Christine Newhook

New Blog!

2010-11-19T13:35:00.001-04:00

Today I launched my new blog :) It isn't quite where I want it to be looks wise but I love it anyways. I think it will always be in a state of construction in my mind. If you'd like to see please click here. And remember, update your RSS feeders!

Inspiration: Creative Technology

2010-09-15T14:12:00.003-03:00

Technology never ceases to amaze me. One of the newer pieces of technology that has been released lately has been the Apple iPad. This little gizmo has some pretty cool features. Which mixed with some brilliant minds has created this awesome video. Please go check it out. I would love to hear what you think of this.

I admire so many different forms of creativity. It's obvious that one of my absolute favorites is photography but creativity can come up anywhere in our lives in all different shapes and forms. I think using resources that are available to us to create something new and exciting is absolutely inspiring. This video is one of those pieces that I adore. I hope it challenges the way you think and the way you look at the tools you have available to you. :)

Turning Point

2010-08-06T09:16:00.004-03:00

Getting personal in blogs is controversial topic to many bloggers. A lot of people out there are very private on their blogs and only talk about whatever their business/industry is. I think getting personal in "business blogs" can be a good thing. That way your clients and readers can not only see the business side of you but also the personal side. I find this to be especially helpful in photography as people tend to hire someone that they can consider a friend, not a stranger.

That being said I think there are some things that should definitely be kept private. I will not go into details but in the past month (ish) a lot has changed in my life. I am heading in a completely new direction now than I was 2 or 3 months ago. This is why I haven't blogged in such a long time. When life gets hectic you have to get your priorities straight, and even though I love to blog and I love my readers, my blog wasn't one of my main priorities during these changes in my life.

But that has changed :) I have a bunch of photos to post up from the past 2 months. This week I purchased my first macro lens (Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM for anyone that was wondering) and did some quick test shots of my mom's sunflowers last night. I absolutely adore the results and can't wait to use these beautiful lens more.

Please leave some critique on these photos in the comments section :) I haven't done much macro photography before so I'm very new to it and want to learn/grow as much as I can in this field.

Happy Friday :)

Ellen | Portraits

2010-06-18T09:41:00.009-03:00

*Disclaimer* I know that my blog layout right now is a little bit messy. I haven't had the time to tweak with it much but over the next few weeks there should be some developments here and there so make sure to check back.

On to the fun stuff. Ellen approached me a few months ago to get some portraits done. After sending some messages back and forth I knew that she was a great person (she still is too :P). I started to get excited for the session and before I knew it we were on location. Let me just say that Ellen is a complete natural in front of the camera. The photo below is one of the very first photos I took of her. Normally it takes people time to loosen up in front of the camera. Not Ellen.

This session was all about casual photos. No theme. No style. Just some fun smiles. Below are the results and I couldn't be more happy about them! I really hope to work with Ellen again in the future.

Thank you so much for the fabulous session Ellen. If you're up for another one this summer please message me!!

These are so cute! Definitely some of my favorites from the shoot and they were a lot of fun to do as well!

Updates

2010-06-07T22:01:00.009-03:00

I have found that sometimes I need to update what I'm doing in order to get motivation to keep doing it. I hope that doesn't sound too crazy. Ha ha ha. So to jump start my blogging again I decided to re-vamp it a bit. It is still a work in progress but it's getting there. I hope it looks better than the old theme. Personally, I think it looks a little bit more professional.

Here are some photos I took not too long ago of my Mom's garden.

These are my favorite types of flowers I think. They remind me of a mix of roses and and carnations.

Here is Mr Ground Hog that lives under Matt's Mom's drive way. He was pretty timid and didn't like having his photo taken.

Last update for this post is that I have finally signed up for Formspring. If you would like to ask me any questions about anything please go to my profile.

Great Canadian Yoga Stretch

2010-05-19T12:08:00.003-03:00

I am hijacking my blog once more. I have signed up for the Great Canadian Yoga Stretch. It is a month long event to help raise money for the Canadian National Institute For The Blind.

CNIB is the primary source of support, information and most importantly, hope, for all Canadians affected by vision loss.

We are recognized experts in vision health and have been making a profound difference in the lives of Canadians since 1918.
At CNIB it is well understood that there are ways to enjoy a good quality of life for any of us experiencing vision loss, and important preventive steps we can all take to maintain vision health.

The event started on May 1st and runs until May 31st. Because I only learned of this recently I have not been practicing every day this month. But I plan on practicing every day (for at least 30 minutes) for 31 days starting this past Monday (18th). My fund-raising goal is $100. If you want to support a good cause please go to my fund-raising page and donate. Remember, every penny counts :)

Side-Tracked

2010-05-17T16:11:00.003-03:00

Wow. I can't believe it has been a month since my last post. So much has gone on in that time that I just didn't get a chance to update here.

To start, I have discovered a new passion. I have blogged about it before. Yoga!! I love it so much that I decided to sign up for a 2 week yoga bootcamp at Bedford Breathing Space Yoga Studio. It was 14 days of yoga. Monday-Friday at 6am for an hour and a half and then any classes we wanted to go to on the weekends. This has changed my body so much I have been amazed. It ended a week ago yesterday and I can see and feel results. I can do push-ups now!!! Hahaha. Ask Matt, I really was no good before I started yoga.

Other than that I haven't had much of a life. I have had some personal issues but I don't want to bore you all with the details. I have also been doing a lot of reading and preparing for this summer. My photography is going to be really busy for the next 5 months. I have some photos to post here that are long over do. I hope to have some of them up in tomorrows post. For now I just wanted to say that I'm back and I hope everyone has been having a great spring so far :)

Spring-A-Ling

2010-04-17T13:26:00.006-03:00

I'm not sure where all of my readers are from but if you're in warmer parts of North America I am JEALOUS!! Some friends of mine have been posting photos of how nice the weather looks where they are and I turn a little green in the face. Halifax is ahead of the weather schedule but it still isn't really nice out. We have been getting highs of the low teens (Celsius) for the past two weeks. The grass is green, the dandelions are out already but other than that, there aren't many signs of life. You really have to go looking for them to see that spring has finally arrived. Here are some photos I took around the 'rents place last weekend. I can't wait until mom's tulips are up :)

Karynne | Portraits

2010-04-15T16:48:00.007-03:00

God this girl is gorgeous. Karynne and I have been friends since junior high and when she told me she wanted to start up modeling again I got super excited. Photo time!!! This whole session was less than 2 hours (I had to go to work afterward so we had to cut it short) but we got some fabulous results! We literally just walked a few block radius around her house and found these locations.

Enjoy the photos :)

Disclaimer: I don't support smoking, just thought the above photo would be cool to try while we were taking a break.

I think these next two are my favs from our session.

Inspiration - Week 15

2010-04-14T09:07:00.004-03:00

The past two weeks I have been addicted. Addicted!! I do not have an addicted personality but occasionally I have these phases where all I can do in my spare time is read. This past week alone I have read 5 books. It can get kind of ridiculous sometimes. It literally consumes my life.

The particular series is called Fever by Karen Marie Moning. Below is a photo of the 4 books so far in the series that I have read. The last I actually read in less than 24 hours. For those of you that know me know I love Twilight, but I think this series might be better. How can this be? I have no freakin' clue. I identify with so many personality traits of the main character (Mac) that it almost feels like I am in the book. Silly I know but it's true. When I finished reading Dreamfever I felt like a something was missing. Like I lost a good friend. Karen is a fantastic author but I found she ended Dreamfever in a frustrating way. In my personal opinion, if someone has made it to the 4th book in a series, they are going to continue reading it when a new book is published. She ended Dreamfever in the middle of a critical scene in the plot. Absolutely no closure. It is SERIOUSLY frustrating. Now I have to wait until December when she releases Shadowfever (the last book in the series) to find out what happened. Oh well. Like I said, Karen is a fabulous author and I completely recommend this series and her other set of books, the Highlander series as well.

These are the next books I am reading by Janet Evanovich. I am about half way through the top book (Eleven On Top). There are 20 books in total I think. This series isn't as good as Fever but I still really enjoy reading them. They are definitely an easy, entertaining read. Hopefully I'll be able to get them all completed before they are due back at the library (a week from now!!).

