Alyssa and Adam – Married!

Adam and Alyssa got married in May this year.  I was fortunate enough to have this incredible couple as my first wedding of the year!  I photographed Alyssa and Adam’s engagement in January of 2012 and originally they had thought perhaps they weren’t going to get a photographer.  But Adam definitely enjoyed getting photographed (don’t deny it Adam!) and I was booked for their wedding.  The couple got their engagement photos photographed at Pine Grove and they are absolutely some of my favourite engagement photos ever.  They woke up early in the morning so we could get the perfect light for them!

 

 

I doubt I have seen a groom quite as happy as Adam on this day.  And Alyssa was very relaxed and organized.  We had a great time and I was happy to share this day with them.

 

 

 

The photos wouldn’t have been complete without a photo with Cheyanne (the truck!)

 

Not so great at blogging

I’ve never been a great blogger.  I guess I feel that my images speak for themselves.  But I do know that sometimes it’s not just your photos that make you the person to hire, it’s your personality.  I truly discovered this after befriending a couple whose engagement photos I did.  They were  not going to get a photographer for the big day, the groom had all but decided completely against it.  But we had a really great time at their engagement session and a few weeks before the big day, the groom had me hired!  And so began the start of a very busy wedding season.  I have photographed five weddings so far.  Each of which I plan on blogging individually.  If I can.

 

But for now, I will leave you with my favourite wedding photos of this summer.  Enjoy!

 

Winter Blues Contest

Winter Blues Contest + Promotion

Are you sick of the crazy weather, the taste of road salt in the air and the lack of daylight?  Me too!  So here’s a little pick me up for you!  Get rid of the winter blues with a photography session from Wentzell Photography!

Contest Details

Starting on Valentine’s Day you can submit a portrait of you and your family/better half.  You must include a story about yourselves and why you should win the contest.  You get TWO chances to win.  The photo with the most comments wins but a second winner will be chosen by a panel of three awesome professional photographers from across the country.  So the better the story the better the chances of winning a session!

How to Submit a Photo:

Send me an email with your photo and story.  The subject of the email should be Winter Blues.  Email me at: wentzellphotography@live.com.  All contestants must be a fan of Wentzell Photography.

Rules:

1. All voters must like my fan page first!  I will be verifying before choosing a winner.
2. To vote you must comment on the photo.  Likes won’t count for this contest!  While voting, do not add any extra comments or they will be deleted.
3. I will only be considering contestants from Shelburne, Queens and Lunenburg for this contest.  Sorry to my other fans!  I’ll have another contest including other counties in the future.
4. No fighting on the fan page.  If there is fighting, you will be disqualified.  If it continues, you will be banned from the fan page.
5. Please do not cheat, it will lead to disqualifying.  Cheating can include creating fake Facebook accounts.
6. Do not use third party websites (like forums) to get votes.  Friends and family are acceptable.
7. You must be 18+ to enter.
8. Dates of sessions will depend on my availability.

Your Winnings!

An hour and a half photo session at a location of your choice.  Includes a disc of approximately 20 – 25 edited photos (depending on the type of session that is chosen) printable up to 8×10.  Also includes a password protected gallery for you to view your photos in for 30 days.

Feel free to post a link in your status about the contest and share it with your friends and family!

Contest Dates:

The contest runs from February 14th to the 24th.  The winner will be announced on the 25th of February.

Promotion Details:

From Valentine’s Day until the end of March take 15% off of any session fee, photo package, or product!  To view my session fees, products and more go to my website: http://www.wentzellphotography.com and check out the section labeled “Investment”.  A la Carte prints do not count for this promotion.

Facebook Disclaimer: “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing your information to Wentzell Photography and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for the Winter Blues contest”

52 Week Project

Well I haven’t posted in a little bit.  Christmas got busy and Matthew and I have a fair bit of family.  Since Christmas I have been fortunate to have a few shoots which I will post in the coming days.  However, I will post some photos from my 52 Week Project.  I tried the 365 project last year but as soon as work got busy, it became impossible. So a more feasible approach was to do a photo a week and thus the 52 Week Project.  So here are my first three weeks, and I haven’t done my fourth week yet (but I suspect it’ll be done at play rehearsal tomorrow or Robbie Burns Night).

