That’s what this is…the end of summer. It’s here folks. The first trees are starting to turn yellow down the street from me. Jack starts school on Monday. Georgia the following week(preschool is later for some reason). We’ve been shopping for school clothes and indoor shoes. Ahhh…I miss it already. Thank goodness that fall means soon Starbucks will have their pumpkin spice lattes in. It’s the only thing to look forward to…well, that and having some time to myself while the kids are in school.

So, after this session, I got to thinking…how lucky am I? I get to hang out with a family for a couple of hours and see them enjoy each other. And, I often really enjoy myself as well…this was my kind of evening…beautiful evening light, Calgary’s classic scenery, and a close knit family who love the outdoors almost as much as they love each other.  Pure Calgary…

I love that this family chose to just be themselves…no pretense. They wore their everyday clothes, they brought their dog and their smiles. AND, when this dad talked about his son who is away at University(in Hawaii–I know you are all drooling), he beamed. I got choked up. I get the best dads So, on with their sneak peek…

There is so much technically wrong with this image. Let’s start with the fact that it was dreadfully underexposed as kids can be…ummm…unpredictable and she moved at the last second…and in the fixing of the exposure problem the image got all…well, grainy. But let’s focus on HOW MUCH I LOVE this image…the sun, the way the color worked out, and her gorgeous face…seriously. It’s love. To me, it’s perfect.

Enjoying the mud from the day’s rain…I was a little scared when I awoke to a torrential downpour, but wouldn’t you know the sky opened up to a beautiful summer’s night afterwards. ahhh….

Okay, so the dog is my favorite thing about this image. Isn’t he sitting perfect? Seriously…you should see the two frames on either side of this image. blech. Thank goodness for high speed shutter when working with kids and dogs

I love how ‘organic’ this image is. I really did very little to it. I didn’t need to…beautiful light, beautiful people, beautiful connection. Just beautiful. Have a nice long weekend everyone.

Hmmm…lately, I’ve been following some design blogs. Design of all kinds is another passion of mine. One which I wish I had more time for, but still enjoy dreaming about. Well, the ‘design blog’ world was turned upside down yesterday with all sorts of fundraising for a blogger named Stephanie Nielson. I must admit to never having followed her blog, but have recently looked at it and love her images and her joy for life. I went to it about a week ago when a blog I followed mentioned that there had been a tragic accident–a plane crash. Where the flight instructor perished and Stephanie(or Nie Nie) and her husband sustained severe burns. Now a fundraising effort is underway…which makes me sad. Sad that her family has to worry about the medical bills during such a traumatic time in their life. And it makes me feel lucky. Lucky to be living in Canada where that would never be a concern. Instead, I could just focus on getting better. So, today, read Nie Nie’s blog and then if you feel so inclined, go to www.designmom.com and see the list of things being auctioned off by fabulous artists everywhere and bid on something beautiful to help someone beautiful.

Okay, so this is a huge sneak peek…but you see…this is another photographer. She lives in Edmonton(well, St. Albert really). We are doing a session swap. Why would photographers ever need their own family photographs? Well…mostly because WE ARE NEVER IN THE PICTURES!!!!! So, she is in a lot of these. And, what is a session swap? Well, it means that I am having her do my family photos next time we are in Edmonton. Which means I am on a diet. It also means I am completely stressed about what we should wear. Which is funny because I always find it so amusing that all of you get this way–I mean, I’m capturing you the way you are today. Right? Ya right. I’m going to lose 10 pounds if it kills me. And, I bought Jack a cool Batman sweater yesterday at H&M…now he just needs converse shoes. But then when he put the outfit on, I got all jealous that Jenny(oops, I never use names) was going to get to photograph it…I might just have to pull out my own camera Except I promised Bob I would leave it at home. Ahhhhh….

I’ve seriously processed this like 4 different ways. I can’t decide….so, I’m posting this one here.

I love that her son’s little cubby legs are squeezed into those chucks. I also love how you can see her husband’s hand holding him there.

