This was my first photography session via Helping Hearts, a project created with the goal of providing free photography sessions for families with children who are suffering a life-altering illness or disability.

I got to meet the adorable Gage, who was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. Shayna is his mom, and I was very impressed with how knowledgable she is about his condition. I didn’t get to meet the Dad, as they are from North Bay, and he had to go back for work.

I met Gage and Shayna at the Hospital for Sick Children, in downtown Toronto, for our shoot. Little Gage was super sleepy! As you’ll see from the photos, it was really hard to capture a shot of him with his eyes open.

Love this one of Gage and his mom:

When I first arrived Gage was snoozing in his crib:

As you can see he was one snoozy guy!

This was basically the only shot I captured with his beautiful blue eyes open:

Last shot of the session, snoozing against his mom:

It was wonderful to meet you Shayna and Gage!

You may remember Kris and Tim’s maternity shoot, well their beautiful son Max has arrived! We met up at a downtown hotel for the shoot.

When I first arrived, Kris was downstairs having her hair done, so dad Tim kept Max happy, as Phoebe supervised. The shoulder shot was when we went downstairs to see Kris, as Max was hungry! I adore that shot, reminds me of when my children were babies, so adorable! Enjoy it while you can Kris and Tim, they grow fast!

Awww, isn’t he just the sweetest?

Captured a BIG yawn after a feeding, then just hanging out. Max made this shoot easy!

The funny faces babies make!

We finished up with some group shots. Thank you Kris and Tim (and Max!) for another wonderful shoot!

I did a maternity shoot with Melanie and Jason in late October, and now their twin daughters have arrived!

(Equipment Used: All images shot with the Canon 24–70 mm f2.8L lens unless otherwise noted.)

Meet Frances and Harlow:

Such a tiny little foot (shot with the Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens):

Love the balled up fists that babies make (shot with the Canon 100 mm f2.8 macro lens)!

Mom and Harlow:

Love this shot of Frances holding on to both parent’s hands:

Think Harlow looks so cute in this shot:

I know not every parent likes pacifier shots, but I just love the direct look and the balled up fist, takes me back to when my children were babies, cozy in their blanket, content with the world:

Nate made his arrival, almost right on his due date too! (You may remember mom’s maternity session.)

We started up the gas fireplace to make Nate cozy, and hopefully sleepy! (Well, that part didn’t really work! lol)

Shiki, who was nervous of the camera during the maternity session, wasn’t nervous at all this time! I love this shot of her! She’s so cute!

Nate, almost falling asleep….

Love this one of Nate ‘drunk’ on momma’s milk! (I caught him as he was being burped!)

At the end I was able to capture a quiet moment between Mom, Dad and newborn Nate:

Tracey and Jeff, thanks for being so patient as we tried to wait out Nate getting sleepy…of course newborns have their own ideas and schedules, as all parents know!

These photos of my test 8″ x 12″ metallic prints do not do them justice! Metallic paper adds a stunning visual look and is particularly effective with highly saturated colour shots and high contrast black and white images. The unique pealescent metallic undertone and high gloss gives your images an almost three dimensional depth. Samples will be shown during in-person proofing. All metallic prints are mounted. Please see my photography packages page for pricing information.

With additional products/pricing to be added soon!

Additions include:
Coffee Table Books
Gallery Stretched Canvases
And now included with each digital package (and any image purchased larger then 8″ x 10″) will be a low resolution water-marked image (as seen below) for use on your blog, facebook account, desktop and emailing to friends and family.

I will now be conducting in-person proofing with every session. Your session images will be presented on a laptop, samples of products will be presented and I will discuss options for your favorite images from the session.

Please see my photography packages page for more information. I look forward to providing this value added service to my clients.

They came all the way from Switzerland, for a brief visit with family (and to get married!), and in between all that we had a wonderful session in a downtown hotel room.

Baby Maddy was a sweetheart and had the most amazing blue eyes!

Mom, Dad and baby:

We had great light from the large windows for our session:

The windows made for wonderful catch-lights in Maddy’s beautiful blue eyes:

Mom and Dad have gorgeous eyes too!

Thanks Stephanie and Roar! I hope your wedding went well today! I will send you a link to your private online gallery soon!

This is a sneak peek of a session from yesterday…boy, was it hard to choose only a few favorites…as you can see by how many I posted!

(If you are looking for the contest, scroll down or just click here.)

This was a newborn session with the older siblings included. What beautiful fun loving children!

Maeve was such a sweet little girl! Reminded me of my daughter (when she was baby), and she is such a beautiful little baby:

Rhys was such a character! Really reminded me of my son. And look at those amazing green eyes!

Kylie was a total sweetheart, she is so beautiful, she could grow up to be a model, and such gorgeous blue eyes!

Another one of Rhys, with his sister peeking around in the background:

Kylie and Rhys were having a grand time goofing around on the sofa as I took photographs of them. I thought this image really caught their fun loving nature (though there is one below that captures it even more!):

Rhys:

Black and white version:

Kylie, with Rhys in the background:

BW version:

Snuggling on the sofa:

Kylie:

Maeve, with big sister Kylie and big brother Rhys, in the background:

I love this one! They are actually hanging upside down, off the back of a coffee table, which is why they look a little strange, but I just love the happiness in this shot! I had such a great time with both of them!

Thank you Christa, your children are beautiful and fun! I had such a great afternoon with all of you. We started the session with a hand shake at the door, and ended it with a hug at the door. I love what I do!

2007 was a fantastic year! I met so many great new people, and had a wonderful time at each photography session! I truly love photography, and am just as excited to get home and see the images as I’m sure my clients are to see their sneak peek, on my blog, and then their private on-line gallery. Thank you to all of you who have made my first year in business so fulfilling!

I have chosen a favorite image from each of the past year’s sessions. It wasn’t easy to pick my favorite! I could certainly never decide on my top three, so I’m going to let you make the decision for me!

Please choose your favorite image by using the poll at the end of the post. The person(s)/parents of the subject(s) featured in the top three photos will each receive one print of their winning picture! 1st place receives a 20″ x 24″ print, 2nd place a 16″ x 20″ print and 3rd place an 11″ x 14″ print. The poll does log IP addresses, so only one vote per computer will be counted!

For those of you appearing in the chosen photos, you are welcome to enlist friends and family to vote for your photo. Just remember that each person may only vote once. Fraudulent voting patterns will result in the photo being withdrawn from the contest.

For Torontonians who aren’t in the contest, here’s what you get for your vote—a chance to win a free photography* session with me! Here’s how it works: after you vote, leave a comment on this blog posting. I will randomly choose one person from the list of comments to receive a free photography session*.

The contest runs until 5 pm on January 17th with the results announced on my blog on January 18th.

Good luck everyone! I can’t wait to see the results!

Happy New Year!
Holly

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* Standard terms and conditions apply. Please see my photography packages page for more details.

Can be seen hanging on the walls at my friend George’s beautiful flower shop.

Here’s a framed photograph from a recent couple shoot:

Here’s a framed photograph from a recent newborn shoot. It is absolutely gorgeous framed:

Here’s a framed photograph of my daughter, shot this past summer:

Here is a Lensbaby G3 shot of a flower from Urban Eden Flower Shoppe:

This one was shot with my 100 mm f2.8 macro lens:

A colourful example shot with the Lensbaby G3:

I will post some more examples, of flowers from George’s Flower Shoppe, over the coming days.