Pulled out the Lensbaby for a few shots of Alice, she loves sleeping on the Apple Airport because it’s warm and toasty (shot with the Canon 1D MkIV and the Lensbaby Composer, see “My Camera Equipment” in footer section for links/more information on camera equipment used):

Some window lens flare and a heart that I photographed on the sidewalk, shot and processed on the iPhone 4:

The following are all reworked shots that I’ve previously posted, decided to see what I could do with them using a new app on my iPhone 4. All were taken with my old iPhone 3G and processed on the iPhone:

I never know where I’m going to find Alice, as she does find the strangest places (in my mind!) to lounge, as I’m sure all cats do, but I was still surprised to find her latest spot in the kitchen:

A few more Lensbaby shots, as it’s such a fun lens to shoot with:

You might find this in your kitchen, if you live with a stereotypical boy:

(Equipment Used: Shot with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIV, Lensbaby Composer with +4 Macro kit attachment and the Canon 580EX II Speedlite. f2.8, 1/125, ISO 4000)

(View Part III of Signs You Live With a Stereotypical Boy.)

I have been capturing my latté art over the weekend, photographed with various equipment.

This first image was captured with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIV, Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens and the Canon 580EX II Speedlite:

Top left image was captured with the iPhone (edited on the iPhone), all others were captured with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIV and the Lensbaby Composer with the Lensbaby Close-Up (Macro) Kit attached:

Love and romance in Kensington Market this Valentine’s Day with my couple photography shoot of Coby & Ashley.

(Equipment Used: Images where shot with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIV, Canon 5D, Canon 85 f1.2L lens, Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens and the Lensbaby Composer.)

What a fun neighbourhood for a couple shoot (or a family shoot!), lots of colour, and interesting backdrops.

Love this natural moment I caught of Coby and Ashley on the bench, and the wonderful graffiti & fabric (hanging outside) that made for such colourful backgrounds:

Had to share this whole series, cool locale, and wonderful interaction:

Every time I turned around it seemed I found another interesting backdrop! At the end of the shoot, we jumped on a streetcar, did some shots while riding, and then used the streetcar as a backdrop, so Toronto!

Decided that the images just called out for some texture, love how in this example it adds more depth and interest to the background:

Lensbaby shot, colour graphic wall, texture added in PhotoShop:

Went all out on this one, love the worn, vintage feel:

Thank you for the fun afternoon in Kensington Market, Coby & Ashley!

I was thrilled to receive word on Friday that an image that I had submitted for an upcoming Lensbaby book, while not one of the 12 images picked for the book itself, was selected from almost 2,000 submissions to be included in the Honorable Mentions Gallery (see page four for my image). Also pleased that it was one of the first lensbaby images I ever captured! With the acceptance to the gallery, also comes the invitation to submit images for use by Lensbaby on their website or beyond. You can view more of my Lensbaby images by viewing my “Lensbaby Category” on this blog.

On Saturday Rebecca and I went to Fabric Land to choose patterns and fabric for her upcoming Elite Fashion Prep class at The Sewing Studio. As it was our first time choosing a pattern and fabric, it took us quite a while! But we are both so thrilled with what we found/choose.

(Equipment Used: The following were all shot with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIII, and the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens. The Canon 580EX II Speedlite was used for both shots of Alice. The fabric was shot in natural light.)

One project will be a vest, with the polka dot fabric as the main fabric, and the pinky/green for the lining. I think it will look amazing when completed, and will be sure to post images of Rebecca modeling her vest:

The second pattern, which was suppose to be a skirt (but Rebecca couldn’t find any skirt patterns she liked), will hopefully be her graduation dress. The black fabric will be the main part of the dress, with the red fabric being the lining, but Rebecca also wants to use it for colour on the dress. She plans to have it extend beyond the hem of the black part of the dress, and also plans to add a slit, the bottom part of the dress, to show the colour. Again, excited about how it’s going to turn out!

And, since I’m posting, a few of Alice. She has found a new spot to snooze, on top of the covered rad in my bedroom. I really don’t understand how she doesn’t overheat!

Oh, if only ‘I’ were this flexible! Is this crazy or what???

As I did last year, I took a break from the computer over the holidays, so here’s a massive photo update!

The kids and I got an extra long holiday break this year as we traveled to Disney World in mid-December. I didn’t want to be weighted down with camera equipment on the trip so just brought the lighter Canon 5D, Canon 50 f1.4 lens and the Lensbaby Composer for the trip. (See “My Camera Equipment” in footer section for links/more information on camera equipment used.)

On our second day we visited Animal Kingdom, we all enjoyed the Kali River Rapids, and then the kids went again (I decided that I had gotten wet enough the first go-around!):

One of the things we very much enjoyed was the different wildlife around us, instead of pigeons we had birds like this visiting us during our outside lunch:

On the way out of the park we stopped so I could photograph these beautiful parrots:

On day four we visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park, Noah and I went back that night for a show and then visited the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights on the Streets of America. You can’t tell in these photos but there was actual snow flakes falling down on us (which freaked Noah out to no end, go figure!). (Shots were taken with the Lensbaby Composer with Lensbaby Fisheye Optic (first two) and the star shaped Lensbaby Creative Aperture Kit installed.)

