Lydia McLaughlin

During this summer I had the pleasure to work with one of my clients, Lydia McLaughlin, to capture her family portraits. You might know Lydia from her time on the Real Housewives of Orange County or her amazing fashion and lifestyle blog www.oclydia.com .  Lydia recently wrote a blog post about her session with us and I thought I would share it. We have been photographing Lydia since she was a little girl so it was very special to me that I was able to meet her boys and husband and to catch up with her parents. She’s also a jewelry designer.  You can  check out her jewelry line at www.lydiamjewelry.com

Here’s the link for her post about her session with us.

Source: family photo shoot

The Importance of Family Portraits.

When I met Alex Pretty he was 10 days old. But I started making plans for Alex long before I met him. Raymond and Janine, Alex’s parents, had called me to plan their maternity and newborn sessions. When we met, Janine expressed that their portraits needed to feature their wharf that Raymond’s father had built them. Mr. Pretty was fighting cancer and while he was fighting cancer he was building their wharf. This wharf is really special to them.
I am sure that most of you know that my mother is fighting cancer so when I learned this about Mr Pretty I immediately started thinking about this sweet little baby. I am always so excited to meet these little babies. To photograph these first precious moments of family life. To see all the joy of new life for those around. So before I met Alex I started thinking about how important it was to capture portraits with his grandfather as soon as possible. I started talking about including Mr Pretty and all the grandparents in some portraits with Alex. Raymond and Janine thought it was a great idea so we left with a plan to make it work around Mr. Pretty’s chemo schedule. Not long after Janine got in touch to let me know that they were able to arrange for both families to join them for a family portrait. This day came and Mr Pretty was feeling great. He was happy and enjoying himself. Janine’s parents joined us and so did her sister, Jennifer. Raymond’s mother was there along with his brother and sister. We had a wonderful session and they loved all over each other. Alex was the centre of everyone’s attention. You couldn’t wipe the smile of Mr Pretty’s face. When we were finished we all exchanged hugs and wished each other the best. Everyone was able to get together again and come to view all of the portraits we captured. They selected their portraits, one of which now hangs in the stairway in the main entry of Raymond and Janine’s home. They can look at it first thing in the morning and on their way to bed each night.
Sadly, Mr. Pretty wasn’t here to see little Alex’s first birthday portraits we captured on the wharf that his poppy so lovingly built him. He passed away on June 2, 2015. When he was laid to rest Alex’s little curl that you can see on the side of his head in these family portraits was placed in his hand.
If you have lost a loved one you know that there is nothing that anyone can really do to make it better. I know that people treasure their portraits more once they have lost someone. People tell me this over and over. I have experienced it myself. I know that Mrs Pretty treasures her family portrait, loves being able to look at her husband’s face on a day that he was so happy, so proud. That day was a celebration of family. Alex’s family. All of his immediate family members are in this portrait with him. He was only 8 months old and will not appreciate these portraits for a little while. But I hope that when he is a big grown man with a family of his own these photographs are some of his most precious treasures.
I have reached out to some families that I have worked with to get permission to share their stories. Thank you to the Woodrow’s and Pretty’s for letting me share theirs. I am so grateful that I was able to be part of something that is so fundamentally important for preserving Alex’s heritage.

Merry Christmas!!

We would like to take a moment to thank you all for being part of our lives.  This was a roller coaster year with some major highs and some major lows.  We have celebrated and stressed, laughed and cried.  But what makes it all worthwhile is the love and support that surrounds us.  Thank you all so much for being there to share our lives.  We are so grateful that we can count our clients as our friends.  May your Christmas be the merriest and your 2016 be better than your wildest dreams.  Thank you for letting us capture such precious moments in your lives.  Here’s to you and to all of the joys and adventures that are around the next corner.

Katie and Leah Vardy

One of my personal joys is watching kids grow.  It’s incredibly fast and a little heartbreaking but certainly one of the treasures of my life.  I have been part of our photography business for 20 years now and I am starting to notice that I have been part of capturing full lives of memories.  This year I got to photograph Katie Vardy as a high school graduate.  We have photographed Katie and her sister Leah for their whole lives.  My dad photographed their baby portraits and I met them when they were a little older, around 3 and 5 years.  Gail, their mom, sent along some of the photographs from their collection and I put it together so you can see them grow. Of course I hope that I get to meet their children and eventually capture them at all stages of their lives.  Leah and Katie, it’s been a wonderful treat watching you girls grow into the amazing ladies you are now.

