Cedarstone Farm Schooling Shows

Ryan and I (Shoot the Thrill Photography) had the pleasure to photograph both schooling shows at Cedarstone Farm this year.

The June 20th show was a wet one. It was heavily in the morning on our drive up to Durham and continued to be wet for most of the day. The riders and horses were ready; the show must go on.

 

The Fall Schooling Show on September 19th turned out to be a wonderfully sunny day. It was another successful show and a good day for all.

 

To view more photos from these 2 events or to order prints, please click on one of the photos above.

Bride's Ball

On June 20th, The Wedding Ring hosted a Bride's Ball at Elements Night Club with the proceeds of the event going to breast cancer screening at Grand River Hospital.

The club looked fantastic; there was wonderful food, yummy cupcakes, pink drinks, and lots of dancing to be had. I went to the ball with my husband and one of our maids of honour. A great time was had by all and I am definitely looking forward to next year's ball.

Family Portrait: The Stoffers

These photos were taken a few months ago, but I was waiting to post them as some of them were potentially going to be a surprise father’s day gift. Now that father’s day has been and gone… here are a few of my photos of the Stoffers family!

Family Portrait: The Wards

Easter weekend was an excellent opportunity for some family portraits. Today, I am posting photos of the my sister and her two kids: the Ward Family.

View Full Album

The photos were taken at my parents’ house both on the front porch and in the yard. The weather was a little chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining. As far as I know, a good time was had by all.

New Web Site

After many hours of slaving over a laptop, the new Shoot the Thrill website is up and running! There are some additions and some changes that will be made in the near future, but it’s fully functional and more pleasing to the eye than the old site.

Check it out!

Family Portrait: Allison & Jay, March 29, 2009

This past Sunday, Ryan and I met up with our friends, Allison and Jay, at their house to take their family photos.

Sunday morning was very rainy and it looked like we would not be able to do as many photos outdoors as we had hoped.

We packed up our cameras and lenses, hopped in the car, make a quick stop at Henry’s to purchase a new SB-400 flash (we only had one external flash (SB-600) and were going to be shooting with two cameras) and headed out to Al and Jay’s house.

We arrived at 2pm to find the family scrambling about, hair being done, ribbons being tied, and curlers being removed. We sat and had a coffee and noticed that the rain had completely cleared and the sun was coming out. We decided to do outdoor photos first in case the rain came back.

We ended up taking almost all of the photos on the backyard deck, shooting toward the yard. Looking back at the photos now, I can see that this was a poor choice as the images were quite hazy with the sunlight. The position of the sun wasn’t great that time of day, which caused a lot of blown out images and haze. Luckily, not all of the photos were taken in that exact situation. Also, the photos that were affected were mostly correctible with some adjusting in Lightroom.  I will definitely pay more attention to the position of the sun next time.

I did happen to take some photos towards the house with Jay and his two kids, which turned out quite nicely. The colour ended up looking great and I was very happy with them.

 

We broke up some of the shooting so that I took photos of Jay with his two kids while Ryan took photos of Allison and her daughter. Then I took the three kids away and did their photos while Ryan went with Allison and Jay for some couple shots.

I finished off my photos for the day by taking some of Allison and Jay relaxing in the house.

All in all it was a good day for learning in a real-life situation. I’ve never worked with 3 kids and 2 parents at once before. It was an interesting experience. Parents are always looking to see if their kids are behaving, which makes them not look in the same direction as the kids. Kids also act up more when they are in the large group with the family and act more natural when they are just with the other kids and the photographer.

I’m looking forward to more experiences with family portraiture and more opportunities to work with different family units and group environments.

Schmap: Toronto Photo Short-list

I received a message in my Flickr mail today letting me know that one of my photos has been put on the short-list of photos for possible inclusion in the Schmap Toronto Guide. The new guide will be published late April 2009.

I've done the necessary reading of the terms and accepted them. I've submitted my photo to be considered.

This is the photo they chose for the short-list: