Cool Anniversary Photos

If you have an anniversary coming up (or even better if you just got married) here's a very cool idea for all your future anniversaries to come. Preferably starting with your first anniversary, hold a photo of both of you on your wedding day in your anniversary photo, do this every year, holding the previous year's anniversary photo. One day you will be able to look back at all your anniversaries starting from the day you got married, all in one photo!



 

Paul and Melissa Engaged

We could not have asked for a more perfect night last Friday for an engagement shoot, a shoot that we had to reschedule twice because of rain. I have worked with Melissa a couple times before for Equine Shoots and was excited to hear from her about her Engagement! She had requested that we do the engagement shoot at Mt Nemo conservation area near Burlington since this is the where Paul and Melissa had their first date, and got engaged. A special spot for the two of them, and it was perfect! We had the entire place to ourselves, there were no bugs at all on a beautiful warm night and we had a gorgeous sunset. What more could we ask?!

Paul and Melissa's wedding is in January, it will be my first winter wedding and I'm so excited about it!! I love winter and have been hoping for a winter wedding to come along! :)
Congratulations Paul and Melissa and I can't wait to capture your special day!!

Flower Girl

A little while ago a friend of mine gave me this photo that was taken at her sisters wedding. We're not sure who took the photo but I'm glad it somehow landed in my hands :) This little flower girl was adorable. I remember her standing patiently for her turn to be in the pictures, and now that I see this photo I do remember her coming over while I was shooting and standing with me, it was pretty cute! I included my two favorite photos of her from the wedding day in this post for you to see how adorable she is.

Enjoy!

 

Black Beauties (AKA Friesians)

My favorite horse breed other than the Arabian, is the Friesian, and I had the awesome opportunity to photograph a mare and her foal a couple weekends ago :) Thank you to Yris and her family for allowing me to come visit and capture these black beauties!! The foal was only about three days old here in these pictures, but I plan on visiting again soon when they are a little more active and playful to get some more great shots. The Friesian, in my mind, is one of the most elegant and powerful breeds you will find. I absolutely love the thought of owning one of these horses in the future!
I have taken many pictures of many different horses, but never a black horse, and so I have discovered the difficulties that can arise. These very dark black horses, against the bright blue skies are not an easy capture, but on the upside, they make the perfect horse to capture silhouettes of. In any kind of an outdoor photo shoot that I do, overcast weather is the considered the most favorable and in the case of photographing a Friesian outdoors, nothing could be more true!


I felt the need to add some flashy black borders to my photos for this blog post, Enjoy!

Can Am

 A few weekends ago I attended the Can Am All Breeds Emporium in London and have been meaning to post a few fun photos from the day. I love watching any kind of equine event, I don't have just one favorite, however, trick riders and drill teams are among many at the top of my list. I cannot even imagine the strength it would take to be able to perform some of these tricks, nor do I believe I would be brave enough to even think about trying some of these crazy stunts! These girls always do an awesome job at wowing the audience with their bravery every time I see them. The Canadian Cowgirls Precision Drill Team usually attends the Can Am each year, also putting on a fabulous performance... and don't be fooled, synchronized/precision riding is harder then it looks! If you get the chance to see either of these events don't let the opportunity pass you by! It really is awesome entertainment if you ask me :)

 One last photo I had to add in for fun, was the cart race between the little mini and the Friesian! The Friesian is one of my very favorite breeds, they are stunningly beautiful horses! I may have the chance to photograph a newborn friesian foal in the next few weeks and I can't wait!

And yes, the mini won!

The Canadian Cowgirls proudly represent our Country everywhere they go, and are a very busy team travelling all over to represent Canadians. Check out their website for a chance to see where you can catch a performance of theirs! www.canadiancowgirls.com. You can also learn more about the Encore Trick Performers at their website www.encoretrickriders.com.

Hot March Days! What?

I have been enjoying this beach like weather and even made it to the beach on one of the hottest days we got! Earlier in my blog I mentioned that I would be posting my Winter Beach photo that I take every year when we got enough snow, instead, here we are in March and I give you a summer beach photo! Although I am a little disappointed I didn't get to the beach in the short time that we did have snow, how cool is this?! And I wasn't the only one taking advantage of the craziness ... Grand Bend was quite busy actually, with a few even braving the cold water!

I hope you were/are also out enjoying this weather while it lasts!

Slowly but surely...

My new website is starting to come together. So far the Equine section of my new website including the gallery is now up! Check it out at www.melissaphotofolio.com. The Wedding and Portrait section is in progress and will be up soon!

I don't have a dedicated pet photography page on my website, however I do LOVE pet photography! I am constantly photographing the pets in my life and I would love to photograph yours! I will leave you with this one from this week in the snow! Happy Weekend :)

Equine Photographers Network: Equine Ideal contest

The Equine Photographers Network is an association I have been following for some time now, they offer courses, contests, information and inspiration for Equine Photographers all over the world. They are hosting an Equine Ideal Photography contest in which I have entered a few photos! This is my first time entering a photography contest in the professional division, I'm so excited! I have always wanted to enter this contest, and just never got to it in time.
 

Photoshoots at Christmas

We were blessed over the holidays to have all of the family home for Christmas. My older sister and her husband live in Alberta and one of my brothers in Saskatchewan so we were happy that they were able to made it home! When Michelle found out they would be coming home she said she wanted to make sure to get some portraits done of her and our younger sisters while she was here. So we went out to the beach (my most favorite winter photoshoot location!) in Goderich and had some fun with the camera. We did all kinds of "sister" photos as well as some portraits of Kevin and Michelle. Here are my favorite shots from the day:

I absolutely love going to the beach in the winter (sounds wierd?) it makes
for some very cool backgrounds and surroundings! Now if only we would
have gotten some real Canadian winter weather before this shoot it would
have been perfect. But there were some ice covered (more like slush covered
with the warm weather we've had) rocks that worked out awesome for us!
I love this look!

We (or maybe just I) try to make a point of making sure to get pictures of everyone as often as I can (or in other words as often as they will let me), but especially when Michelle comes home because she doesn't get the chance to get home as often as we would like. So here are some sister shots

It really wasn't as icy as it looks

This is a very cool tree I spotted right away when we got
on the beach. We just had to use it!

We didn't use the lake as much as I would normally, but the water wasn't at all frozen up and snow just wasnt there like it normally would be this time of year! But the frozen and snow covered rocks did it for me, they did look pretty neat!


Some snow in the air for this photoshoot would have made my day, and maybe brightened up the skies a little for these photos, but overall it was a great day!



Stay tuned for another winter beach post to come later (when we get winter)