cuddly newborns like Edith.  Edith had a headstart on most of us. She was over 10 lbs at birth. (Her mom is a superhero, by the way.)

She has one very proud big sister.

You might recognize this family. They're good friends and repeat clients.  Check out their other sessions here and here.  I kind of like looking back at the older sessions to see how people have changed and how I've grown as a photographer.

And my favourite idea ever for a turkey-sized baby on Thanksgiving day:

This was the baby's mother's idea, by the way. She gets *all* the credit.

 

Gigi & Lexi

I had the honour of photographing these two beautiful sisters a couple of weeks go. When I saw these girls in their dresses and their adorable, sparkly, converse shoes, I admit, I kind of wished I had a daughter.

Kim & family

Kim's a friend of mine. I brag all the time about this fantastic arrangement we have where we babysit eachother's kids when we need a date with our husbands. (Our own husbands, not eachothers... it's not that kind of arrangement.)

Their kids have the most expressive faces ever. So much laughter, so much kindness, so much fun in this family!

Kim happens to be an advocate for mental illness and is a professional speaker on the topic.  I'm looking forward to having the opportunity to attend one of her events because just talking one-on-one about her story is pretty awesome.  She's smart and funny...very funny...and talks so easily about a difficult topic in a way that is so approachable, you can't help but want to hear more.
Check her out here.

Izack & Family

We had the pleasure of photographing Corinne and Eric's wedding last June.  Which reminds me, I need to share some photos from that very fun, very wet day.

My wedding package includes a complimentary engagement session.  Since there wasn't a lot of time available right before the wedding, I offered to swap the engagement session for a family session at a later date.  This was perfect since it allowed their adorable son, Izack to take center stage!  What a ham!  He literally said hello to every stranger he met in the park. 

This session was really fun because the weather was beautiful and the park at Fort Chambly was gorgeous. The squirrels were very.... friendly, even venturing right between me and this family!

Jack, Ethan & Family

I was delighted when Janet contacted me to photograph her family again.  Jack and Ethan have grown and matured so much.  They live on a beautiful property originally owned by Janet's grandparents.  They are in the process of completely redesigning and renovating their house into their (and my) dream home. So beautiful and so much work! 

Here are a few of my favourites from their session in August.

Madison

After editting these photos and delivering them next door to some of my favourite clients, I decided that they needed to be shared in a post.

Madison is our newest next-door neighbour.  Sharing a birthday with the future King George, she's a pretty special little lady.  Everyone is so photogenic, it was hard to choose just a few to share.

Let's not forget Madison's big sister, Megan, who is a doll, too!  You may not recognize her, but I photographed her when she was just 6 days old, over 3 years ago!  Check out her session here:  Megan's Newborn Session

Meredith and Family

I had the pleasure of being invited into Meredith's home again this winter to capture this beautiful girl with her parents.  You may remember Meredith from our photo session that we did when she was five.  Now she's eight. She is strong and beautiful and loves her parents very much.

On a side note, I wanted to mention that Meredith's parents submitted one of my photos to a Valentine's Day photo contest at the Ottawa Citizen. It was taken at our first session three years ago.  Long story short, they won the contest and will enjoy a weekend away.  My photo was published in the Saturday edition of the paper about a month ago.  I'm delighted they won as they definitely deserve it.  I'm also pretty proud that it was my photo.

Meredith's mom, Julie is a talented writer and an all-round awesome person. You can't help but want to be her friend.  Please go now and visit her website: www.whatiwouldtellyou.com . She has written an amazing essay about her life as a mother of a daughter with cerebral palsy and writes a blog on the subject.  I dare you not to be moved by her words.

Meredith's dad, Tim, is a pretty great guy, too.

Seriously. Go now and visit www.whatiwouldtellyou.com .

Loïc

Baby Loïc had a bit of an eventful start to his life.  His loving parents have perservered, though, and he is now a thriving four-month-old.  Here are a few pictures from our newborn photo session when he was just 23 days old.

Happy 4-Month 'Birthday', Loïc!

Love for Luke

Although Luke is almost four months old now, I wanted to share a few more images from his newborn session when he was six days old.  He has changed and grown so much!  You forget so quickly what they were like when they were so tiny. With all the fatigue and emotions and mostly just trying to get through it, you forget how precious that time was. Newborn photos are so special to me.  Everyone should get them done!

Kiza & family

Here are a few of my favourite pictures from a quick session I did with an old university friend who was expecting darling little Dexter at the time.  His big sister was getting pretty excited to meet her new little sibling.

Hockey at the farm

Apologies for the long hiatus.  The photography business is a bit slow in the dead of winter and well, I have had better things to do!  My little family is keeping me quite busy.

Speaking of family,  here is a sample of a little session I did with my brother and his family on the awesome hockey rink in their yard.  My brother lives on the farm where I grew up with his wife and two growing boys.
I'm in the process of printing up a selection for them to put in a beautiful frame my husband made.  This was all a Christmas gift from my mom to my sister in law. Follow all that? Don't worry, me neither. Just enjoy the pictures!

Abigail

Another fun photo session with Abigail!  It was followed by a fun playdate for Abigail and Joseph and a yummy lunch!  Thanks Katrina & Greg!