Steph's new adventure!

We have some exciting news! I (Steph here!) will be working with Glow Maternity Studio as their photographer! The photos above I took the other day of our beautiful friend Andrea in the Glow studio using natural light. We played with a fake baby bump for fun and I think they turned out great!

This brand new branch of Peterborough's beautiful community is an exciting venture for both myself and Glow as they continue to grow and expand their services. If you haven't been, you have to check them out. Just walking in their Hunter St. studio space in downtown Peterborough makes you feel warm and calm and very supported in your parenting journey. I'll be offering a life-style approach to my photography, capturing quiet and beautiful moments with your choice of in-studio, in-home or a cool alleyway, coffee shop or quiet park. Wherever you feel comfortable and a space that represents you on this adventure!

This weekend we're having a maternity mini-session. An amazing value - please check it out if you want photos of this beautiful stage in your life.

So what does this mean for Love and Anchor?

Don't you worry! I'm not leaving Matt all alone! I'm just partnering with a really amazing business with an established, excellent reputation with families to explore one of my passions, photographing women during pivotal moments in their lives! I love weddings, but when I became a mother - two years ago tomorrow- something clicked. I found my voice and the confidence to be myself and it grew and continues to flourish from the insane and empowering experience of giving birth and raising a baby. Now that I have two babies and a natural home birth under my belt, I'm inspired all the more to share and give this voice to other women through the documentation of their journey into motherhood. I'm so excited to capture those moments from the belly bump, through birth and the sleepless newborn phase to the first taste of independence when your baby turns 1.  Although I'll be focusing on this new photography venture, I'll still be running the behind the scenes of Love and Anchor. I'll be returning your emails, running our social media, and all that fun stuff alongside Matt. We will have another announcement about our bookings for next year soon, so stick around if you're looking to book us next summer.

Now, it seems to be a trend that most of our clients get pregnant on or shortly after their wedding night (ah-wink-wink!) so now you can continue documenting your beautiful life events with me through Glow! I really look forward to working with you! No, seriously, I'm pumped! LET'S DO THIS! Someone book me for their birth because I'm super duper excited for that!

First Ever Peterborough Babywearers Fundraiser!

I had the pleasure of photographing the first ever Peterborough Babywearers Fundraiser! We set up nano sessions in Jackson Park and our goal was to raise $200. We had 24 Mamas and 1 Papa and surpassed our goal, raising $237.75 for the lending library! The library will be launched within the next few weeks. If you're interested in babywearing, check out the facebook group for details on how to use this amazing resource.

That Film Look

Ohhh I swoon. I love the look of film and yesterday I came across these gorgeous Lightroom presets from Totally Rad (like the photo above) to help get me started on crafting that romantic look of film in my own personal digital photography. Although Love and Anchor doesn't photograph weddings anymore, the quality and quirks of these film looks are inspiring and definitely something we'd love to replicate in our videography. We're constantly honing in on what it is we love about what we do. What is it aesthetically that we're trying to capture. Without a doubt, that 'film look' is it. At $99 I think it's a steal! Happy early birthday to me? My birthday is in September... heh.. heh... "Ohhhhh Mattttt!"

--Steph

Long Winter Days

Peggy's Cove Wedding - Melissa and Mike

Our first wedding of the season! What can we say about this one? It felt great to be back into it, after the break from the last season. And we couldn't have asked for a better couple and location. Peggy's Cove is of course a natural beauty spot for photos. We love the way the classic dip in front of the lighthouse shots came out. We ended up simply taking a little tour down the road at the site, snapping photos at spots we found interesting, and we're quite happy with the results. A nice combination of candid and posed shots. Matt especially likes how the jumping umbrella shots came out.

And, of course, Melissa and Mike were amazing. Really laid back and fun, just our style. They weren't too worried about getting a lot of posed shots, but rather wanted to just take it easy and see what we could come up with. We're really big fans of this approach - not so much of taking off for hours and hammering the poses into the couple until they're exhausted and never want to be photographed again. So, a good combination all around.

We also tried out some different editing techniques with the photos. A couple of different styles, different colour grading on photos for which it seemed more appropriate. We are, after all, still getting our feet wet, so it's a nice time to experiment a bit and find our look.

Baby Bump Shoot in Oshawa, ON

While we were visiting family in Ontario a few weeks ago, Sarah and Tyler mentioned they had no photos of Sarah's gorgeous baby bump. Matt and I jumped at the chance to photograph and offered our services without even thinking twice. We are always excited to work, but we were really thrilled to produce a few photos of this amazing time in their lives, especially for family. That's our soon to be niece or nephew in there! Even though we were only supposed to be visiting so they could meet their nephew, Mr. Rowan, we turned it into an impromptu photoshoot. Rowan was sent home for a nap with his Grandparents and Matt and I hopped in Sarah and Tyler's car to find a location. Our original idea, Camp Samac, was closed. Boo! That's ok. We're resourceful people. With the car low on gas, we pulled in to the closest park. You'd never know that behind us was a busy street, a city dump, and a baseball and soccer field. 

