I've been wanting to write this for quite a while now, but was waiting for the perfect caffeinated morning where my thoughts made sense on paper (err, on the computer screen). I want to preface this by saying that I totally know and appreciate that everyone starts somewhere! Every amazing birth photographer out there once shot their very first birth. I'm not trying to insult anyone, tell you who to hire, or police how others run their business... but rather, to highlight some important points. Me & my friend Kaylee (also a Red Deer doula/birth photographer) were chatting yesterday, and this topic came up. We were discussing how being a birth photographer is weird, because you're in the photography industry, but also uniquely a [...]

It's been forever since I've made a blog post, so here's a new (old) one! I photographed Kaylee's maternity session back in July, and I also got the honour of photographing her birth of baby girl #2 (Nova) in August! We decided, with it being summer, that a beach session would be fun. We headed out to a day use area at Gull Lake for sunset/golden hour. When we got there, the beach was crowded! Like, really crowded. We weren't expecting that, considering the sun was starting to go down, and it was a Sunday evening. So rather than try to find an empty spot/dodge people at the beach, we backtracked to a green area nearby. The sun was coming through the trees beautifully, [...]

Whew! I've been so behind on blogging, but this is one that I've been really excited to post. Scroll down to the bottom for a new interactive before and after image feature to see a few examples of SOOC (straight out of camera) vs edited image. Shania and Derick are such a sweet couple, and I loved this session so much! The photos turned out gorgeous, but that's just a given - Shania is ridiculously radiant. The white/blue gown and mint skirt are both handmade by JH Gowns, and the red gown is one of Shania's own that she brought. Shania and Derick have since welcomed their sweet boy, Alexzander, in January and I couldn't be happier for them on this new adventure of [...]

Chelsea is a mother of one, soon to be two... She found me through an advertisement on Facebook, and wanted maternity milk bath photos. We started planning colour schemes, and she didn't really have a certain idea in mind. I started sending her examples I found on Pinterest with different colours of flowers. As soon as I sent an example with red flowers, she was decided that it needed to be red. Other than that, she kind of let me take the wheel and pick the details. I bought two black garments (that are now a part of my "client closet"), and decided on two shades of red and white flowers. I just LOVE this colour scheme and felt that it paired so well [...]

Melyssa and I met a little over 4 years ago. We were at a midwifery client playdate, and we started making small talk. When she found out I was a doula, she told me excitedly how she was going to be taking her doula training soon too! We added each other on Facebook, and started talking and hanging out. I guess you could call this mom dating. ;) Now she is a super successful doula, and one of my best friends. Fast forward a few years... Me and Melyssa were pregnant at the same time, two weeks apart - me with my second, and her with her third. We always joked that we would end up having our babies on the same day, because [...]

Laura is a great friend of mine that I've known for a few years now. She was also my doula for the birth of my second son... Kind of. I hired her as my doula, knowing there were two days close to my due date that she needed to be out of town. Of course, my little guy decided to come on one of the only days she was gone! So instead, we had another friend of mine, Holly, fill in as her back-up. We always joke that she was my "kind-of doula". Laura is now pregnant with baby #3, surprise gender! She has two sweet girls already, Charlotte and Annabelle. I brought up the idea of a maternity milk bath session with Laura a [...]

Erica is one of my lovely doula friends/a fellow RDDA member. I think we've known each other for about a year now. Her and her husband Mike have one super sweet girl, Ella. I was stoked when Erica asked me to do family photos, and this was my first shoot with a new lens that ended up producing some awesome bokeh (the blur in the background).. So that was fun! Haha. We decided on McKenzie Trails in Red Deer for our location, because they have beautiful trees and a nice pond area. We were a little late for the typical "fall photos", as many of the leaves had already fallen off of the trees, but we still ended up getting lots of really nice [...]

I've known Chani for a little over 4 years now. She was one of the very first moms I met when I first moved to Red Deer, and she also taught me how to babywear using a woven wrap! Chani and Martin have three kiddos - Zacharie (Zee), Zoe, and Zerren. Me and her were pregnant at the same time with our youngest boys, and they're just under two months apart (and are now adorable little baby friends). We planned this session with short notice, about 3 hours actually. Chani decided on McKenzie Trails, which before this, I had never been to. Driving in towards the parking area, I was amazed at all of the colours on the giant trees. Greens, yellows, oranges, purples [...]