Views of Algonquin Park

This blog post is dedicated to my dear cousin, Cicely.

I left a little piece of my heart in Algonquin Park. I think everyone who visits does.

Our family is extremely lucky to have a cottage right in the park. Most years a bunch of members of the Merritt family get to spend a week or so at Rock Lake.

Nobody loves The Park more than Cicely. She spent all her childhood summers at Camp Wapomeo, eventually becoming a counselor and participating in canoe trips that would last the whole summer and take her from Quebec all the way back to camp. In fact, we did a fun styled session with a Canadiana theme to celebrate her daughter’s 1st birthday, two years ago. This year Cic couldn’t make it to the cottage because she welcomed a baby boy in June! Her family of four will need to wait until next season to revisit the wild beauty of Rock Lake, but I thought perhaps I could bring some of its majesty to her through these images.

Places Pictured in 2019: Rock Lake, Booth’s Rock, Lookout Trail.

Lookout Trail Algonquin Park 2019
cliffside view, Ontario Canada

Cicely: Rock Lake missed you this summer too. I could feel it. Think how sweet your reunion will be in 2020! Love you. xoxoxoxo

Hello 2019! Here’s What’s New With Emily Beatty Imagery

If you’re been paying attention to my Instagram, you’ve noticed me talking about a few big changes for my photography business in 2019. Its true! Life has been beautiful and messy and unpredictable these last couple of years. I’ve been fortunate to work will all different kinds of clients and to really hone my skills in the 10+ years since I began my career in this industry.

Lately, lots of people have been asking if I’m busy shooting weddings this summer, and the answer is, “Nope!” Its been my privilege and joy to work with scores of couples to document their big days, but for now at least, I’m enjoying semi-retirement from the wedding industry.

I have so many interests photographically, I truly wish there were more hours in the day! The truth is, I need to narrow my focus to really excel at my work. There are a great deal of photographers serving my region that specialize in wedding and newborn sessions- especially if you’re looking for those bright and airy or dark and moody styles that are so trendy right now. I’ve come to realize that my bold and colourful style and skill set are better suited for creative portrait art.

Businesswoman with an iPhone and coffee.

In particular, lately I’ve been really excited about the increasingly popular niche of Personal Brand Photography. Its all about helping other business owners and online personalities tell the story of their passion and draw people in with really high quality images.

A series of images of a business man on colourful backdrops and outdoors.

Now please don’t go thinking this new path means I don’t have time to update family portraits! On the contrary, I’m moving away from weddings and newborns so that I have time to pursue this new niche while continuing to serve the clients that I’ve already come to know and love.

Family of four in purple and pink and grey and beige outfits.

Furthermore, all past EBI clients that have a customized link to a Pixieset gallery now have the option to order wall art, high quality prints and other products directly from your online gallery.

I’m also revisiting my love for fine art photography. For the first time ever, you can now purchase home decor items that are personalized with my artwork via my Society6 Shop.

Vintage camera and a photographer's smile with pink lipstick and a handmade coffee mug.
A woman canoes into the sunrise in Algonquin Park, Canada.

Fall/Winter 2019 promises plenty of new picture taking opportunities. (Like Holiday Minis, happening at the Kitchener photo studio November 9th and two other dates this fall.) Stay tuned for more fun fresh photos of lovers, ladies and little ones. Thank you so much for visiting!

Holiday 2017 Studio Minis in Kitchener with Emily Beatty Imagery

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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.

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Want to see more?

Check out this 2017 holiday season compilation.






Fall Photos at the Family Farm

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.

 






Fall Family Photos at Rockway Gardens

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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.)

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Thanks to this family for choosing me to document your baby boy’s first Halloween season. It was a truly a pleasure.






Halloween 2017 Minis in Kitchener

EBI_9445-2'17editIf 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.

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Thanks to everybody that participated in these sessions. I always have so much fun doing these holiday setups.






Mother Daughter Portraits with a Canadian Twist

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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.

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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.

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Sending hugs South of the border. xoxo






Colourful Modern Vintage Family Photos

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Do you remember back in February when EBI had a draw for a free family photo session? Meet the winners! The idea was to give back to my wonderful group of clients, but it turned out to be a great experience for me as well. The contest introduced me to Lindsay and her beautiful blended family, and after a few e-mails back and forth and an inspirational Pinterest board, we arrived on a mutual vision for a fun family photo shoot that would involve bold black and white stripes and oversize handmade pink paper flowers.

The setup took a bit of effort to assemble, but it was well worth it when I saw all the elements come together. To top things off, I arranged to borrow a minty green vintage style bicycle from some friends (thanks Fraser and Ellie) and accessorized the set with all sorts of white flowers. Lindsay and her family arrived with black and white and blue outfits and these great vintage updos that pulled everything together. We ended up with alllll kinds of great shots to choose from, and in the end the fam opted to add several extra images on top of their complimentary portrait package. Here are a few of our favourites.

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Blacksmith Dudeoir

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So this happened. I finally did a dudeoir shoot, and it wasn’t even my idea. The boys at Pound Town thought it would be smart to do some marketing photos for their blacksmith business. Knowing what sort of photos I normally take for women, they also thought it would be funny to do some more… well, its hard to put into words. A little hot and a lot hilarious? You tell me. For the record, the one with the big beard is my husband. (Happy anniversary honey! This year I’m giving you the gift of Internet fame.) Hope you all get a kick out of this series!

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Mother’s Day Floral Workshop with From The Potting Shed

Last month, just before Mother’s Day, I attended a Mother Daughter floral workshop with the buds at From The Potting Shed, and the lousy weather didn’t stop my mom, my aunt Debbie, my cousin Alex and I from having a grand ol’ time– and going outside to take pictures in the rain. Earlier in the day we got a quick garden tour and then learned how to make spring twig wreaths and floral crowns. In between there was a catered lunch and some excellent photo opportunities.

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We had a lovely time making our wreaths and crowns, but the real pleasure of this workshop was luxuriating in the ambience surrounding the French peasant gardens and the stone cottage that Elaine and the team at From the Potting Shed call home. Don’t even get me started on that incredible weeping cherry tree! Those pink blossoms totally made my day. Here’s a taste of all the pretty that went down at the 2017 Mother’s Day workshop.

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Did you like the look of this workshop? From The Potting Shed will be hosting another very similar workshop called Fairies and Flowers on July 9th, 2017.

Want to see a complete gallery of images from this workshop? Visit my gallery website. Want to see another blog post showcasing flowers from FTPS? View my open house post.

Thank you for a beautiful day mama, Alex, Debbie, and all the buds From The Potting Shed.