As a little side note I am pretty close to meeting a personal goal I made for myself for 2010. I wanted to read 25 books before the end of the year. Currently I am on book # 22. Maybe I'll be able to hit 50 this year? We'll see :) If you want to see my reviews and keep track of my progress head over to GoodReads. I LOVE this website!!

Album Design

2010-04-02T13:04:00.006-03:00

Hey everyone! Just wanted to do a really quick post. I got a comment on my last post requesting to see the album design. Here it is :)

I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!! :)

Kiss Wedding Books

2010-04-01T00:30:00.005-03:00

I think one of the best moments during the whole photography process is receiving the final product. I received an album not too long ago and it just blew me away. I had Pictage design the album and it was printed with Kiss. I absolutely adore the design. I had to make some changes to the original but besides just a few small adjustments it was perfect. The quality of the album completely met my expectations. I couldn't see one flaw at all in the whole book.

I almost forgot, but I did manage to get some photographs of it before I gave it to the clients. Take a look :)

Kiss includes these awesome dust protectors with all of their albums. It's important to take care of your albums so that they last a really really long time.

This is the 4x4 little kiss. It is an exact duplicate of the full size album. These are perfect to give to parents, family or close friends.

This is the 10x10 album. The client chose the cover color which is called Redlight Red. The other colors available are Virgin White, Forbidden Green, Passion Pink, Sultry Blue, Smoldering Brown, and Voluptuous Black. To my clients and future clients, I have swatches of all of these colors. You will be able to see them during our album meeting.

As soon as I have more products (sample albums, color swatches, canvas prints, etc) I will make sure to photograph them and put them up here.

Happy Thursday!!

Interesting Bokeh

2010-03-30T23:15:00.003-03:00

One thing I kind of regret about not going to photography school is the creativity challenge. I don't have new techniques I need to learn. No assignments to hand in. No forced learning I guess is the best way to put it.

I believe that creativity is a muscle. It is something you have to work on. In order to grow as an artist you need to challenge yourself on a regular basis. Because I love to learn new ways to capture beautiful images I tried out a technique I was originally introduced to by Sherry Lu.

Basically, you can manipulate the bokeh of your images. You pretty much make this lens cap that has a shaped cut out of it in the middle and when you photograph something with lights in the background you get some really cool shapes. To learn more about this technique and how to do it click here.

As it is probably obvious, I love love. It sounds so cliche, I know. But in all honesty, to me love is life's purpose. Being inspired by this my shape was a heart. I really didn't think this would work. I still don't know exactly how/why it works. Since I didn't have a lot of faith in what I was doing I didn't really think of anything exciting to photograph. These are two of my favorite pieces of jewelry.

The first is a locket that my parents gave to me when I was little. I still haven't put any photos in it though. Not sure how to get them that small!

The second is a ring Matt gave me our first Christmas together. No it's not an engagement ring. Just something pretty :)

Inspiration - Week 14

2010-03-29T22:46:00.004-03:00

Not to point out the obvious but I decided to take a week off of blogging. I officially started a new position at the "day job" so last week I was focusing on getting organized. And since I have been doing so well the past few months, I decided I deserved a break.

This week I'm inspired by bringing out the kid in me. Matt and I had a date day on Saturday. It was much needed and such a great day. The first thing that brought me back to my childish roots was yoga class. We worked on doing handstands against a wall. I haven't done those in years! They actually feel phenomenal. Like back bends, it is really a freeing posture. Gets the blood moving, heart pumping and a smile on your face :)

Then later in the day we went to see How To Train A Dragon in IMAX 3D. I have never seen so many kids before. I think we might have been the only people watching the movie that didn't have kids with us. After getting over the original disorientation of the 3D we were really blown away with the whole movie. My favorite childhood movie is The Little Mermaid and I really think How To Train A Dragon is pretty close to the top with it.

Sometimes life can real drain the life out of us. We tend to get so caught up with our jobs/commitments/hobbies that we don't just enjoy the moment. I challenge all of you to take even just a few hours out of your day and become a child again. Watch a favorite childhood movie/show. Do a finger paint piece of art. Build something with lego or play doh. Do something that made you happy as a child.

To start the ball rolling, here is the trailer for How To Train A Dragon.

PS-Lots of photos coming in the next few days!

Sneak Peek | Karynne

2010-03-20T22:28:00.003-03:00

This is going to be a short post. I just wanted to post a sneak peek from a photo session I had last week. It was with a good friend of mine, Karynne. She is looking to get some solid work in her portfolio so you can expect to see more of her in the coming months.

Enjoy :)

Kaylee | Portraits

2010-03-17T17:37:00.002-03:00

First off, I really want to thank my readers and especially the people that comment on my blog posts. I am really sorry that I can't reply to your comments. Blogspot won't let me. So in the next few months I will be switching to a ProPhotoBlog. Then I can finally respond to you guys! YaY :) If you ever want to actually have a chat feel free to email me at christine@christinenewhook.com. I would love to hear from you :)

And on to the real content of the post.....

It feels kind of like I'm surrounded by babies. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with all of them. It's really fun actually. I can practice being a mom. Hahaha!

Around the same time my niece Ellie was born, my beautiful friend Jaymie had her daughter Kaylee. I have hung out with the two of them three times and I hope many more in the future. Kaylee loves to be moving. Whether your driving, pushing her in her stroller, swaying back and forth while your holding her, etc. Personally I think she will continue to be like this when she starts walking and she will be a very active little girl. I can't wait to photograph her when she starts crawling and walking around.

Anyways, here are the photos from last week. Enjoy :)

I think the one above is my favorite. She reminds me SO much of Elvis. Hahaha :)

Ellie and Family | Portraits

2010-03-16T08:57:00.007-03:00

Jackie asked me a few weeks ago if I could photograph her, Ellie and Jeremy together before they got too big. Of course I was delighted to photograph Ellie again. She is the sweetest little girl I've met. And plus, it meant I got to hold her for a while too :)

These are late going up but here are some of the photos from our session.

What a beautiful family :) Love you guys!

Inspiration - Week 12 & 13

2010-03-15T23:59:00.002-03:00

Wow. This past week has definitely had it's up an downs. There hasn't really been one thing in particular that has inspired me these 2 weeks so I decided to pick a general topic and a few people that have helped me with it.

In the summer I think I had mentioned at some point that I had attended a hot yoga class at Moksha Yoga in Halifax. Well every 2nd Sunday since Christmas my sister and I have been going to the evening hot yoga class at the Breathing Space yoga here in Bedford.

Before I go much further I thought maybe I would give you a brief description of my physical history. I have always been active. Start with gymnastics for a few weeks. Then I played competitive soccer year round for 11 years. My schedule got to busy to commit to soccer anymore so I became a gym freak. And as I have posted about last summer, I was into distance running for a while there. But none of this can compare to the past 3 months of yoga I have done.

I have never been a spiritual person but yoga has opened that door for me. I concentrate so hard in class that I can't actually think about anything else. In a way it is like meditation. I have become so much more in tune with my body and have a MUCH greater appreciation for it now. I am hoping that with some changes in the next few months I will be able to start going every Sunday. It has added so much to my life and I really wanted to thank a few people for helping me with this part of my journey.

To start I have to thank the lovely and inspiring Michelle Hicks. She is the owner of the Bedford branch of Breathing Space and she is the only instructor I have taken classes from. And I will only ever go to her. She has such a beautiful sole and brings so much to every class. No two are alike. I am always excited for each class because I know I will learn something new. If you are in the HRM area definitely take one of her classes and you will see what I am talking about.

The second person I want to thank is Kathryn Budig. Lately I have been spending a lot of time on Youtube. I found her channel a few weeks ago and have been glued to it ever since. Kathryn is a phenomenal yogi. She makes advanced poses look so easy.

And last but not least, Dashama. I actually stumbled onto her Youtube channel today and I have watched a ton of her videos since. She is a really great yogi and I can't wait to hit the mat in the morning and try out some of her routines.

If any of this interests you at all please watch the two videos below. The first one is of Kathryn and the second is Dashama.

Namaste :)

Self Portrait #3

2010-03-12T00:48:00.005-04:00

In my last post I updated my 101 in 1001 list. I saw that one of my goals was a 50 self portrait project. I had completely forgot about this goal and had started doing self portraits anyway. So might as well keep the portraits coming. :)

Here is my third in the project. Oddly enough, it was taken in my bathtub! Ha ha ha. My bathroom has the most amazing light in it because pretty much one whole wall is frosted glass. Here I am in my soaker tub. The only thing I don't like about this photo is how ginormous my nose looks. But oh well. I still really like it.

And because Squeaky just wouldn't leave me alone while I was doing this I grabbed her for a photo. But she wasn't patient enough for the timer :P

101 Update

2010-03-09T22:25:00.003-04:00

I have been playing catch-up in my Google Reader for the past 2 days and I ran across a 101 in 1001 post that the lovely Gail had put up on her blog. I originally made this list last June I believe so I am almost at the 1 year mark. It's pretty crazy how fast a year can fly by. I haven't really looked at this much in 2010 but I think it is time to start focusing on it a little bit more.

Some of the goals I'm not sure I can accomplish in the next 2ish years because of finances so a few goals might have to be changed. Eventually. We'll see maybe in 6 months?

Here it is :)

1. Register my business
2. Launch my website
3. Photograph a baby that is less and 1 week old (Layla)
4. Brand my business (happening right now)
5. Order my first sample albums
6. Attend WPPI
7. Meet someone inspiring
8. Intern w/ Jamie Delaine or Sarah Barlow
9. Create a canvas print from a vacation in Italy, Las Vegas, and the Caribbean
10. Upgrade to the Canon 5D MK II
11. Take a course/workshop in creative writing
12. Post in my blog 4 times a week (6/141) - definitely getting better in 2010
13. Go for a shopping trip in Boston
14. Read a photography related book once a month for 6 months
15. Read a business related book once a month (see list in side bar and also track books on GoodReads)
16. Read a book related to a topic of personal interest once a month (see list in side bar and also track books on GoodReads )
17. Paint 3 canvas paintings for our living room
18. Frame 100 photos
19. Take a homeless person out for lunch and learn about their life and their dreams
20. Bottle my own wine
21. Have my photography published
22. Go sky diving
23. Photograph a musician
24. Photograph an artist
25. Photograph a writer
26. Make strawberry & blueberry jam (07/07/09 – strawberry jam)
27. Run a marathon
28. Meet Jasmine Star
29. Take a hot yoga class (completed at Moksha Yoga in August 2009)
30. Photograph at least 5 weddings each year(2009 - 05.16, 06.14, 09.22)
31. Become a member of Canon Professional Services
32. Learn how to make HDR Photographs (07.14.2009-Ryan's trip to Halifax, Post here)
33. Join a craft class/club
34. Do 20 consecutive pushups
35. Do 20 consecutive pull ups
36. Plant a tree
37. Take a photo a day consecutively for 2 months
38. Knit an Afghan blanket
39. Learn how to clean my camera
40. Don't talk for 1 whole day
41. Spend 6 hours blind folded
42. Bake a cheesecake
43. Learn about another religion
44. Host a social networking event
45. Solve a rubik's cube in less than 1 minute (got it to around 2 minutes)
46. Hike for 1 hour naked
47. Make my own candles (Christmas '09)
48. Make my own jewelry
49. Photograph for a not for profit organization/charity
50. Start a food fight
51. Bike the Cabot Trail
52. Have my own garden
53. Take a ballroom dance class
54. Get a facial
55. Blow glass
56. Actually send out Christmas Cards (Christmas '09)
57. Have a romantic weekend at a bed & breakfast
58. Get a touch up tattoo
59. Make my own ballpoint pen
60. Keep a journal for 1 year
61. Get another kitten
62. Make a sculpture
63. Learn how to play 1 song on piano
64. Buy a house
65. Coach soccer for a summer
66. Donate blood
67. Donate plasma
68. Bake bread from scratch (Does it count if I witnessed Matt do it?)
69. Spend 1 whole day in bed with Matthew
70. Do some macro photography
71. Organize our storage room (Jan. 13/10)
72. Volunteer for charity/non-profit/hospital
73. Get a 6-pack
74. Photograph 1 wedding for free for a deserving couple
75. Write a poem
76. Have Matt teach me to snowboard
77. Complete a 50 photo self portrait project (2/50)
78. Have professional photos taken of Matt and I
79. Read the Bible
80. Blog a wedding within 12 hours of photographing it
81. Make plans with dad once a month (2/33)
82. Quit my job
83. Help a stranger with complete disregard for personal gain
84. Visit Ovens National Park
85. Go on a roller coaster
86. Photograph a hummingbird
87. Learn to french braid my own hair
88. Have a sexy girl party
89. Make corned beef and cabbage
90. Photograph a beach at sunrise
91. Photograph my grandparents
92. Photograph Matt's grandmothers
93. Organize my printed photos
94. Make a photo album of Matt and I
95. Take on a mentee (summer 09/10 – Quentina Parsons)
96. Send a balloon with a message in it into the sky
97. Complete 5 cross stitch (1/5 completed)
98. Decorate my home
99. Have a girls night with all of my close girlfriends
100. Make an official business plan.
101. Tell the people that are important to me that I love them more often (every day)

Sooo.. like I said, not much different from last time. Now that I've refreshed it in my head though I hope to really work on completing some more of them.

Inspiration - Week 11

2010-03-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

I figured this might happen eventually. The week would come that I would not be inspired. This week was not very good at my "day job". Because of that I was a little blue this week. I haven't really been inspired by anything this week artistically but I did buy a new CD that I have stuck in my head.

I found this artist through the lovely Jamie Delaine. She photographed this musician multiple times and did the cover art for her CD. Laurell is a phenomenal musician. When I saw on Facebook that she released an album in the past month I checked out her music on Myspace and was pleasantly surprised. Her music kind of reminds me of Sarah McLachlan. I think my two favorites are "It's Dark Out", "Can't Stop Falling" and "In The Air". Check it out on her Myspace page and let me know what you think :)

Hope you all are feeling more inspired than I am. Here's to a fresh and new week full of happiness and sunshine.

Shimmy Shimmy

2010-03-03T13:20:00.002-04:00

Growing up I used to get embarrassed so easily by the littlest of errors. I didn't have a great deal of self confidence around people my own age. In high school I started to only keep people in my life that I really care about and now I am surrounded with loved ones. Because of this I don't every get embarrassed. Don't get me wrong, I do embarrassing things ALL THE TIME. But as the quote goes, people who care don't matter and people who matter don't care. So I thought maybe I should share this kind of funny story about myself that happened on Monday.

I had the day off of work from my "day job" so I decided to have some me time in the afternoon. I am a huge fan of Lush products including all of their bath stuff. One of the last times I was at their store I had purchased over $50 worth of products so I got a free gift. In the gift was some shower gel, a bar of soap and this heart shaped glittery thing. Well I put it under my sink for a few weeks and decided to use this during my bath. I thought the heart shaped glittery thing was what's called a bath melt. A bath melt makes your bath really creamy and silky and softens your skin. Score! right?

So I ran my bath, threw in the "bath melt" and some of a bubble bar to get some pink bubbles and thought everything was all good. When the tub was almost full I saw that the bath melt still looked like it was whole. I picked it up and it felt kind of like oil based paint. You know, the stuff that NEVER comes off your skin? That stuff. I thought maybe it needed to be broken up a bit so I tried to break it using my hands, which didn't work and all I ended up doing was getting my hands smothered in sparkles. I started to worry because they wouldn't come off when I scrubbed my hands in the bath water. So I dropped the bar back in (bad idea number 2) and went to the sink to try using real soap and water. Didn't work. Hmm.. Well sparkles aren't all that bad right?

By this time the bath was full of hot water, and I have a big bath, I didn't want to waste it so I thought, what the hey, I might as well still relax in it. I don't have anywhere to go tonight so a little sparkles won't hurt. I got in, closed my eyes and let the hot water soothe some sore muscles and enjoyed the peace and quiet. When I opened my eyes I saw these little oily globs floating around in the water. Touched one and it was like a sparkle explosion on my finger. Great. So now I'm literally covered in sparkles, neck to toes and because it's all oily it won't come off. Whatever. I relaxed for a little bit longer and then decided to do something about it.

I got out, took a shower and used one of Lush's sugar scrubs to scrub off the sparkles. Well it worked, but then I was covered in scratches because the sugar scrub is pretty harsh. Scratches are better than sparkles though right?

Turns out that the "bath melt" is called a shimmy shimmy glitter bar. You're supposed to rub it on your skin dry to get a little sparkle. Not melt it in hot water and bath in it. Hahaha. It's always good to be able to laugh at yourself right? Well you all can laugh at me too :P lol. Next time I will definitely be reading instructions online for products I'm not 100% sure on.

Here's a photo of the little devil bar.

Making Me Happy

2010-02-28T14:25:00.002-04:00

I have always liked a few songs by John Mayer but just recently I have really been appreciating his work more and more. I'm slowly starting to get exposed to his type of music and as corny as it sounds, I find it very uplifting. It warms my soul and always puts a smile on my face. It is probably the best music to listen to while working.

Take a listen and let me know if it makes your heart a little lighter :)

Inspirtation - Week 10

2010-02-27T17:47:00.002-04:00

I can't believe I'm already at the 10 week mark for my inspiration posts. It feels like just yesterday I was making this post about some paintings I had seen online. Time flies when you're having fun :)

Today I wanted to talk about something that is approaching very quickly and I will be welcoming it with open arms. It's SPRING TIME!! I like winter when there is always a fresh snow fall. But when the streets and snow banks start to get really dirty and everything is covered in gray I get kind of under the weather. That is until the sun starts to stay in the sky longer, the trees force the buds onto their branches and the tulips fight for the surface.

Spring time always brings me so much happyness. I get so inspired by mother nature bringing life from a seemingly dead Earth. I love waking up with sunshine on my face and hear the birds chirping outside my window. It is guaranteed to always bring a smile. Unless those birds tend to be crows. Then I throw rocks and slam my window shut. (Don't worry, I have a horrible throw)

Here is a photo I took 2 years ago (I think) from my parents back yard at about the same time of year. I love the colors and contrast in this image. It makes me dream about spring :)

Self Portrait #2

2010-02-26T11:37:00.006-04:00

As I mentioned in this post I think self portraiture is such a good way to expand my creativity. I'm finding it a little challenging to come up with new photos in my apartment so I think next time I'll have to go outside somewhere. Or maybe do this new yoga pose I learned in the photo. We'll see.

But for now here is the newest self portrait. I decided to edit it a little bit differently. I used some Photoshop actions to help it have a vintage feel to it. What do you think?

New Portrait Packages

2010-02-25T23:59:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted my pricing here before so I decided that since now more of you are reading this I ought to. I now have to portrait packages available. Here are the details.

Portrait Session - $100
Includes:
1-3 hr session on location of your choice
20-25 retouched images on CD ready for printing and email/Facebook
1 8x12 or 8x10 print of your choice

Mini Session - $50
Includes:
1.5 hour session on location of your choice
10-15 retouched images on CD ready for printing and email/Facebook
1 5x7 print of your choice

I am also booking weddings for 2010 and 2011. Please email me directly for package information.

If you would like to book a portrait session with me please email me at christine@christinenewhook.com or include your email address in your comment.

Since no post is a good post without a photo, here's a sneak peak at another portrait session I did with our niece Ellie.

Take Many With You When You Fall

2010-02-24T23:59:00.001-04:00

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

I grew up playing checkers and other board games like Clue and Guess Who. Don't get me wrong, these are wonderful games but they aren't really challenging. When I was young I didn't really have the attention span to spend too much time learning new games I considered to be boring, like chess. I mean, why spend a few hours moving pieces around a board when you can blow up someones battleship in 20 minutes? Makes sense right?

Needless to say, I've grown a lot more patient with the years and I finally learned how to play chess. I've played a few games in the last 2 years but since we don't have a chess board I never challenged Matt. So when we went for an afternoon tea in a local shop and I saw a chess board I knew we would have to go head to head.

I am definitely a speed chess player. As soon as Matt made his move I made mine within a minute and then Matt would take 5 minutes to think of his next move. Maybe the game wasn't made for me? Maybe I should be one of those people that play it with the timer beside the board? Or maybe I should have spent 5 minutes on each move because as you can see below, it didn't work out too well.

When Matt started to remove my pieces from the board with increasing speed I decided it would probably be pretty stupid to assume that I could win. So instead I decided if I was going down, I would take as many of his pieces with me as I could. All in all it was a great game (even if it was 2 hours long) and I definitely want to play again. But next time it will be at home, in pj's, wrapped in a warm comfy blanket. That way I can nap while Matt is deciding his next move :)

MacDonald

2010-02-20T23:38:00.003-04:00

On the theme of night photography I did an experiment last night. There is a great spot in Dartmouth that looks over the harbour to downtown Halifax. It's stunningly beautiful at night too. I went down to take some photos which turned out really well. I put together my first panoramic shot which I actually really liked. But for some reason when I make it small enough for the internet it gets lines in it and is no good for posting. I'll figure out a way to make it work in the next few days and post it up here. Until then I'll post one photo I took of the MacDonald bridge. I wish there had of been more movement in the waves to get more of a blur but oh well. It's good enough the way it is :)

Enjoy and happy Saturday!

Inspiration - Week 9

2010-02-19T10:00:00.002-04:00

Your weekly inspiration post is brought to you by the colors PURPLE and GREY. I promised in my last inspiration post that I would talk about something photography related this week. And this is... sort of.

Currently I am going through and branding my business. It is a fun and interesting process where I am learning lots about myself. During this process I have found that the colors that best suit me are purple, grey and white. I figured, why not try a post about the colors? So here is what I came up with.

I searched on Etsy.com for all things purple and grey and below are my favorites with their respective links.

Enjoy :) I challenge you to pick one color to describe your personality and why that color?

1. Moons creation's
2. The Victorian Vanity
3. Busy Knitting Bee
4. Simply Basic Designs
5. Petalmix
6. Sweet Harvey

7. Red Hot Pottery
8. Replicca
9. Betsy3
10. Holzfurhaus
11. Homelab
12. Red Hot Pottery

Self Portrait #1

2010-02-16T22:02:00.004-04:00

Many great artists of the centuries have created self portraits in their respective mediums. Self portraiture has many benefits. It can be a learning path to better your artist skills, in photography it can teach you how to direct people better in photographs, it can be therapeutic, and the list goes on.

Personally, I find photographing myself the hardest out of all of my portraiture work. Maybe it's because I'm the most critical about myself, maybe it's because it can be difficult with back button focusing, who knows? But to try and further myself as an artist I have decided to start taking more self portraits. I will make sure to post them here. Hopefully I will be able to show the many different sides of my personality and that way you all can get to know me better :)

Here is the first of many to come!

Inspiration - Week 8

2010-02-13T14:19:00.004-04:00

My inspiration posts have gone on a tangent away from photography and towards life inspiration. I guess it all combines together in the big picture but next week I plan on doing one specific to photography inspiration.

That being said, this weeks inspiration is farmers markets. We have one here in Halifax that Matt and I are going to more frequently now. Last week we watched Food Inc. and then went to the Halifax Farmers Market. We got talking to some of the vendors that were there and learned so much about farming that we didn't know before. Although Matt and I live in an apartment, I want to make my own garden this spring. I'm thinking of buying or making some big pots to put out on our balcony to grow some veggies.

Anyways, if you haven't seen Food Inc. we both recommend it. It didn't really turn me off of eating meat, it just opened my eyes as to how most of our food is treated while it's alive and challenged me to make better choices. Here are some photos of the market. It's a lot more full and alive in the summer though.

Oh and here is the trailer for Food Inc.

Ellie | Portraits

2010-02-12T10:13:00.000-04:00

Our niece Ellie is the youngest baby I have ever held. She was 6 days old when I first met her and the sweetest thing ever. I have known for years that I want to have children. In the past year or so I have started to get baby fever and have really wanted to have children soon.

When we first started taking pictures Ellie was not too happy with us. She wouldn't stop crying unless she was being held. Jackie would calm her down and then we would try again. After a half hour or so of back and forth Ellie was just so tired she fell asleep and was perfect for the photos. After all of the hard work we were all pretty hungry so I held her while she was sleeping and everyone was making some food. It just felt so right. I didn't want to let go of her. I asked Matt if his sister would notice if we took her home with us ;) Kidding obviously! The longer I held her the more comfortable I was with holding her and by the time we left it felt like second nature. I can't wait to photograph her again and again as she grows up. Jackie's house was so full of love afternoon and I hope in the next few years my home will be just as full of love with a new little addition to our family.

Here are the photos :)

What a cute uncle. At first he was so timid because she is SO tiny.

Literally inbetween sobs. The photo before and after she was crying. SO cute :)

She is the spitting image of Matt's family. They all had the same eyes when they were little.

This one is definitely my favorite from the whole day. I love the negative space above her. I think I might have to get this one printed really big for the family.

Happy Birthday To A Not So Little Sister :)

2010-02-11T22:33:00.005-04:00

I officially feel old. Ok maybe not really old but older. My not so little sister just turned 18 today. Wow. To look back at the last 18 years and think of all of our memories together and as a family is one fun trip. I was 4 1/2 when my sister Jessica was born. We had so much fun when we were little but when I became a teenager our age gap started to show a bit more. By the time I was out of my "stupid teen" years my sister was in them. It's just now that we have really started to get along again.

My sister is one of my best friends. Although our personalities are so different I love her with everything I've got. Happy Birthday Jessica. I'll try to stop calling you my "little" sister now ;)

Here are some photos of us growing up. I thought it would be entertaining to share :D

I think this is probably my favorite photo of us together. Photos like these make me love photography even more.

This was a few years ago when my parents renewed their vows. Don't laugh at my outfit :P

Night Photography

2010-02-08T20:19:00.004-04:00

Of course. I think deep down I knew it would happen. In my last post I gushed about how I have been posting 4 times a week... and then I didn't post my fourth time last week. Hahaha. 'Tis life.

This week is such a weird one for me. My schedule at my "day job" for the past 6 months has been so flexible. I could get up early and go in for 8am or I could sleep in and go in for 10am. It was SO nice. But now I am back to a rotating shift for at least a few weeks. And guess what shift I got this week? 7-3:30....... that is 7 AM. I honestly don't think this would be too bad if it was in the summer and the sun came up at like 5:30am. That way I would wake up to light outside. But as it is not summer I don't see sunlight until half an hour into my shift. Again, 'tis life.

Last time Matt and I were in Wentworth we stopped into Ski Wentworth to take some night portraits. It was pretty cool to see them making snow on the hill as I have never seen this done before. I really like these photos. They make me think about the upcoming 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and the 2011 Canada Games here in Halifax. Ski Wentworth and Ski Martock (both in NS) actually got some pretty big grants to upgrade their slopes. I'm talking a few million dollars each. Wouldn't that be nice?

I'm hoping to embrace the darkness since it is going to last a few more months and attempt some more night photography. Here are my first few for this project.

I was originally only going to post the first photo as the second had a lot of movement in the foreground. After editing both I think I actually like the second better. The movement is fun. Maybe I'll get some downtown shots with car head lights and people coming in and out of bars :)

Oh! And btw, Sean Norman was the lucky winner of my giveaway! Congrats Sean! The gift cards are already on their way. And just so no one jumps down my throat I want to remind you all that I used Random.org to pick the winner. :)

Inspiration - Week 7

2010-02-05T09:09:00.006-04:00

This weeks inspiration is by far my readers. I have noticed such an increase in my views every day it has floored me away! I'm not sure if many of you have blogs and if you do, if you have Google Analytics set up to monitor them. But if you don't, you definitely should!

In this post on Jan. 11th I talked about my New Years resolutions. One of them as you may remember was to post in my blog 4 times a week. So far I have done that all but one week when I only hit 3 posts. I think this is the reason my count has gone up. Makes sense really I guess. lol. Take a look at my past two months of viewage (don't think that's a word.. :D ).

So because I don't like talking to myself (ok, maybe sometimes I do but shush) and this proves that I'm not talking to myself, I have decided to host my first giveaway. It's not much but just a little something to show my appreciation. I'm going to give a $15.00 gift card to Chapters/Indigo (my favorite store in the world!) to a random reader. To qualify you need to leave a comment telling me about your new year's goal or resolution and how it's been going for you.

I'm SO excited to do this and hope to do it again in the future. Maybe I'll set out benchmarks and whenever one is hit I'll giveaway a prize. We'll see ;)

Oh and by the way, just to keep it fair I will be using Random.org to choose the winner. Make sure to leave your name and an email address where I can contact you, otherwise I won't be able to give you your prize! I will be choosing a winner at 8pm AST Sunday Feb. 7th. Get commenting!

Fuji Instax Mini Camera

2010-02-04T13:42:00.004-04:00

I'm just finishing up editing Elly's photos from last weekend. I have been really busy with work so it's taking a little bit longer than expected.

In the meantime I thought this would be entertaining. One of the many blogs I follow is Creature Comforts. I get a lot of my inspiration from this blog including one of the posts the made yesterday. I have been eyeing the Fuji Instax Mini Camera for a few months now. It is for sale on Photojojo's website but right now, Creature Comforts is holding a giveaway and this is one of the prizes!! I added my entry a few minutes ago but there were over 1000 entries. Chances of me getting it are pretty slim but I still thought it would be fun to talk about.

If I don't get it in the giveaway, I do want to purchase it in the next few months. I have so many ideas for using it in my photo sessions. I know my clients will have a lot of fun with them and it'll produce photos that they can take home with them from the session. I like happy customers :)

Here is a photo of the camera. Definitely check out Photojojo's website for more information on the camera and Creature Comforts blog for information on the giveaway!

Sneak Peek

2010-02-01T09:59:00.002-04:00

Here is a little sneak peak of some photos I took this weekend :) Full post to come tomorrow!

Style Statement | Pt 1

2010-01-30T22:17:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in this post I am reading the book Style Statement. Simply put this is a workbook that asks you lots of questions about what works for you and what doesn't work for you. At the end you analyze your answers and define yourself in two words. This is your Style Statement. I have been working on this book for two weeks now (in small chunks) and wanted to share with you all some of the questions and my answers.

Either/Or (just a few)

cabin/condo
silver/gold
indoor/outdoor
milk chocolate/dark chocolate
fight/flight
white wine/red wine
gospel/poetry
coffee/tea
tofu/steak (even though I'm not a vegetarian)
handshake/hug
picasso/monet
warrior/magician

When have you been unexpectedly strong? During hard breakups and failed relationships.

When have you been unexpectedly vulnerable? When I found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. I have never given my heart so fully to another person. Also when I'm alone.

How do you feel in a book store? At home. Inspired. Enriched.

I feel most at home: Wrapped up in a blanket reading, on the yoga mat, in Matt's arms.

My dream home is: Efficient, green (environmentally), not cluttered, full of soft but colorful artwork, comfortable but modern, has some land.

I completely outrageous thing I'd like to own is: A tropical island.
Because: I love the warm water and the sound of the ocean calms my soul.

I looked most fabulous: When I was going to spin class 3 days a week. I was sweating out my stress, building a strong, healthy body and the endorphins shined out of me like the sun. I remember being at peace. And when I met Matthew, I glowed with happiness.

Even though it is completely out of style and over the top, I secretly love: Corsets
Because: They make me think of Marilyn Monroe and the whole pinup era.

What I would love to have made for me: Wedding dress and cowboy boots.

Well those are just a few of the questions the books asks. When I get a few more sections completed I'll post a pt 2 :)

Mini Confession

2010-01-29T23:30:00.000-04:00

I have a confession. Are you ready?

I haven't used my camera since I photographed Andriena! Shocking I know! I have been busy with blogging and editing that I haven't gotten a chance to use it. I realized this yesterday and knew this had to change. So from the time I got off work until the sunset I played around with my camera and took some photos. Here is what I got:

Squeaky hasn't appeared on the blog in SUCH a long time so I thought it might be good for me to get some paparazzi work in and spy on her :)

The beginning of this week was so warm out that I thought spring might be coming early! Well that changed Thursday night. The temperatures dropped and we got some snow mixed with high winds. It was SO cold taking the two above photos that I couldn't feel my fingers after 5 minutes. Brrrrr... I think I'm ready for spring.

The sunset last night was just beautiful. I couldn't stop looking at it. These photos don't even do it justice :(

Matt and I are off to Wentworth today to visit our niece! Matt's sister had a baby girl last weekend. Expect some photos of her soon :)

Inspiration - Week 6

2010-01-27T09:12:00.002-04:00

Is it tacky to do 2 inspiration posts in a row? It is? Oh well ;)

This week’s inspiration post is about being environmentally friendly. Being responsible about recycling, usage and disposing of materials makes me happy. When I’m happy I am more productive. Matt and I have taken a number of steps to better support our Earth in our own home.

We only use energy efficient light bulbs like these. These bulbs use up to 75% less energy than regular incandescent ones and they last up to 10 times longer. Not only are you saving a lot on your power bill, you are also being an efficient user and helping the Earth.

We also recycle all cans, bottles, plastic containers/packaging, paper, paper products and compost! I think that on average if we didn’t do any recycling we would probably product about 2 bags of garbage a week. Right now we produce around 1 bag every 2 weeks! Just by recycling we stop almost 80 bags of garbage from going to the landfill. Think about it, recycling doesn’t cost you anything. If you bring your bottles to a bottle depot you even get money back.

We also have reusable drier sheets that are good for up to 500 loads each. All of our cleaning products are biodegradable. We keep all of our thermostats to 15 degrees Celsius in the winter. My motto is if you get chilly, put on a big comfy sweater. We tried turning up the heat only when we were home but then we would forget to turn it down and my heaters would be pumping out heat for 8-10 hours a day when no one was there. To me that is such a HUGE waste of electricity.

Here are some green videos that Moksha Yoga puts out every month. There are a lot of surprising facts in these videos and great tips for being more environmentally friendly.

Water Conservation

Eating Local

Minimizing Waste

The Little Things

Paper

Plastic Bags

Plastic Bottles

Cleaning Products

VOC Free Paint

I hope these gave you all some inspiration to change your habits and was educational :)

Inspiration - Week 5

2010-01-24T12:07:00.003-04:00

I forgot to post last weeks inspiration yesterday so I'm going to do two this week to make up for it. I am currently reading the book Style Statement by Danielle LaPorte and Carrie McCarthy. I looked up Danielle online and found her website WhiteHotTruth and fell in love. This website is definitely my biggest inspiration this week. Danielle is an amazing author and the content on her website is really powerful. I recommend checking it out and reading some of her articles.

This one in particular caught my attention:

11 slightly scary ways to become a better you

1. Work with people who are smarter or more accomplished than you.
In the last month or so I've advised a mega-website/magazine that has the #1 community forum on the world wide web, a super savvy duo who are #1 in their industry and have one of the finest business plans I've seen; and a kick-ass forum of some of the most savvy marketers, motivators, and communicators in action. In every case I had to leap further to meet my intuition, dig deeper into the industry, and listen more actively. They made me sweat. I learned some new kung fu.

2. Solicit opinions from a diverse audience. Nothing like asking a twenty year old and a seventy year old what they think about your stuff.

3. Solicit opinions from experts. Ask a gifted writer what they really think of your material. Take your CEO to lunch for a preemptive performance review and some tips on how to sail up the ladder. Hire a stylist to eyeball your fashion fabulousness. It may sting, it may be a major gust of wind beneath your wings, but either way, an expert opinion will motivate you to get on top of your game.

4. Stand naked in front of the mirror and don't leave until you can say three deeply loving things about: your physique, the miracle of your health, and your qualities as good human being.

5. Fire your most annoying client, team member, or nasty friend. You'll wished you'd done it a long time ago.

6. As the Dalai Lama says, "Love until it hurts." For me that would mean volunteering at an old age home. I can hardly bear the wastage and scarcity of dignity that makes for most nursing homes. It slays me. I always leave a total wreck.

7. Choose silence. Turn off the TV. Commute without the car radio on or your i-Pod earphones in. The silence may unsettle you. With our addiction to noise and distraction held at bay, our anxiety, painful beauty and genius has room to surface.

8. Underachieve. This is especially for all the A Types and workaholics. Slack. Don't finish the book. For one week, do not do a to-do list. (I know, your palms are sweating at the very thought.) Be late just because you wanted an extra five minutes in the hot shower.

9. Take an improv class. It could teach you more about innovation, relationships, success, and sexuality than any therapist or self help book.

10. Say no. Only offer the simple explanation that "it just doesn't feel right."

11. Say yes. Just for the hell of it. Whimsy is a direct route enlightenment...or peril. Either way, you'll come out stronger.

As you can see, she is brilliant. Check out her stuff, I promise it's awesome!

I will be reviewing Style Statement a little bit when I'm done reading it. Keep you eye out in the future :)

Andriena | Portraits

2010-01-20T18:34:00.005-04:00

Last weekend Andriena, her friend and I went out for a portrait session. We drove all over the downtown Halifax area for some cool locations. Although it was FREEZING outside, Andriena toughed it out and did an amazing job modeling. She was so much fun to work with and I'm SO happy with the photos. Take a look :)

101 in 1001 Update - 01/10

2010-01-17T13:00:00.000-04:00

I haven't really been focusing on these so much but I figured I should provide my first 2010 update to my 101 in 1001 goals.

1. Register my business
2. Launch my website
3. Photograph a baby that is less and 1 week old (Layla)
4. Brand my business
5. Order my first sample albums
6. Attend WPPI
7. Meet someone inspiring
8. Intern w/ Jamie Delaine or Sarah Barlow
9. Create a canvas print from a vacation in Italy, Las Vegas, and the Caribbean
10. Upgrade to the Canon 5D MK II
11. Take a course/workshop in creative writing
12. Post in my blog 4 times a week (2/141)
13. Go for a shopping trip in Boston
14. Read a photography related book once a month for 6 months
15. Read a business related book once a month (see list in side bar and also track books on GoodReads)
16. Read a book related to a topic of personal interest once a month (see list in side bar and also track books on GoodReads )
17. Paint 3 canvas paintings for our living room
18. Frame 100 photos
19. Take a homeless person out for lunch and learn about their life and their dreams
20. Bottle my own wine
21. Have my photography published
22. Go sky diving
23. Photograph a musician
24. Photograph an artist
25. Photograph a writer
26. Make strawberry & blueberry jam (07/07/09 – strawberry jam)
27. Run a marathon
28. Meet Jasmine Star
29. Take a hot yoga class (completed at Moksha Yoga in August 2009)
30. Photograph at least 5 weddings each year(2009 - 05.16.2009, 06.14.2009, 09.22.2009)
31. Become a member of Canon Professional Services
32. Learn how to make HDR Photographs (07.14.2009-Ryan's trip to Halifax, Post here)
33. Join a craft class/club
34. Do 20 consecutive pushups
35. Do 20 consecutive pull ups
36. Plant a tree
37. Take a photo a day consecutively for 2 months
38. Knit an Afghan blanket
39. Learn how to clean my camera
40. Don't talk for 1 whole day
41. Spend 6 hours blind folded
42. Bake a cheesecake
43. Learn about another religion
44. Host a social networking event
45. Solve a rubik's cube in less than 1 minute (got it to around 2 minutes)
46. Hike for 1 hour naked
47. Make my own candles (Christmas '09)
48. Make my own jewelry
49. Photograph for a not for profit organization/charity
50. Start a food fight
51. Bike the Cabot Trail
52. Have my own garden
53. Take a ballroom dance class
54. Get a facial
55. Blow glass
56. Actually send out Christmas Cards
57. Have a romantic weekend at a bed & breakfast
58. Get a touch up tattoo
59. Make my own ballpoint pen
60. Keep a journal for 1 year
61. Get another kitten
62. Make a sculpture
63. Learn how to play 1 song on piano
64. Buy a house
65. Coach soccer for a summer
66. Donate blood
67. Donate plasma
68. Bake bread from scratch
69. Spend 1 whole day in bed with Matthew
70. Do some macro photography
71. Organize our storage room (Jan. 13/10)
72. Volunteer for charity/non-profit/hospital
73. Get a 6-pack
74. Photograph 1 wedding for free for a deserving couple
75. Write a poem
76. Have Matt teach me to snowboard
77. Complete a 50 photo self portrait project
78. Have professional photos taken of Matt and I
79. Read the Bible
80. Blog a wedding within 12 hours of photographing it
81. Make plans with dad once a month (2/33 – 07.09 Harry Potter Movie, 08.09 Birthday)
82. Quit my job
83. Help a stranger with complete disregard for personal gain
84. Visit Ovens National Park
85. Go on a roller coaster
86. Photograph a hummingbird
87. Learn to french braid my own hair
88. Have a sexy girl party
89. Make corned beef and cabbage
90. Photograph a beach at sunrise
91. Photograph my grandparents
92. Photograph Matt's grandmothers
93. Organize my printed photos
94. Make a photo album of Matt and I
95. Take on a mentee (summer 09/10 – Quentina Parsons)
96. Send a balloon with a message in it into the sky
97. Complete 5 cross stitch (1/5 completed)
98. Decorate my home
99. Have a girls night with all of my close girlfriends
100. Make an official business plan.
101. Tell the people that are important to me that I love them more often (every day)

