My dog looks like a sea otter, wouldn’t you agree? I took pictures of her for maybe 30 seconds and this is the range I got. Best model ever.

This was my third shoot with Brooke. We got to spend a couple hours in Mundy Park in Coquitlam for her photo shoot and she was such a little darling the whole time. I learned this time around that Brooke has a sweet tooth and loves sour keys. Ironic. Obviously it’s the cutest thing ever to watch a kid eat something sour so we set her up on a log and gave her the sour key and I snapped away as her face pursed up, her tongue came out, and her eyes squinted with delight. So cute, right?

Their family is growing too! Brooke will soon have a little brother or sister. Mom is leaning toward a brother; it just feels different this time. It’s pretty neat that the first time I took Brooke’s picture she was only able to crawl and coo. Now we can ask her questions and she can answer them. She can run to where her next picture will be taken and she can chew on a sour candy with her teeth. I hope I get to document this little one as she grows up even more.

When I was editing the photos I thought I’d try adding some textures to a few of the pics so there are some before & afters. It took me forever to get the hang of it but I think they turned out all right! I also am rolling out my watermark. Little mini me and mini Punky to match my logo. Finally!

Anyways, here’s the always cute Brooke.

Being a photographer has benefits. For example, you tend to meet a lot of other photographers and sometimes they want to take your picture. Just for fun. How about a coffee and a photo shoot? Sure! Not a bad way to spend a balmy December day, is it? Now I can name drop. Oh yeah, I know Sean Norman. This guy.

When he shouted out on Twitter that he wanted to do a shoot with ME in front of the camera, I was pretty excited… but I was also nervous because a) I’d never met a stranger to take my picture before and b) I didn’t know what to wear or how to do my hair. There’s a cute thread of comments on his blog about the hair…It seems my stress was for nothing. He made every shutter click count in this set and I love every single picture!

I didn’t realize it would be so easy to get to know other local photographers and then find out they’re welcoming, warm and will share their thoughts on everything from life, family, friendship, the city, the world and even photography. Sean has that quality that every photographer needs just as much as they need the right equipment and technical know-how; he has the ability to connect. And you can see it in every single photo he takes and in every single blog post he writes. This kid’s going far (and he knows it).

No offense about the kid remark, Sean. So here’s a sample of his work with yours truly!

Seriously, Lauren. It’s not fair.

I’d stop there and you’d all know what I meant. But this girl is funny! That makes it even less fair but makes her all the more charming.  I had the pleasure of rocking a tandem boudoir session with Lauren and her friend Chelsea last December.

I was dying to get a great flirty laughing shot of Chelsea and asked if Lauren could help out.   I figured if anyone could make someone laugh, it was their good friend.   Not the geeky photographer.  The now classic “Charlie bit my finger!” was in Lauren’s bag of tricks and it worked wonderfully.  I had no idea what the deal was at the time, especially since Lauren enunciated it (perfectly) like a 4 year old British boy.   Nevertheless, I was happy that I got some beautiful photos out of it.

Thanks to my beatiful comedian assistant, Lauren for helping me get those shots and thanks for spicing up my blog a little bit too.

This is the lovely Chelsea. This girl came in with a PLAN to the shoot. Her and her friend Lauren (whose pictures I’ll post soon) tag teamed the session, coming in full makeup and hair, taking about 5 minutes to change and then alternating outfits to get the most out of the session. While shooting Chelsea, Lauren would get ready. 25 or so frames, then switch! Lauren’s turn while Chelsea changed. I loved this strategy. Boudoir maximization! When I told them I wasn’t a clock-watcher I think things relaxed a little but we still managed to get a huge number of 5 star selections from the shoot.

I knew after emailing back and forth planning the shoot that she was going to be bubbly, bright and full of smiles. And that’s exactly what she was when I met her. Though we never met before the shoot, I know that we will continue to stay in touch. Chelsea is just one of those people that is easy to talk to, easy to relate to, and easy to photograph. A photog’s dream come true! As a matter of fact, she will be doing makeup for my upcoming Valentine’s Boudoir Sessions!

This girl’s got some adventures of her own to share. Check out Chelsea’s sweet little blog here.

Chelsea, it was so nice to meet you and I’m glad our paths have crossed!

This is my girl, Trisha. She had me at “roundhouse kick to the face.” I’ll explain later.

