Update: Its currently a few days before our 2022 photo sessions, and there is one time slot available Saturday October 15th (mid afternoon) and two options available for Sunday October 16th (mid afternoon). E-mail emily@emilybeatty.com to inquire about booking a session.
These are always the most magical shoots of the year. Stay tuned for fabulous 2022 images in the coming weeks!
Each November I transform the home studio into some sort of insanely festive photo set for our annual Holiday Photo Sessions. In 2017 the inspiration came from Canada’s 150th birthday celebration earlier in the year. The result is this amalgamation of Christmas and Canadiana.
The best part of these holiday mini sessions is watching families grow up in front of my lens. Lots of familiar faces in this crowd!
Enjoy the gallery.
Want to see more?
Check out this 2017 holiday season compilation.
I love this family. We met years ago through my husband and other mutual friends, and I’ve been lucky enough to photograph their growing numbers in a variety of different sessions over the past few years.
The day we selected for our photo shoot happened to be in the midst of a late summer heat wave and the kids were happy to run around the farm in Scotland Ontario that they call home while soaking up the last rays of September sunshine.
Then that sunset happened! Love it when I get to end a shoot with a sunset and smiles.
Hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.
I’ve been meaning to share this vibrant little fall family photo session from last October at Rockway Gardens in Kitchener. In my experience, husband + wife + baby always = a great photo shoot, and these three were no exception. These new parents were lovely to talk to, easy-going and great with their baby, all of which made for a wonderful laid back, low key session with lovely golden evening light. When the family placed their portrait order, I was pumped that they specifically asked for bright, bold colours during the editing process- my specialty. Fall portraits are all about those sunny warm tones and vibrant foliage. (A super smiley and cute baby like D. helps too.)
Thanks to this family for choosing me to document your baby boy’s first Halloween season. It was a truly a pleasure.
If you’ve been following along with my photography career even a little bit, you probably know I’m sort of obsessed with Halloween. Its my fav holiday- even though I hate horror movies and gory stuff and anything eyeball related. (I cringed just typing that last sentence.)
It probably goes back to my childhood obsession with playing dress up and perhaps the movie Hocus Pocus. One of my very most favourite kids sessions of all time involved a bunch of little witches, a real cauldron and smoke bombs. I just adore the time of year and the autumn colours and the wild outfits and pop up costume shops and the spooky home decor.
This past Halloween I brought the garden indoors, went hunting for a Beetlejuice-esque striped backdrop, and setup a spooky set for some styled sessions featuring little ones and some witchy mamas too.
Thanks to everybody that participated in these sessions. I always have so much fun doing these holiday setups.
These images tell a story that begins and ends in Algonquin Park. My cousin Cicely and I have always been very close, even though we don’t get to see each other much. When we do get together, its often just a few days each summer at our beloved family cottage in Algonquin Park. Cic grew up spending her entire summers at sleep away camp in the Provincial Park, and eventually became an accomplished canoer and camper, spending up to 50 days at a time traveling through remote wilderness with a close group of young women that remain some of her closest friends.
Five years ago (to the day!!!) I had the joy of documenting Cicely and Dan’s glorious Christmas themed wedding. When we learned that Cic would become a mother, right away, long before the baby arrived, we began talking about how we could possibly rendevouz at my place during the summer for a creative photo session. The logistics were going to be tricky. You see, my beloved cousin and her baby are American. They live in Cincinnati. Nevertheless, Canada holds a special place in Cicely’s heart, and we both wanted to commemorate her baby girl’s first trip to our mutual favourite place on earth- the cottage. At the same time, Canada was still riding the celebration from our recent 150th anniversary on July 1st. If ever there was a time to dream up a Canada themed photo shoot, this was it! We spent less than 24 hours together in 2017, but we sure did make the most of it. So without further ado, its my pleasure to introduce you to Cicely, and her beautiful daughter, sweet miss Louise. I’m so pleased I could capture their relationship and this special moment in our history.
Sending hugs South of the border. xoxo
What a year! For me and EBI, 2015 turned out to be a flurry of excitement full of extreme highs and lows, big life changes and unprecedented career opportunities.
The year opened up with elaborate plans for my own “glitter garden party” wedding scheduled for June, escalated with Easter minis, continued with the honour winning a YWCA 2015 Woman of Distinction Award, got complicated when I learned who my true friends were in the spring months, and peaked in June when I vowed (on literally the rainiest, stormiest day in 6 years) to stick with Todd forever. Just our luck.
Me and my business hit the ground running in August and the number of jobs I had on the go steadily increased until holiday minis and then the Christmas rush were upon us. After some personal tragedies and the deaths of 2 family members and my beloved bunny, Todd and I had plenty of opportunities to test the strength of our new marriage. I’m pleased to report that through all the various challenges 2015 presented us with, the two of us have become a stronger team than ever. With his support, I shot and edited more portraits for more clients this holiday season than I would have believed possible in the recent past. For weeks on end I was running on coffee and editing around the clock as Todd delivered photo packages for me all over town. I actually had to turn potential clients away in December because there just weren’t enough hours to fit everybody in before the big deadline on the 25th. I would have liked to help those families out, but I admit it also felt like a bit of a milestone for my business to have reached a point where I can afford to turn people away.
At long last, it feels like I’ve got a substantial client base rooting for me, and what excellent clients they are! In a classic example of Murphy’s law, when my new husband and I finally got a chance to slow down on Christmas day, Santa blessed us with food poisoning and we both rang in the New Year in a rather disgusting state.
