I Hope That Someone Gets My Message In A Bottle

I'm going to skip back to the shower now.

We managed to coax Reem to make the trek from Sudbury to the Toronto area with the help of many a people. The maternity pics by Jess were a perfect excuse. Of course Reem being the social butterfly she is, she had to make plans with everyone else she knew since she was going to be in the area. Chaos ensued. Her plan was to go for a spa day with all of her ladies ... luckily friends and family already received the invite & knew of my plan to have them drop by my house to surprise Reem throughout the day.


When we broke the news to her the morning of the shower, she was good at not acting too disappointed to be missing out on her day of relaxation ;)


And yes, the theme of the shower was sweet pea-ified. Everything was hand-crafted, eco-friendly and made as locally as possible, too! The games were simple and fun enough that no one dreaded them (hopefully). And my favourite activity was bringing out a bunch of solid coloured onsies, hats & bibs with non-toxic markers, sequins, etc. for guests to get creative for bambino. Below are a couple designed by Reem's talented sister :)



And to segue into the next post, I called upon my assistant, friend and baker extraordinaire, Crystal, to design and create the most amazing dessert for everyone. After feasting on her delectable cake and cupcakes, I do urge all of you to check out her own business, .: Ambrosia Cakes :. ... yum!

A good time was had by all, the parents-to-be left with quite a carload of treats and I was exhausted. But so totally worth it :)

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Maternity Portraits

Being pregnant is a fabulous excuse to have a portrait session. When else are you going to glow as much as when you have that wee one growing inside of you?! Maternity portraits are a great documentation of this precious time while you wait to become a Mommy. I recommend the session take place in either your seventh or eighth month - right when you have "popped" but before you start feeling too dragged down.

Susan recently bought a gift certificate from me in December for her friends Reem + Craig who are expecting in February. Since Reem + Craig live in Sudbury, it was a mission to get them down to the city for the session and the key was to do it on a weekend when Susan could throw a surprise baby shower for them! The weekend turned out well and Reem + Craig came into my studio on a Sunday morning before making their way back home to Sudbury. Reem + Craig are an adorable couple. I bet that their baby will be one of the most smiley ones ever!

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Forever Isn't Far, It's Coming Soon

There isn't really a more important time in one's life than when having a baby. And when two people you absolutely love and adore announce that they're becoming first-time parents there isn't a more exciting time as a friend.

Reem and Craig dropped by for a visit one weekend last summer and right before they left, Reem gave us the good news. Besides instant jubilation, my Planner Brain started in full force and the next nine months (yeah, I refuse to do weeks) flew by. After all, I don't have a sister, my brother is a mere fifteen years old and almost all of my close friends with babies are far from me. This was my opportunity to become an honourary aunt!!! It's all about the baby though, right? ;)

I'm not sure how it started or why but I decided to call the baby 'Sweet Pea' ... and it kind of stuck. Every month I would package up some kind of a Sweet Pea related gift and mail it off to Reem. Hopefully it was as fun for her as it was for me!


Christmas rolled around and Reem was VERY pregnant. What better gift than a portrait session with .: JBSmith Photography :.? I picked up a gift certificate from Jessica and then made sure Reem arranged to have the session when I was planning her top-secret Sweet Pea baby shower! There were quite a few hiccups but we managed to get all of her friends here for the day before the session for a nice surprise. Before I go into the shower itself, I'd love for you to tune in tomorrow to read Jessica's post about the portrait session. Perhaps backwards but it works ;)


Tomorrow is Baby's 120th day with all of us so we'll continue this story then ...

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Engagement Portraits

With all of the craziness of planning your wedding, I cannot recommend it enough to get some proper Engagement Portraits done. With the stress of the planning, it is a great excuse to get dolled up for an afternoon and model for a couple of hours! The result is portraits of the two of you being, well, you. On the day of your wedding, everything will be chaotic so it is nice to have more relaxed portraits taken of you in and your partner in your everyday attire. Doing an engagement portrait session is also a great way to get to know your photographer better that then allows you to know what to expect on the day of the wedding. Here are some of my favourite engagement portraits from recent sessions.

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You Took A Picture ...

This is long overdue! I was going to post pictures from the photo shoot with .: JBSmith Photography :. but Jessica told me she popped the disc in the mail so I thought I'd wait and give a few more details once it arrived ... and I'm glad I did! Now I get to rave about Jessica even more. I swear it was like Christmas when I opened up my mailbox yesterday ... I saw a package and got all excited ;)

When you receive a DVD from Jessica, professionalism rings out from the moment you lay eyes on things. Just check out the cover from our session ...

But wait ... there's more! Upon opening the case, you're treated to a proper DVD (no Sharpies involved with this gal!) and even instructions on how to best care for it.


Woohoo! Next was time to pop the disc in my laptop and check everything out. I'll share a few favourites with you and let you know any stories along the way ...

