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.
The flower wall. I had no idea how popular it would become when I started making these giant paper flowers in preparation for our wedding back in the winter of 2014. I experimented and played around and eventually ended up with the combination of white, blue, pink, turquoise, yellow and orange flowers that would be the colour scheme for most of my life for the past 2 years. After all the “I Dos” and hullabaloo, I was left with the wall. THE WALL.
Each individual flower represents at least $5 worth of paper and 1-2 hours of my life. This baby took me so long to make that I knew it had to get set up at least once more so that I could properly photograph it myself. Thus the idea for “May Flowers Minis” was born. I enlisted a handful of gorgeous young ladies for May Flowers portraits and we set out to create joyful photographs that would celebrate springtime 2016. Here is a handful of my favourite shots from our styled mini sessions. Thanks so much to all the lovely ladies that participated in this endeavour.
 
 
  
 
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.
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!
If I had to sum up the theme for this year’s holiday mini photo shoots in just one word, I’d go with COZY. If I had to elaborate, I’d say we were going for rustic charm with a glamorous edge and a hint of vintage inspiration. The idea for this set began back in the summer when I paid a man in a church yard $25 for a lovely red vintage Canam Flyer sled. He had just personally refinished it by hand. The day before the minis, I raided my sister’s home and discovered yet another beautiful vintage sled, and the red tractor that my father made by hand for his first grandson. Excited to have some new props on hand, I planned the set around them and asked my clients to come wearing neutral and deep red outfits with a bit of sparkle here and there, and they did me proud! Furthermore, we had handmade hats and accessories provided by local business, Kissing Bridge Krafts. In the end, all the elements coalesced into some very festive holiday portraits of some gorgeous families. This is your first peek at this year’s holiday mini portraits, but it won’t be your last. Enjoy!
Dearest Reader,
How is it that the holiday season is already upon us? I feel like I’ve barely had time to blink since Labour Day, and I’m afraid my poor blog has suffered in the meantime. I’ve got a hundred posts constructed in my head, but I’ve been too busy to focus on my online presence other than daily Facebook posts, and the odd Pinterest or Instagram binge. This is good news in many ways, because it means I’ve been occupied with paying customers and volunteer work nearly every day from the beginning of fall right up until December.
I can’t thank you all enough for supporting me through your kind words, referrals, returning business, and participating in social media this year. 2013 has been the most challenging year of my life, but I’m just so pleased to be earning a living by being creative and doing what I love. Really, thank you.
Here’s just a wee tiny sneak peek of the holiday images I’ve been working on for the past two weeks. To be honest, I can’t wait for the annual slow season for the photography industry. After Christmas is over, I’ll have time to blog about all the family portrait sessions, weddings, personal projects, sunsets, star photos, light painting experiments, DIY tutorials, and all kinds of other stuff that’s been preventing me from sleeping for the past 4 months. For now, please enjoy this snapshot of my bunny baby; Rorschacht.
Please come back soon to see all the latest EBI adventures documented right here on my blog. Happy holidays! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a splendid New Year. Cheers!