Happy Mother’s Day

Thank you to all the mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers who make our lives so beautiful.  Your love is a blessing.

Celebrating a win at Nationals

I had an awesome showing at the Professional Photographers of Canada’s 2015 Image Salon.  I push myself to enter competitions.  It’s a great way to grow as an artist and I always find the comments by the judges helps me refine my creative eye. It’s stressful selecting and prepping the images before they go to competition.  I have never hired a model for my competition images.  I take pride in being able to compete with my own clients work that we capture in everyday sessions.  This year I get to celebrate having my portrait awarded Best in Class for the Fashion category.  This image is from a session I had for Amanda Pinhorn. Amanda is a master stylist at Athena by Anstey Salon and Spa.  Amanda was also shooting for an upcoming competition and brought me her model, Emily Rudkin.  Thank you Amanda and Emily for being part of this big honour for me.  I obviously couldn’t have done this without you.

I entered 4 different images in the Professional Photographers of Canada Image Salon and I was thrilled that all of them hung.  I received 3 merits and an accepted score for this entry.  Thank you to my beautiful models Emma and Evangeline.  Thank you to Neil Browne for letting me capture those puppies before they went off to their new homes.

Toni Wiseman

I get to photograph some pretty awesome people.  However most of the time it’s for something special that is a secret or a surprise so I have to keep it under wraps.  I actually did these sessions with Toni Wiseman and her incredible daughter Grace last September.  These were photographed for the Newfoundland Herald and some were used in their annual Christmas cookbook.  Thanks Toni and The Newfoundland Herald for letting me share these!

Marcus and Marisa (5 & 4 years old)

I want to get into a habit of sharing some of my work. I can start with this session I had with Marcus and Marisa. Before Christmas my friends Natasha and Lee brought in their children for their long antispated portraits.  Marcus is 5 and is still holding on to those baby teeth so we thought it was now or never if we were going to capture their “preschool” look.   We loved the green on Marcus and we knew that it would be a great compliment to Marisa’s red hair.  As you can see the clothing is fairly simple with the pop of green and a little mix of bright pink to add some personality.  

Natasha and Lee ended up loving more than just one portrait so we designed a whimsical staircase collection for them.  Here is how the collection hung in their home.

Jon & Neda Meet & Greet – July 28th

I’d love to introduce you to Jon Pardy and Neda Kalantar from Big Brother Canada season 2 so I am going to host an all ages meet and greet for them on July 28th!  I talked in my last post about how I am a huge fan of Jon Pardy.  I have had the chance to work with him for several different photo shoots since his big win.  Jon and I talked about putting together an all ages meet and greet so that all of the fans have an opportunity to meet him and Neda while they are in Newfoundland this summer.  We are hoping to use this opportunity to help raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society, a charity that is close to my heart.  You may or may not know that my mother has been fighting cancer for the past 7 years so I am grateful to have this kind of opportunity to give back.  I am hoping you guys will all come out to meet Jon and Neda and help out this awesome cause.  I’ve tried to make this special so here are the details.

We will be booking 100 appointments for this event. Each person has their own private time and photo shoot (photographed by ME) with Jon and Neda.  You have two options. Option 1 is our basic option and is $20 if you pre-book your appointment.  You get a meet and greet and mini photo shoot with Jon and Neda.   We have 5×7 exclusive portrait 411 cards of each of them that they will autograph for you.  You will receive a download code so you can download the images from your shoot with Jon and Neda. And you’re donating $5 to the Canadian Cancer Society!!  Option 2 is $35 includes everything from option 1 but adds on your choice of one of the HUNDO or WAKE UP NEWFOUNDLAND tanks (regularly sold for $20 each).  So if you are interested click the image above for the link or go to our client login (top right hand side of this page) and enter the Jon and Neda meet and greet to pre-book your appointment.  Once your purchase is made I will be getting in touch with you to arrange the appointment time that works best for you.  These appointments are limited so if you want to be part of this event you should book it right now!  And super fans – I look forward to seeing if you can control yourselves better than I did when I met Jon!

And the winners are…..

After a long night of excessive voting (several images gained nearly 1000 votes in just the last day!) these are our final 7 images that will now have a home in our display at the St. John’s International Airport.  Thank you to everyone who participated.  Thank you to all the parents, grandparents and loved ones who worked so hard campaigning for votes.  And of course, thank you to all my beautiful little models who made it so difficult to choose!  I also got 5 more samples from this vote that I get to use in our other displays because they received more than 1000 votes.   It was a very successful vote and I appreciate each of you being part of it!