The next day we went back to Magic Kingdom, after riding the Pirates of the Caribbean the kids tried on Nightmare Before Christmas top hats, and then goofed around outside on the way to the next ride:

This was the best photo I managed to capture of Rebecca and Noah in front of the castle. We had planned to attend Magic Kingdom one more day but unfortunately Rebecca came down with the stomach flu, so it ended up being a hotel/by the pool day instead.

Even though they are not great photos, I regret that I didn’t make better use of the Disney Photo Pass, where they have photographers throughout the parks to take photos of you. But here are two of me with the kids at Magic Kingdom:

Finally, as the last photos from the trip, a few quick shots I took of the hotel grounds of Disney’s Port Orleans Resort French Quarter where we stayed:

(Equipment Used: Unless otherwise noted, the following were all shot with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIII, Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens and Canon 580EX II Speedlite)

As much as we enjoyed Disney World, and the much nicer weather in Florida, we were very happy to get back to the comforts of home, and Alice. Here she hangs out with Noah as he does some drawing on my bed:

Didn’t capture that many photos of Christmas morning, but here are Rebecca and Noah both enjoying presents from their stockings:

Alice very much enjoyed one of her gifts too!

(Equipment Used: Unless otherwise noted, the following were all shot with the Canon EOS-1D MarkIII, Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens and Canon 580EX II Speedlite.)

One of my goals, for the holiday break, was to capture some updated photos of Alice, she is now four months old and she has changed so much since the last time I did this:

Her facial markings are really coming in:

So happy that our little girl has blue eyes!

Another nose shot, as I just love her nose and whiskers!:

The next three were taken with the Lensbaby Composer:

I was enjoying getting in close and filling the frame with the Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens:

She is the sweetest cat. While we were away she stayed at my sister’s, and she so fell in love with her that she has placed her order for her own little ‘Alice’ from the breeder! I can’t wait to meet her, and take photos of her too!

Hope everyone reading this had a wonderful holiday break too!

The kids and I managed to fit in some holiday baking this year, which is great because I love giving that personalized gift of holiday baking!

(See “My Camera Equipment” in footer section for links/more information on camera equipment used.)

One day we made gingerbread cookies (shot with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens), and you can find the recipe on the SavvyMom EatSavvy Blog, where I participated in the Great Savvy Bake-Off:

(Shot with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens)

(Shot with the Lensbaby Composer, with the Lensbaby Creative Aperture Kit star shaped aperture disc installed)

(Shot with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens)

On another day we made some yummy sugar cookies (shot with the Canon 85 f1.2L lens):

The kids had fun decorating these ones (shot with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens):

Throughout all the baking activity, Alice just ‘chillaxed‘ (as my daughter Rebecca would say), which was a very good thing! Except when she disappeared from hanging out with us on the evening of the gingerbread cookie baking, Noah found her snacking on a gingerbread cookie in the dining room! They were set out to let the icing completely dry…have to get used to having a cat that can get into food in the house! lol (Shot with the Canon 85 f1.2L lens):

Melanie’s sister, Michele, contacted me via email regarding a maternity/newborn gift certificate for her sister. She told that her sister was expecting twin girls, I replied that I was also a twin, she then responded that she and Melanie are also twins! Too funny!

In late October I got together with Melanie and her husband, Jason, for the maternity shoot.

(Equipment Used: All photos were shot with my beloved Canon 85 f1.2L lens, unless otherwise noted.)

We started in the house, and captured this photo in the babies room (shot with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens):

We then moved outside for some shots:

Melanie & Jason live on the Danforth, so we walked over to a lookout which shows the downtown in the background (that’s the CN Tower at the edge of the photo):

We then went back to the house for a few more photos:

I pulled out my Lensbaby lens for a few shots, and this is one of my favourites:

Then we went out to the Danforth to finish off the shoot. I love capturing couples in their local spots, in their ‘hood, to celebrate the couple, their connection and their love. The next three are from a series I shot at their local coffee shop, as they sat at the window. I simply adore this series:

We wandered further along the Danforth, and I captured Melanie in this cool chair on the sidewalk:

At another stop along the Danforth:

Last photos of the shoot were in front of a local flower shop, love everything about this one, Melanie’s laughter and even the pigeon crossing in front of them, lol:

Thank you Melanie and Jason, and I’m looking forward to meeting your daughters soon!

We recently had the flu in our house, with both my son and daughter home for most of the week with it, I simply could not resist these photos of Alice keeping sick Noah company while he played on his DS:

Last weekend I completely got caught up in photographing Alice over the course of the day. All of the shots were taken with bounced on-camera flash, as natural light was non-existent. Love this shot of Alice, all fluffy and cute:

(See “My Camera Equipment” in footer section for links/more information on camera equipment used.)

A few images of her during the crazy kitty time of day, ready to pounce:

The next two images were taken with my Lensbaby lens, this first one with the macro filter attachment for extreme close-up and very shallow depth of field, love the sharp nose and how everything else is a blur:

Lensbaby lens with no macro filter attachment and no aperture disk installed:

Shot with the Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens:

Envy her ability to sleep anywhere, shot wide open with the Canon 85 f1.2L lens:

The following images were all taken with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens:

Alice is wondering “When is lunch already?”

Capturing her climbing up her scratching post was tricky! She moves so fast:

Love this comical last shot of Alice. Sirens were going by on Avenue Road, and I think she was wondering what the heck the noise was all about, lol:

She continues to be a great joy to the whole family, happiness is having such a fun and wonderful new addition to our family.