The final version…

The Gio page on facebook has a chance to win dinner for 6 hosted by Vince and if someone wins it I just ask you take Marse and I with you. Please. We had dinner there one night and we both slipped into the most wonderful food coma in the back seat of the cab on the way home. For three days we talked about the boar. Vince is not just some guy who makes fancy food on white plates. He’s an artist and his passion for what he does is something to be admired.

A huge thanks to Chelsea + Chris who were more than happy get all dressed up and take part in some personal work with Steph and I. We assembled a dream team of artists and without the help of them this would have remained nothing more than a few sketches on the wall.

Models: Chris + Chelsea
Photographer: Applehead Studio
Makeup: Vicky Mina
Hair: Cara MacInnis
Dress + accessories: Felicity Bridal

I’ve got to stop trying to label whatever it is I shoot. The only one thing I know for sure is that I’ll be shooting weddings until I’m too old or shakey to shoot. The rest is kind of like a hobby. It just so happens that my hobby is a lot like my job.

We took Lola to the Discovery Center and she just went crazy and wanted to do and see everything and walked around w this glazed and excited look on her face for 2 hours. Thats kind of like me in between wedding season. I get to do pretty much anything I want. I just pitched a ‘rock climbing gone wrong’ shoot idea to clients and didn’t think they’d even write me back but they loved it. I’m also working with some good friends on a project that will see us working w the Canadian Cancer Society and allow us to give back in a small way and hopefully have a positive impact on the lives of those who’ve been affected by Cancer.

It’s also time to play around with new ideas. Most fail…do you remember when I wanted to rule the world w Senior photography? Fail. I was in a meeting the other day and someone was talking about ideas and how delicate they can be when they’re new and how easy it is for those ideas to be crushed and never make it anywhere. The Table Sessions one of those ideas that just might make it. It’s something I never would have dreamed of if I wasn’t a parent. I was only going to shoot a few but we’ve been having some fun just letting the shoots evolve and to be honest, it’s a blast to see everyone get so involved in the final look of the shoot. Steph and I have been trying some new stuff behind the scenes and before I can show you images of family members plummeting to the studio floor we need to rework our waivers and contracts.

Here’s a quick shot we did for Martha and the family. She told me the kids love broccoli. They did!

When Lola was born she insisted on one thing. She wanted, whenever possible, to sit down at the table as a family for dinner (supper if you’re from Cape Breton). She did it with her family and I did it with mine when we were growing up…and I guess you don’t realize how important that can be until you’re the actual ‘owner’ of that family.

So, for the last 2+ years we’ve been having supper at the table. Ruby’s only been here for about a week and she’s already been to 4 or 5.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, I would certainly not call myself a family photographer. I don’t think I can shoot a typical family in the park better than anyone else can and its just not where my mind goes when I think about creating family photos. My idea of a family photo is something drawn from the reality of what a family really is. When I’m 75, and if I can still remember things, I’ll probably remember supper time with my girls so many years ago.

So I came up with the idea for Table Sessions.

I love the complete and utter chaos of meal time. The awkward 2 year old hand trying to hold a fork and get rice from the plate to the mouth, that same plate of rice flying through the air, the repeated attempts to get a Lola to ‘take one more bite’. That 30 minutes every day provides enough inspiration for a lifetime of ‘family photos’. I love it.

I’m pretty comfortable telling you that I’m just not a fan of trying to bring in a family and get everyone to look at the camera at the same time and smile. It’s stressful for the parents, the kids have no idea whats up and in the past, I’ve just stood there saying, “Lauren, look here. Laurennnnn, hey Lauren, Lauren LOOK, look at this Lauren”…while Lauren screams bloody murder. Like I said, I’m just not meant to be a typical family photographer.

So, if you’re interested in a Table Session, just email me for details. We’re going to shoot 8 sessions from January to February and every shoot includes a gigantic 30×40 canvas prints.

After many, many months of planning, plotting, rearranging and re-planning we finally hit the studio for a boudoir shoot. The plan: a fur coat shoot. Silver fox fur to be exact.

Makeup Artist: Vicky Mina (thanks Vicky!) Hair: Cara MacInnis (thanks Cara)

Big thanks to Jeff Harper for his help leading up to this and to Jason LeFrense for his late night critique and pistol whipping.

While I won’t be pulling out the video at this years weddings, I do plan to incorporate some of it into engagement shoots, the Crazy Booth Experience, Trash the Dress shoots and any other interesting shoot I can get myself into.

The best part of this new little ‘hobby’ is that its fun. it forces me to think in series of events as opposed to just mere split seconds. it just opens up a whole new world of opportunities. Wait until you see what’s in the works next…

So anyway, here it is in all it’s blury, underexpose, overexposed, unwhitebalanced, shakey, choppy glory. My first video.

6 wedding photographers. 10 minutes. 4 random, unplanned locations. go.

Untitled from Applehead Studio on Vimeo.

Last night we decided we’d pick 4 random locatons, take either a bride (Charlotte) or a bride and groom (Debbie + Perry ‘the male model’) and shoot for 10 minutes. we needed to come up with as many poses as possible using whatever was around.

Before everyone even gets in the door you can see the wheels turning. lights are being setup, lenses chosen and then people start sneaking off to get a few more photos or check out a location in advance. I’ve never been at ‘work’ a day in my life where people sneak off to do more work.

I decided to shoot more behind the scenes video last night because I knew this was going to be something you wanted to see. I’ve got a 5 second clip of Sue stuck in the elevator doors that just wouldn’t be as funny if it were one photo. To see her little body get jammed in those elevator doors over and over and over again was awesome.

I’ll get the video up soon but I’m in the early stages of learning to edit so it takes forever.

in the meantime, I took 14 frames last night. i had a few ideas in mind. this was them (ok, I stole the last shot from someone else).