Hopefully I'll get a lot more crossed off this year. I've got a ways to go. :)

Natasha | Portraits

2010-01-16T23:32:00.004-04:00

I am so excited to introduce you to my friend Natasha. She has started the journey to a healthy lifestyle and wanted to document herself close to the beginning as "before" photos. So far this year she has lost 7.5 lbs already! I don't know when I have ever gained or lost that much in such a short period of time. I know that with her contagious positive attitude and her determination she will be able to reach her goal no matter what that is. It was such a fun session and I really hope that when Natasha reaches her goal I will be there to photograph her accomplishment.

Here are a few favorites from my our session. :)

Inspiration - Week 4

2010-01-14T21:31:00.003-04:00

Wow. A lot has been inspiration to me this week.

I guess the most important is kindness. Over the holidays I chatted a bit with the ever fabulous Gail Werner. She had attended a Dane Sanders workshops and had blogged about it in this post. I mentioned how I really want to get a copy of his book Fast Track Photographer and her response was "Here you go :)". She emailed me a copy of the ebook. I was COMPLETELY floored. Gail was a complete stranger and she reached out to a complete stranger with nothing but kindness and sincerity. It may sound strange but she really did make my day. With the amount of conflict and prejudice in our society to have someone be so nice without knowing who I am was the best thing that happened to me that day. Scratch that, the best thing that happened to me that week! Gail, I want to thank you for all of our lovely email chats and for having such a genuine, lovely soul.

Go team Jacob!! :P

Here's a sneak peak at what's coming :)

Virginia & Allyn | Portraits

2010-01-11T10:50:00.006-04:00

Virginia and Allyn are probably one of the cutest couples I have ever met. I really mean it. I found myself saying "Awwwww" and exclaiming "CUTE" so many times during our session. Their love for each other is so obvious to any observer. It's is so pure and beautiful. I am so glad I had the opportunity to photograph them during Allyn's short visit from Ontario. He is posted there so training in the military and won't be home until June. I hope these photos will keep some big smiles on both of their faces until they are united again. :)

He did this allllll on his own. I didn't even have to ask him! So adorable :)

The above three photos are probably my favorite series I have ever taken. It just shouts LOVE.

2010

2010-01-10T22:59:00.003-04:00

Can you believe it is 2010 already? It feels like not too long ago I was in grade 7, in my parents basement watching "The Perfect Storm" while waiting for the big 2000 to come. So much has happened in the past decade and I can't wait for what is to come in 2010.

The past week and a half ish I have been doing a lot of reflection. Which is such a good thing but it can be problematic. After ideas, ideas, more ideas and maybe one day of negativity I think I have some solid goals/ideas for this next year.

During all of this reflection I have really focused on who I am, what I like, what I don't like, what makes me motivated and what keeps me motivated. It's kind of too much information to put in one post but I do want to talk about motivation. I have always been the type of person to be on the go... CONSTANTLY. At one point in my life I was in university, playing competitive soccer and working 20+ hours a week. I thrive off of a go-go-go lifestyle. University always had assignments and projects that needed to be done at a certain time. I always had to be at work early and make it to every soccer practice. How is this relevant for 2010? Stay with me here... I am inspired and motivated by pretty much everything. Color, weather, flowers, people, architecture, art.. you get the idea. I always come up with new projects or goals I want to accomplish. So the inspiration part isn't what is holding me down. It's the follow through. For example this blog. I don't know how many times I have said in a post "I want to blog more". I really do, it just doesn't end up getting done. I really want this to change this year.

Everyone makes New Years resolutions on Jan. 1st. I decided to be different this year and take some time at the beginning of the year to really think about what I want to accomplish. There are some things I don't really think I can measure like stay committed and follow through with everything important. But here are the goals that I can measure:

1. Blog 4 times a week. I know. This is an old one.
2. Book at least 1 portrait session a month.
3. Turn spare bedroom into an office (not 100% sure on this yet but I'll post it anyway).
4. Photograph 5 weddings this year.
5. Launch a new website, blog and get new business cards.

To start off the first post of 2010 right, here is a sneak peak as to what is to come next.

Christmas Cheer

2009-12-25T13:00:00.000-04:00

Merry Christmas!!! This is going to be a short post because I actually wrote it on the 23rd and scheduled it for the 25th. I hope everyone has a great Christmas or "holiday season" I should say. Below are some photos of our Christmas Decorations. I love our tree this year! It's a lot bigger than we thought it would be when we were at the tree lot. Wrapping photos on the walls is such an easy and cheap way to make your home feel more Christmasy :) Enjoy!

The following photos are of decorations that our families have in their homes.

Nathan | Portraits

2009-12-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

Last month I got the chance to work with a local male model named Nathan. We just went out for a fun time around the rail road tracks in Halifax in hopes of getting some casual but fun photographs of him in his suit. Nathan was the second male I have ever photographed by themselves and I have decided it's an area I definitely need to improve upon. Because I am a woman (obviously) I find it really easy to help pose women in photos. It's pretty simple. I find it extremely difficult to pose men on the other hand. I think it is time for me to buckle down and study some male fashion magazines and set up some more shoots with guys. Maybe there will be more to come in the next few months? :)

Enjoy!

Inspiration - Week 3

2009-12-23T17:51:00.007-04:00

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas! Well I guess I should be saying Merry early Christmas. I don't know about you but I am sooo excited about this Christmas. I'm kind of waiting for it to finish though so I can get back on track with photography and work and life.

This weeks inspiration I think is videography/vlogs. I have been watching a lot of channels on youtube lately and after watching them + a few other videos on peoples blogs I really want to try experimenting with video in the future. I really want to upgrade to a Canon 5d MK2 (which has HD video) but until then I only have my Canon point and shoot for videos. I am hoping to take lots of photos over Christmas and to also take some videos. I don't have any video editing software on my Mac though so if someone can hook me up with a free software please comment below!

The second half to this weeks inspiration is candle making. I decided to get crafty this year and make candles for family and friends. It really isn't that hard to do but the start up costs are not cheap and it can be time consuming. Here are some photos of my candle making. I didn't think to take the photos until I was almost done my last bit of touching up. I'll still explain the process though.