That’s another place my photography is going lately, the theatre.  Since I’ve moved home I’ve been hoping to become more community involved and I naturally was drawn to the theatre.  I have been singing since I was seven and always wanted to act. I met my now husband when I was 12 and playing a silent role in a play.  The play terrified me and I stayed away from drama for a while until grade 12 when I had the pleasure of being in the Winds of Change production of The Sound of Music.  I was a nun   Anyway, the past two years have been great here in Liverpool and I was first able to perform as a narrator to the Vagina Monologues and then I was a phantom (chorus line and dancing pretty much every song) for The Rocky Horror Show.  Now I am playing a small role in The Full Monty and doing the photos for the program.    I’ll be writing a post about the production soon.  Without further ado, here are the 52 week photos:

Barton Babies!

I had the pleasure of once again photographing Krista and Naaman Barton’s family.  Krista and Naaman welcomed twin girls into this world on November 29th.  At the time of their shoot the girls were six days old!  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about handling two tiny girls (born 5.5 lbs I believe) but I was thrilled for the experience.  With newborns I always need help from mom, dad or another family member to keep the baby safe and this time I needed double the help! I also learned that when photographing twins, just because one is happy, doesn’t mean the other is.  When Little Mya Jean was happy and sleepy, Tiana Lou was awake and ready for something to eat!

I also learned that I am going to have to pick up more hats from Etsy!  Everyone is just in love with the newborn hats I own but the lamb and the bear are going to get over used haha.  I’m so glad Krista and Naaman gave me the chance to learn more about babies and about newborn photography in general.  It’s quickly becoming one of my favourite subjects in photography!  I also want to give a shout out to Naaman.  He and the other fire fighters of Queens County were recently honoured for their outstanding service, involving the devastating fire in White Point Beach Resort.  We’re lucky to have brave people like yourselves!

 

Newborn William + Thoughts

Two days ago I was hired to photograph baby William and the Aulenback – Tsaousis family.  My little sister bought a session from me for her new nephew and her sister in laws family.  Photographing newborns is something I just started as of 2011.  Each one is a learning experience.  William was a sleepy, content baby who let me put hats on him and lay him on his belly.  Each shoot gets closer and closer to the look I want to create for newborns but also gives me so much more confidence in handling babies.  Patience is a virtue and truly is the only way to do a shoot like this.  Photographing William, his big sister and his parents was remarkably relaxing but in contrast when I tried to get a couple more photos the next day (I wanted to try some other poses before they left for home), he was cranky, unwilling and not sleepy at all.  You can’t push children, they don’t always do what you want and that’s okay.

I have an early memory that I think of every time I tell myself to back off and let the kids be kids.  It’s from my Aunt Crystal’s wedding.  I was a flower girl and I was five years old.  The photographer insisted I be in just about every shot.  I had pretty much been pushed to my limit after the first half hour of shooting.  I don’t remember how long I was there, I believe my mother said it was over an hour but by that time I do remember being extremely cranky (justifiably haha) and only wanting to hug my mother.  I was thankfully dismissed by my relations and ventured off for a snack or something.  This memory serves as a reminder to me not to push kids and just take the extremely awesome with the not so awesome.  Trying two shoots was a reminder again.  Now without further rambling, here are some photos from that shoot.

Halloween

I recently bought a Gary Fong half cloud and I am in love.  I just love that thing to pieces!  I really got to play with it on Halloween weekend because my family and I threw a pretty fun party!  However it was pretty dark and so I pulled out my 430II and started to shoot with my flash on camera.  So I’ll show you my costume and couple of my friends!

By the way, I went as Ramona Flowers, ya know Scott Pilgrim’s cute, subspace traveling girlfriend.

Labour Family Photos

This past weekend I had a portrait session at one of my favourite locations with the Labour Family.  Lindsay is pregnant with her second child and included in this shoot was her little girl Emma.  Although Chris and Lindsay were happy to be shooting, poor little Emma was not.  She cracked a few smiles, like when I suggested cats made moo sounds and now meow or when she found some rope and proceeded to whip some bouys with it but for the most part we had some pouts.  Fortunately for everyone, Emma is so cute that being pouty is even sweet with her.

So here are some photos of the happy (mostly) Labour family!  I wish them all the joy in the world with their new baby on the way!

My first blog post!

This is my first blog post!   I’ve decided to try my new blog templates from Pure Photoshop Actions with this blog post!  I’m posting an awesome shoot I had on Thanksgiving weekend.  I photographed my grade 12 French teacher, her husband and her son.  I had previously photographed her little boy nearly a year before this and I was so pleased to see him again!  So let’s see if this works!