Chowing down…love the distortion on this one…

Two 10×20 crops…which one is your favorite. I simply can’t decide. I think I’ll put one in my banner!

Okay…does she not look so incredibly happy here? I love how her eyes twinkle. You will not believe that they have been together FOREVER. I remember when Jenny brought him to a group outing for the first time. I think she was like 14 years old! AND, if you invite him to your wedding, he does this crazy dance to this crazy song–Jenny, what’s the song? It’s hilarious!!!!

So, yes…my good friend, Jenny, and the loves of her life. She is so blessed….Check out her blog here One day in October or November, maybe we’ll be on it! Ah, scary…

…and, I’m not going to lie…it makes me a little bit sad. Where did his baby rolls go? Now so tall and skinny…still sweet and cuddly and social…still Jack. We love you so much baby…Happy Birthday.

Image by Shannon Loewen in Vancouver, BC…his first birthday photo shoot. Some of my favorite images ever.

******CANVAS CONTEST CAN BE FOUND IF YOU SCROLL DOWN*******

Wow! I can’t believe how crazy this canvas contest is! I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have to continue with my blog posts or I will fall desperately behind. So, scroll down and vote for your fave! This family deserves a big sneak peek. They met me in Edmonton this past weekend. They came all the way from Fort McMurray! Wow! No pressure or anything. Thank goodness we had lovely weather. Fall is coming. I can feel it.

Okay…I love this guys hair…and his little impish expressions. That’s what he is…a little imp. What is an imp anyways? If you look in wikipedia surely his image will be there!!!

Okay…what’s not to love?

Again…I loved that the dad knealt down.  It’s funny because this is a very popular location for Edmonton photographers. I just thought we’d play in the weeds, but the kids LOVED the slanted concrete under the overpass. I think they were disappointed to walk away from it!

okay…everyone can sigh here…love LOVE crazy love it!

Even though this family is not very serious, I still managed to capture some sweet moments.

A new try at processing. Isn’t she beautiful?

And, I love his silly expression. I love how he blends into the bright summer sky. But, I especially love his mom’s blue toe nail polish. Fabulous! Thanks for a splendid Edmonton morning!!

EDITED TO ADD: You have to scroll all the way down to the poll and vote there. I think some people are clicking on the image–that will not add a vote and I have no way of tracking that, so please help your friends out and scroll down to the poll!!! Thanks

Okay…so here it is…my first anniversary contest. My absolute favorite way to display images is on canvas. Here are ten images I wish I’d seen on canvas–so, let’s pick one of them and do it! That’s right, the winning subject receives a canvas(with the long side being 20″) of the winning image! I’ll leave up the poll for one week…okay, so there is one rule–play fair. That means no spamming people. One vote per day. I have my ways of tracking this so, don’t break this rule. On September 1st, I will close the poll at 9am. I’ll announce the winner later that day.

It was super hard to pick 10 images from the past year, so I enlisted some help(thanks to my peeps for helping me choose)…here they are in order:

#1) This girl is a true beauty…every image of her is a treat–but this one is my fave! Someone once said it looked like the cover of a country album

#2) This image just screams family to me…(if you haven’t been following my blog for the whole year, you might not know that this is my logo designer and her family…we’ll see them again this fall!)

#3) My favorite silhouette at Lake Louise this past March…

#4) Black and whites look sooooo nice on canvas. This one would look fabulous How gorgeous are these girls?

#5) Some bright fun color with one of my favorite families!!!

#6) I love this image. Just love it…baby safe in his family’s arms

#7) Mom and dad were married at Teatro…I think their sweet little girl looks like a european baby Like she’s out of a French movie. Seriously.

#8) okay…so I feel a little bit guilty just putting up this one because he has two gorgeous brothers but my peeps overwhelmingly wanted me to include it. I hope that his family forgives me…he is soooo gorgeous. I could swim in his brown eyes.

#9) Okay, so this is Bob’s choice. No one has seen this image yet. I just took it. But Bob thinks this is my best session ever(won’t their mom be happy to hear this?) and insisted I include a tractor image.