It truly was a crazy year, full of far more challenges, joys and sorrows than I ever could have anticipated. These are the images, personal and professional, that stick out for me after the last 365 days of living life and pursuing my dreams at full speed.
 
Thanks so much for being here and for taking a few moments from your busy day to glance at my pictures. Wishing you love, peace and joy in 2016.
“Come little children, I’ll take thee away, into a land of enchaaaaantment.” You just sang that out loud, right? If you didn’t, you need to get yourself a copy of Hocus Pocus. This year I only watched it 3 times. Best Halloween movie ever. No one will ever convince me otherwise.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a witch. Like, the rides a broomstick, waves a wand and wears a pointy hat type of storybook witch. Long before Joanne Rowling changed her moniker to J.K. Rowling and introduced the world to Harry Potter, I was casting spells on my little sister and concocting imaginary potions in the cauldron that my family used for a huge corn roast party every August. (Ok fine, there’s a chance I was a weird kid.) We often pretended to have magical abilities in the exact location you see here, a place we called “Fairyland” when we were growing up. Super original name, I know. Guess what we thought lived in that mossy little circle of trees???
Now a photographer in my thirties, I love Halloween wholeheartedly, and normally I put together a spooky styled minis event leading up to October 31st. This year, 3 weddings and ton of portrait orders made that impossible. Instead, I decided to invite my best little friends to dress up and spend an afternoon pretending to be witches, just like mini versions of Winnifred, Sarah and Mary Saunderson, and just for fun. I ended up with 4 little witches, but I figured the more the merrier. The other facets of my inspiration for this project included the cauldron I suspected was still hanging around in the long grass at the back of my parents’ countryside home, and the one remaining smoke bomb I had left over from my wedding party pictures. Its not every day you encounter the means to have a genuine cauldron full of colourful smoke surrounded by tiny witches, but my sister and 2 friends agreed to bring their kids and so I set out to purchase all the tulle and other materials necessary to whip up a handful of costumes overnight. My sewing machine is on its last legs but I was able to whip up a couple of stretchy tops, a corset type thingy and some rough tutus. Somehow, we managed to plan and execute this shoot within just a couple of days.
I guess we did alright, as 2 of the 4 girls elected to wear their costumes out for Trick Or Treating. My niece, L doesn’t seem to grasp the witches concept and considers her tulle ensemble a “Fall Princess” costume, but I’m just glad she agreed to wear it. While I think the girls and their mamas enjoyed themselves, it was my Godson, Mr T. who clearly got the last laugh. His mom had the great idea to stick him in to the cauldron surrounded with little witches. To be honest, we figured he’d scream for 10 seconds, we’d snap the shot and then pull him out for a snuggle and it would be a hilarious moment for him and his sisters to look back on many years from now. No way, he loved being the main ingredient for our potion! Smiles for days. Just loving life in that dirty old cauldron.
Enjoy the results of our first little witches styled shoot! 
Thank you so much to the friends and family that made this shoot possible! Most notably, my mom and dad for moving the cauldron into place and helping me add all the fall decor to the set, my friends Linnea and Megan for bringing their little witches (and the frog) to the shoot and for throwing together some phenomenal last minute costume components, to my sister and her daughter for their smiles, and of course, thanks to all the models: L & M & T & L & P. Hopefully you all got a kick out of our little experiment. Now that I know the smoke bomb works really well in the confined space of the cauldron, I hope this is something we can pull off again in the future. Happy Halloween!
BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE!
Well here we are, New Year’s Eve, 2014 and the forecast is COLD. Like, -19 celsius. Up until a few hours ago I thought skating and fireworks with Todd and my brothers would make for a good way to end the year. Now that I’m all wrapped up in blankets, blogging, I think I’m going to stay right where I am. There’s something to be said for being cozy. Especially during the holidays. If you can find somebody to snuggle up to, well then you’re doing pretty well in my opinion.
These images, taken a few weeks ago for my little brother, Nolan, and his girlfriend, Janessa, are the perfect inspiration for a night in. Collectively, these two are known as Janolan. This pair are such a good fit for each other, I didn’t even bother trying to pose them for this shoot. Both N and J have this awesome, hilarious but subtle sense of humour that comes through in some of these shots, like the ones with the sparkle donuts. (Pretty, yes, edible, no.)
If you need some ideas on how to have the best stay at home New Year’s Eve celebration ever, look no further! This cozy, rustic glam styled portrait session will give you plenty of inspiration.
Thanks to Janessa and Nolan for going along with my portrait plans, and for helping us create our own Grinch themed Christmas card shoot later that night. Have a very safe and happy New Year’s Eve, however you choose to celebrate it. Welcome 2015, cheers!
It’s hard to believe its already been an entire year since this festive holiday themed photo shoot with the Frey Family. I attended the same high school as Nick, and my little sister and her husband remain good friends with him, despite the fact that most of the time Nick and his family make their home in Kinshasa, capital of The Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. They live an adventurous life involving Christian ministry and flying planes into remote areas of The Congo to bring Internet Technology to the people there. In 2013, their travels brought them home for the holidays, and they spent several weeks staying with Nick’s sister, Charity and her sweet baby girl, catching up with friends and family.
Jocelyn, Nick’s wife, is herself a photographer, and I was honoured when she mentioned that she’d been wanting to do a shoot with me for some time. We scheduled an indoor/outdoor shoot in between their other holiday visits, and these are some of the most treasured shots that we created together that day.
Technically, there are six people in these photos! Since these images were created, Jocelyn’s bump has grown into an adorable baby boy, and the family of four is back in Africa while Charity continues to hold down the fort here in Kitchener. To the lovely Frey family, may 2015 bring you many more joyful adventures!