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.

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.

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! 

Last Day for Voting!!

We have reached our last day of voting and I am overwhelmed by the response.  Some of these images had over 500 votes in the last day!  There was a little movement in the top 7 – the images that will be in the airport display.  Is your favourite there?  You still have today to vote and any time up until 9am Newfoundland time tomorrow.   The race is still very close so your vote does count!!  Get your votes in.

I do have one surprise that I have decided on.  As I mentioned, the involvement on this vote has been amazing.  I know that in order to get the numbers that we are recording in this contest we have some very invested family members getting everyone they know to vote.  I have several public displays around the St. John’s area.  Although this vote is for new images for the display in the St. John’s International Airport I have decided that any of the images that reach 1000 votes or more will be showcased in one of my other displays.  All of the images in the top seven are already well over 1000 votes each.  But there are several that are sitting at 850-950 votes as of this morning.  All of the images that reach 1000 votes by 9am NL time tomorrow morning will have a place in one of the Rostotski displays.  I will follow up with all of the parents once the vote ends to let you know the results of your portrait.  But until tomorrow morning – VOTE VOTE VOTE!!  Thanks everyone!!!

Three More Days!

What a great response we are getting for the display vote.  There are some warriors out there. Some of the images shown here had hundreds of votes over the weekend.  There are some new leaders in the top spots but it looks like we have established some very strong contenders.  There is one thing I wanted to note.  The contest will be decided by the number of votes for each image rather than the number of stars.  As it is they are all ranking about the same as far as the 5 star ranking and I have had several people mention that they voted 1 star when they meant to vote 5.  So it seems that the fair option is to consider the number of votes instead of the highest star rankings.

Thank you to all of the voters out there.  It’s almost over and then your loved ones will stop harassing you for votes. I hope you all get to see these portraits in my display at some point!

Airport Display Vote Update!

Wow! We have had a lot of interest in our airport display vote and I know that the anticipation is doing some parents in! As of this morning we are half way there. At this time these would be our 7 new display images. However, the votes are VERY close. There is only 4 or 5 votes separating the images that are now in 8th and 9th place. There is ONE WEEK of voting left. If you don’t see your favourite image below then get voting. If you love our top 7 just as it is today make sure you show your support to keep these choices exactly the same.  Thanks to everyone who has gotten involved.  Vote for your favourites here:  www.rostotski.com/contest

Help us pick our new airport display!

Every once in a while I like to host a vote on some of my favourite images so that you can help me decide what is hangs at our airport display. This time we are selecting 2 newborn and 5 baby/child/family portraits for the new display. Please help us by voting for your favourite images. The images with the most stars at the end of the contest will be our new display images. Go here to vote: www.rostotski.com/contest
I will announce the winners on my blog on June 5th. Please vote! I would love your input!

Thank you!!!

Happy Birthday Asha – first year in portraits

Asha is 1 year old today. I really cannot believe that it’s been a year already. But what a wonderful year it’s been. I have had several people encourage me about being sure that I photograph Asha as much as I have my first daughter, Aydan. Well, Aydan is 5 so she has a good head start on her sister. But I am happy to share Asha’s first year in portraits in this somewhat lengthy video.  Then  you can decide if I have been diligent with capturing each of her stages. XOX Happy Birthday Momma’s baby.

Christmas already? An update from our life.

I can hardly believe that we’ve already reached Christmas in 2013.  This year has been a wonderful year for us.  We welcomed sweet Asha into our family, I was nominated for the Atlantic Photographer of the Year,  I won the best general print in show at the Professional Photographers of Canada Atlantic convention and I completed my Craftsman degree.  Isn’t it funny how everything seems to come at once?  In September, Aydan started Kindergarden and we are all enjoying how she is flourishing in school.  She was really ready to learn to read and we have already enjoyed many stories that she was able to read from beginning to end all on her own.  We are so proud.  She happily takes the bus everyday and enjoys that little bit of social time.  It’s so sweet to see your baby going out into the world and having experiences of her own and making relationships of her own.  Asha will be 8 months old for Christmas and has just gotten two brand new teeth.  She is fascinated by her big sister and no matter how much I want to keep her a little baby I am going to lose that battle.  She is so anxious to keep up with Aydan and is very close to crawling.  Aydan is excited about Christmas this year and we have a little elf living in our house making sure we are all on our best behaviour.   We will spend Christmas day with my parents who now stay close to be with their grandchildren.  After Christmas day my parents will head to Gander to visit with her parents and brothers and sisters who will all be around for Christmas.    We are going to try to take some time off during Christmas to enjoy our friends and family.  Keep watching, I will share some of our Christmas card images (my annual obsession) in the next few days and maybe a few other fun things.  I hope you are all enjoying Christmas and are surrounded by those you love.