#10) This one is totally 100% for me. From the birth I captured. It will always be a special image to me.

So, here is the poll. This is the first time I have set one of these up. I guess we’ll see how it works!

***okay…so there has been some not so fair play going on…I told you guys I can monitor this sort of thing. Since it wasn’t the people in the image, I am not going to disqualify them, but I am going to subtract 31 votes from #5. Even though I can’t ACTUALLY subtract them…I guess we’ll see the final totals on the final day. Play fair people.

I keep missing Fridays….hmmm…maybe this was too ambitious. Forgive me if I miss a Friday here or there…life can get busy. Soooo busy that summer might slip by hardly noticed and we might just find ourselves madly shopping for school clothes already. How did that happen?

 Two things today that I would like to share with you. One is not a blog, but an online journal that I found interesting. The images are especially compelling to me and drew me right into the story. http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/ 

The other thing I want to share today is a blog–a blog–yay! Actually, I quite enjoy this blog and come to find out in Seattle that Tara enjoys it as well. Since this week has been kind of a Tara week, I have decided to share it with you all. http://www.bobbiandmike.com/blog/ I must confess that I am sure at one time or another I looked at their website, but–not for awhile. Their blog is AWESOME though. Their most recent post with the minigolf and video game loving groom was right up my alley.

One other thing–I’ve been on an itunes spending spree lately. Wanna go on one? Don’t forget my comment contest–winner gets a $50 gift card to do just that!!! Later skaters!!!

…faster than these ice cream cones!!!! We went for lunch and a walk about the Saskatoon Farm the other day with our friends. Good old summertime fun!!! I love how these images look like stills out of an old movie! I’m sad that summer is slipping away…

Jack in there with the girls Yes, his hair really is that long. Thank goodness it’s curly Enjoy the last few lazy, hazy summer days!!!

So, one of the moms who was gracious enough to bring her children out for the workshop had three of the most beautiful children I’d ever seen. A slight disclaimer here as someone told me that I say this about all children I have ever met, but honestly, look at these kids! Man, they are sooooooooo beautiful!

And, this one…well, he’s a bundle of character which is a trait I LOVE

The youngest of the three of them was soooooo sweet, sooooo precious, soooooo hard to capture in the giant crowd of the workshop, but I have this series of her and her mom that I am in love with. I put one in my blog header and I’m posting one here. I hope these look okay despite my monitor issues. Oh! And, I was told by my roommate that I was much too quiet on the last post and had to tell everyone that I was like that kid on the disneyland commercial on Friday night after learning that Tara was the guest speaker. You know ‘I’m toooooo excited to sleep!!!!!’. Well, my response to that is that I was trying to appear all cool and collected and not the bumbling mess that I truly was! I feel blessed to have met the two photographers I admire most(Jinky and Tara in case you aren’t a regular reader) thanks to the wonderfully talented and wonderfully generous, Cheryl Muhr. I am shaking my head in disbelief at my good fortune. Truly.

I’m so fortunate to have a husband who realizes that moms sometimes need a summer vacation, too. So, for mine, I volunteered to work at The Secret Workshop in Seattle. Well, they had a secret guest there…

All nonphotographers are wondering who this is…well, ask any family photographer and they will tell you that it is Tara Whitney. I got to hang out with the one, the only Tara Whitney What an awesome way for me to spend my summer vacation!!! For those who aren’t crazy photographers or crazy scrapbookers, Tara Whitney is a rockstar of family photography. I can go on and on about how much it meant to meet her, but if you read my blog on a regular basis, you will probably know that it meant a lot to me. Plus, it helps that she is such an awesome person(exactly as you would expect if you are a blog stalker follower of hers). Thank you, Tara, for being so generous to share of yourself and your talent! It is immensely inspiring! I have other images from the weekend and I do plan to share(I even promised one mom), but my monitor is having technical difficulties, so editing is on hold until those can be resolved.