Jessica has been a good friend of mine for a couple years now. In fact, I don't even remember when we met (except I know it was cold out!). She was gracious enough to do head shots for me a while back but quite frankly, styles change ... and so do businesses! Over the past little while I've been lucky enough to find some steady associates and I wanted to introduce them to everyone. After all, clients should know the others that I'm going to bring to their event!

(I'll be formally introducing them soon but so you know now, from left to right ... Crystal, Me, Nicole.)

I wanted an outdoor shoot to play on the city's vibe ... what we weren't prepared for was the humidity of the day! We were all set with umbrellas in case of rain but stomping around Toronto in the thick air wasn't overly fun. Luckily we managed to make each other laugh to pass the time ...


If you haven't noticed already, I'm going to post more of the less-than-serious pictures this time around. I love Jessica's 'feet shots' so I had to see if she would do one for me. Personally, I think everyone just wanted to shut me up :) Truth be told, I wanted to show off my $17.99 pair of shoes.


You may have read Jessica's blog last week where she posted a few of her favourites from the shoot (if not, it's over .: here :.). In that batch she posted a photo of the three of us jumping. Aside from the awesome company that day, those shots produced my favourite memory. You'll notice in the first picture it's just the three of us kicking up our heels ... and in the second one we have a couple of visitors ...



We were happily jumping along when all of a sudden we were approached by two rather eager and perky people. All I heard at first was, "we want to take a picture!" ... I'm pretty sure Jessica heard the same thing. We weren't sure if they wanted to *take* our photo or be *in* it ... either way we decided to go with it ... you never know who you'll meet in Toronto!
It turns out that they were two dancers going to school at George Brown. When they saw us jumping around and being silly, they wanted to join in. The shot turned out amazing ... we all actually jumped at the same! And honestly, those professional leaps added some credibility to our look. My only regret is we didn't catch their names or contact info! If anyone knows who they are, I have a photo I would like to share with them ;)

Once again I'd like to thank Jessica from .: JBSmith Photography :. for giving up her day to work with us. No one else could make me feel like screaming, "BANANAS!" is a normal thing to do ;)

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Lights Go Off Around You Like Some Photograph

Sneak peek time!

Our photos from JBSmith Photography have been edited and are back now. Jessica has posted a few of her favourites up on her .: blog :. and I'll be showing off a few more of them soon.




Working with Jessica is always a treat and we're super excited about these pictures! Stay tuned for the others because there's a great story behind the jumping photo :)

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Digital Retouching

I get asked a lot by clients about my additional retouching that I do for my boudoir portraits. Often people look at my boudoir portraits and think that there is no way that they could look that good! It is really amazing what a little Photoshop can do to enhance a portrait. For my retouching, I take out any imperfections, smooth out the skin and pump up the contrast to make it the beautiful image that you then see! Here are some samples of the before and after of a few photograph that I took of a lovely bride this past weekend.

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Boudoir Portraits

The idea of stripping down to your smallclothes in front of a photographer probably scares the heck out of you! Right now I imagine you have butterflies in your tummy just thinking about it! The latest trend for brides these days is getting boudoir portraits done for their significant other to give as a wedding gift. The portraits are a lot more personal than the traditional watch or cufflinks and is often completely unsuspecting for him to receive! Almost every bride that I have done boudoir portraits for has told me that their fiancé would never expect (read: dream!) of her doing something like that for him! This makes doing the session all that more fun.

What was once a very "fluffy" thing with oversized feather boas and leopard print, boudoir portraits are now more about creating captivating portraits of women dressed in classy lingerie. I approach boudoir photography the same as I do with any of my photography - the photograph should be a portrait and show a bit about the personality of the woman in it.

I get a lot of the same concerns and questions from clients when they first book me for boudoir. First off, every bride that comes into my studio for a session is nervous! I assure them that once we start shooting, their nerves will disappear and that we will have a lot of fun. Before you know it, they do forget that they are standing in front of a practical stranger in their underwear and they start being themselves.

The second concern of many ladies that book me has to deal with their appearance. It seems that everyone wants to lose a couple of pounds. Ladies want to book a session with me months in advance so that they can reach their goal weight before the session. My response to this is: you are beautiful! It doesn't matter the shape or size that you are, all of us women are beautiful. You have a life partner that loves you for who you are so worrying about a couple of pounds should not cause stress and worry in your life. Be happy with who you are, know that you are beautiful and I promise you, that will shine in the portraits. The girls in my portraits on my website and blog are real women; ones that you would see walking down the street in your neighbourhood. Put on some false lashes, a little make-up and some sexy lingerie and we can create some incredible portraits that not only your partner will love, but will also make you feel like the beautiful woman that you are.

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What A Surprise ...

Considering we've known each other for quite some time and we even get together for the occasional Girl's Night Out, it really isn't a surprise Ms. Jessica Blaine Smith is now joining the blog! Most of you will know her as the Boudoir Queen ... no, that's not a shot at her love life ... she shoots beautiful boudoir sessions (as well as weddings, corporate and all that good stuff). She even came by my place last year to take my head shots so I can attest to her fabulous people skills and corny I'm-going-to-make-you-smile jokes ;)


Welcome, Jessica!

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