For us, not being prepared wasn't really an issue. Tyler and Sarah were so excited that that is all we really needed. Now we have a few more photos under our belt and they have those belly photos they were after.

It's not just wedding video - it's documentary film.

a highly recommended observational documentary

So what do we mean when we say we employ a documentary style to capturing your wedding day?

The word documentary has quite a few associations these days. Many people have an image of talking head interviews, mixed with archival footage. Some others think of the types of movies made by Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, those in-your-face social change films meant to rustle some feathers. But there is another side of documentary that has long roots, which uses an observational, fly-on-the-wall approach. These films are more about a quiet aesthetic that gives you a glimpse into a person's life. The filmmaker usually stands back and films as life unfolds, taking in each moment pensively, treating each moment as significant and unique. There is often very little to no narration or flashy graphics or edits in these films. But that does not mean they are any less interesting. On the contrary, they can often provide a refreshing, uncluttered look at one's life. And it turns out that this style works particularly well for shooting weddings.

A photo Steph shot of her Grandma baking

An observational approach ensures that the videographer keeps out of the way (as much as possible) of the wedding party, shooting silently in the background, keeping a log of the events of the day. There are unique vantage points on the outskirts of a wedding, and especially if the videographer is skilled enough, the wedding party may even forget he or she is there, and loosen up and provide some perfect moments to catch on video. Many brides and grooms are nervous and excited enough about getting married, without having to worry about striking poses for the camera every two minutes. It can be frustrating and cumbersome to dedicate your day to photos and video, in some cases so much so that the day passes you by. So our clients are usually relieved when we tell them we won't bother them for such poses - that we'll blend into the background getting our shots, and let them simply enjoy the day, unburdened.

Our shooting style provides a day-in-the-life aesthetic to the wedding day, sometimes mixed with some posed or creative footage, depending on the bride and groom's comfort levels. We find this works best on the day of the wedding, as well as afterwards, as it gives us a lot of footage to work with, to craft a story of the day, and it allows for the bride and groom to take in moments that they either forgot happened, or were too busy to even notice at the time. We often hear from our clients that they had no idea we were shooting at that given instant, or didn't even realize so-and-so said or did such a thing. They are always pleasantly surprised by these candid moments we were able to catch by staying in the background, unobtrusive, watching and waiting for the best time to shoot.

And even though we spend the day on the outskirts, blending in, we find we are still able to make a deep connection with our clients. There is something magical, very special, about filming another person, especially for a full day. There is a bond created, and we are always quite sad having to break this unique bond when we leave at the end of the night. But then, when we start editing, we realize what an amazing time we all had. And when we experience that beautiful moment of sharing the final videos with our clients, we are reminded of why this shooting style works so well, for we ended up capturing something unique which our clients will cherish.

Kirsten & Shawn Pt. 2

As Matt mentioned in our previous post, this was my first time shooting photos instead of filming. There were definitely some challenges in the small spaces of the house and the fact that I was using my new telephoto lens... but we made it work!

One of the things Matt and I pride ourselves on is doing our homework. The more information we have the better we can perform on-site, so we ask our clients a lot of questions about their big day. From this we create a minute by minute schedule in order to figure out how we're going to work and capture those special moments. In addition to the information we gain about the wedding day, we also keep our thumb on what's going on in the world of wedding photography. Personally, I was inspired by photographer Kristen Marie who's work feels quiet and intimate. I wanted to capture some of the details of the beautiful house Kirsten and Shawn were tying the knot in as, first of all, it was a beautiful home, and second of all, it was a huge part of what they'll remember about their day. It was an incredibly inviting and warm space and I hope I did both Kirsten & Shawn and their venue justice. Here's a small selection. For more check out our website.

Kirsten & Shawn Pt. 1

This wedding was quite unique. First of all, it was a surprise. The only people who really knew it was going to happen were close family. All the other guests thought they were showing up to an annual Christmas party. Kirsten and Shawn had planned the whole thing in a short few weeks, choosing to be married amongst a small and intimate group of loved ones at a friends' house. They pulled it off beautifully. Everyone was surprised, and delighted and ecstatic that their regular Christmas party had turned into something much more special. Kirsten crafted some wonderful decorations, from the stars hanging from the branches outside, to the delicious maple bacon cupcakes inside. And, of course, the mason jars scattered throughout the backyard were perfect. Shawn even put together the wooden benches on which the guests sat! It all gave the whole experience the cozy, wintery feel we were hoping to capture.

At this point in the game, all the weddings we do have some kind of first for us. This was the first wedding where we did both video and photos. Matt shot video, Steph snapped photos, and this was an interesting challenge for us, as we're used to having two angles at all times when doing video. But this also turned out to be the perfect wedding for this development. It was small enough that widespread coverage wasn't necessary - we could each get everything we wanted fairly easily.

And this was the first time we had left Rowan with a babysitter. At just under three months, it was interesting driving away from our friend's house, knowing we wouldn't see him for the next 12 hours. But it all went off without a hitch. Rowan was fine, we had loads of fun, and Kirsten and Shawn (and their family and friends) had a great time during the wedding, and loved watching the video after!