Yes, this is the same girl you’ve seen on my blog several times. When we first started working together at an insurance company, she thought I was stand offish…a mild snob. I thought she was nice but that she could definitely warm up a bit. Neither of us realized that there was a connection there…we just didn’t know it yet. We were wrapped up in our jobs as people tend to do. Not once did either of us try to reach out in over a year of working in the same office.

When I changed departments and she became my trainer, we clicked instantly. It was like we found that person that could get us through the long, routine days of insurance. I looked forward to going to work for a change! Laughter flowed, candy was shared, office politics were discussed. We talked about Chuck Norris. A lot. One day the Chuck Norrising got out of hand when Trisha pretended to give me a roundhouse kick to the face, only to have her size 5 shoe fly off into the reception area. I cried with laughter. The receptionist didn’t.

This girl should have been born in the 40’s. She is a total pinup! And those shoes…such good taste!

I am so excited to be hosting weekend boudoir sessions right before Valentines! I will be working hard over the next couple days posting more on my blog of some lovely ladies that have done boudoir sessions with me recently. So stay tuned for that!

I have been soaking up as much inspiration as I can lately and I can tell that 2010 is going to be the year of boudoir. Dior has a beautiful Spring Boudoir makeup collection. And just check out what hit the runways of Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs and Dolce & Gabbana for Spring 2010 collections. More romantic than early 90’s, the looks still retain some of the in-your-face attitude of that decade. Can you say Strike a Pose?

Sorry, yes, you may remember this post from a few days ago. Well, woopsie doodle, I deleted by accident! Thank goodness Google archives sites and I found it to share, again.

This is Mina. I call her my spicy Persian firecracker. She is one of those people who can walk into a room and grab the attention of everyone, and you love her for it. Once you see her (more likely: HEAR her), you will want to meet her, converse with her, laugh with her, dance with her. She WILL bring out the best in you and you will be better off for having met her. I know I am.

I’d stop there but I wouldn’t do her any justice without mentioning she is the amazing mother of TWO fabulous children (look for them on my blog: Jasmine & Mikayla). It’s not luck they turned out to be wonderful little people; Mina has taught them to love with all their hearts and to know they are loved, deeply. When its my turn to have children, you better believe I’m going to soak up all the parenting advice I can from this lady.

And here she is: rockin’ the corset and lookin’ lovely as ever.

Say hi to Millie. The happiest, most fun loving baby I have ever met in my life. Not to mention absolutely beautiful! Everything made this girl smile, which made me smile. When Millie’s mother Lori let me in to their apartment, Millie was just finishing up lunch. I took one look at that round little face with food all over her chin and knew this was going to be an awesome shoot. She felt the good vibes too, because she gave me the biggest, messiest, most food drenched smile ever. She got cleaned up pretty fast and on went the Santa hat and matching shorts. A couple wardrobe changes and some nudie shots later and I had a set of photos I was in love with. Millie gave me perfect smiles, perfect expressions and perfect poses.

She even posed with the cat and when I saw Millie grabbing a fist full of fur and pull it out…with a smile and a squeal…I was a bit squeamish. Apparantly, the cat LOVES it and they do this fur pulling bit all the time. Cats are weird.

She may slightly disagree in a few years but we think her bare butt shots are just priceless. Millie, until you are old enough to say otherwise, your mother and I agree that they’re too sweet to hide away. Millie, I’m lookin’ forward to our next shoot in the Spring!

My first frigid shoot of the year, done at 9am on a morning with sub zero temperatures in early December. Why, you ask? Well, we posponed the shoot at least 5 times in November due to rain (It was a quiet November for Mandy Jill and her camera, thanks to Mother Nature) and there was a Christmas Card deadline to meet. The Dawes family braved the cold and we met at Maple Ridge Park. I was so glad they chose this spot when I first drove up.

It was a breathtaking morning. Mother Nature apologized for giving us a crappy November! Yes, she was in a good mood this morning. This is the type of morning that makes your entire WEEK seem beautiful. The low sun shining through the frost-bitten willows was simply stunning to behold. But it was still damn cold.

We captured some sweet family photos for the Dawes family…without jackets at first. The request was for just a few photos without them but that was enough for little Kloey. She quickly let us know how cold she really was and started crying. Her tears didn’t stay long enough to freeze and luckily we were still able to capture some sweet moments before wrapping things up a bit early. It was just to cold to keep on going, unfortunately. I find tears endearing, especially on Kloey’s sweet little face. However, for some reason, Christmas cards don’t usually feature photos of crying children (*sarcastic – you got that right?*). We tried.