To start you will need some wax. I chose solid wax for molds but there are lots of different kinds (gel wax, wax crystals, soy wax, etc). I bought an 11 pound bar which was HUGE and I only had maybe a 1.5lbs left. You'll either need to shave down the wax into small pieces or sort of chisel at it and make smaller chunks to melt.

You will also need candle scent and dye. You can get them both in either liquid or bar form. These are vanilla scent and red dye. Make sure you read the instructions on how much to use depending on how much wax you are using.

If using jars as the containers you will have to glue the wicks and wick base to the bottom. I used a hot glue gun but you could probably use crazy glue or buy glue specifically for that purpose.

Then you double boil it until everything is melted and it hits a certain temperature (depends on the type of wax and how you are making it, be sure to read the instructions).

This is what it looks like in the pouring pot. I didn't actually start this batch from scratch. The reason being is that if you are making the candles in jars or containers like I did, when it cools you get like a sink hole in the middle (you can see small ones below). Once they cool you need to pour in more wax to fill in the hole. This is what I was doing today tonight to finish them up.

Again, they are only sunk in a little bit but how much sinks in is different for each.

Topped off (different candles).

To keep the wicks straight I do this. It looks strange but it works for me.

Til next time Merry Christmas!! I hope to post some vlog style posts next week about Christmas. :)

Inspiration - Week 2

2009-12-18T17:32:00.002-04:00

Last week I posted about something that inspires me – painting. I decided this week I would post about someone that has inspired me. This special someone is Me Ra Koh. She is a professional photographer in the US and has put together the Soar! Scholarship. She has partnered with companies like Sony, Adobe, SmugMug, ShowIt, Pixel2Canvas and ShootQ to reward three lucky women that need the resources to start their photography business and set it on the track to success. I originally thought about enrolling but now I’m not so sure. On the website you can actually watch some of the video entries (2min video is required to enter) and I can’t help but think that so many of those women deserve it more than I do. I am lucky enough to have a full time job that keeps food in our stomachs and a roof over our heads. I also have an amazing support system (Matt, family and friends) to help me reach my goal.

Needless to say, Me Ra Koh has been my inspiration this week. She has inspired me to help others with their photography and to inspire them. It is people like her that really light up this world and make it a better place to live. I can’t wait to see who she chooses to get the scholarships and to watch their progress next year. They will go to conferences and have one on one sessions with business people and photography people. They will get decked out in Sony gear and Adobe software. SmugMug is hooking them up with websites and blogs. It will be so much fun to learn more about the photography industry through their opportunities.

Here’s to Soar!

Inspiration - Week 1

2009-12-09T20:54:00.006-04:00

With the winter months comes a slow photography season. As you can tell by looking at my archives I have not been keeping to my 101 in 1001 goal of blogging 4 times a week. So I have been thinking of topics I can discuss on here to beef it up a bit over the Christmas. One thing I have been really wanting to do is an inspiration post. My Google Reader is full of photography blogs, finance blogs, health/fitness blogs, and some fashion blogs. Every day I am reading other peoples updates and looking at their photos and products. Some of what I read really sticks out in my mind. Once a week I will be posting an inspiration post. It will consist of anything "artsy" I can find that I love.

Not to long ago the fabulous Jamie Delaine posted about creativity being a muscle. Since then there have been a few things I want to get learn and do more of. This list includes knitting, writing, cross stitching and painting. Last Christmas my parents bought me two big black canvases that I haven't ever taken out of the plastic. In the next few months I really want to start panting more. I think my problem right now is that I don't trust myself to start painting on something so big when I have no idea what I'm doing. To solve this problem I will start off small and work my way big. I have a few little canvases (maybe 5x7?) that I will put my ideas on and if I like what comes out I'll do something similar on the large canvases.

As you can probably tell this weeks inspiration goes to painting! Here are some pieces of art I have found on the internet that I absolutely love.

The last 5 paintings were done by Dan Lafferty. The rest I found on kijiji a long time ago.

Cans for comments will be continuing until Dec.15th as I was sick last week and didn't get a chance to post anything worth commenting on. Keep the comments coming people :) Remember it's for a good cause!

Cans For Comments

2009-12-01T21:42:00.002-04:00

FEED NOVA SCOTIA is the provincial food collection and distribution centre for approximately 150 food banks and meal programs across Nova Scotia. We provide year-round food deliveries to member food banks and meal programs who serve at least 38,000 Nova Scotians each month.

But FEED NOVA SCOTIA is much more than a food collection and distribution centre. While we know that food banks play a vital role in the lives of Nova Scotians experiencing food insecurity, we are also dedicated to finding long-term solutions to poverty and chronic hunger that will reduce the need for food banks in Nova Scotia.

In light of the coming holidays I have decided to participate in cans for comments. It's pretty self explanatory. I have noted how many comments I have received so far on this blog (123) and for every comment received from now until December 8th, 2010 at 8pm I will donate 1 can to Feed Nova Scotia. I will be doing this on both of my blogs RunnerChristine and ChristineNewhook. The comments can be on posts I post from now until the 8th or on past posts.

So help the hungry and go comment!! :)

Chloe and Siblings

2009-11-25T23:53:00.000-04:00

I have never been one for taking photos of animals and pets but when my friend Candace asked me to I said "Sure, why not?". She had just gotten her little pug puppy Chloe and wanted to get a few photographs of her before she got bigger.

Chloe is the most adorable puppy ever. She is so tiny and so full of life. I actually had a lot of fun with them trying to capture some cute photos. Here are some of the results.

After she settled down to sleep I ventured around Candace's apartment to find her three cats to take photos of them. I say ventured because they didn't want to be close to the dog and one of them was even hiding under the bed! As cute as dogs are I think I will always be a cat person at heart :)

Fall Colours

2009-11-17T00:44:00.004-04:00

Fall is such a beautiful season. I haven't gotten a chance to post the photos I have taken yet this fall but here they are. I absolutely love the reds, oranges and yellows of fall.

Enjoy :)

On our way home from apple picking we found this tree full of silk worm nests. They were so strange to see in such a large quantity.

And then we gave some horses a few of our apples :)

Jessica & Harrison | Couples Portraits

2009-11-13T00:46:00.003-04:00

As all of you know, every year in school kids get school photos taken. Parents usually buy prints of the school photos and save them year by year. On top of framing them my mom has always sent out a copy to everyone with their Christmas cards. But this tradition has not ended. My mom thinks that just because we're not in school, doesn't mean she should send out pictures anymore, right? Personally, I'm not a huge fan of being in photos so after high school it has been ... interesting ... in getting a photo of me that can go out in Christmas cards. For my sister though it has been easy. I have always been around to photograph her. Lucky her eh? ;)

This year I photographed her and her boyfriend Harrison together. I photographed them in June for Harrison's prom also. The photos can be viewed in this post. Jessica is like me in the sense that she is not a huge fan of being in photos. But we did end up getting some good shots of the two of them. Here they are!

MacLeod Sisters | Portraits

2009-11-03T22:31:00.005-04:00

Ashley and I have worked together so many times in the past. This summer we did a portrait session, engagement session. Last winter we did a portrait session and I believe Fall '08 we did another portrait session. It has been really great to build a friendship with her over the time we have worked together. She is FABULOUS to shoot.

A few weeks ago she emailed me asking if I could photograph her and her sisters for their parents for Christmas. My response was pretty much "Duh!!". Hahaha. I was really excited to meet Ashley's two sisters and for good reason. They are both amazing women and we all had a lot of fun together. I think there is a gorgeous gene in their family though. Take a look at these three...

It was lightly raining for their session so when we were doing individual portraits whomever wasn't in the photograph was doing the above to keep their hair dry. When I saw them I knew we had to photograph it :)

Click HERE to view the slideshow of the full session.

Caitlin & Joe in Kentville | Engagement

2009-11-01T22:56:00.005-04:00

I absolutely love my network and everyone in it. It amazes me how many people I get messages/emails from about photo sessions that I know through people. There hasn't been one "random" person yet. A lot of the time my clients are people I went to high school with or university with. Some have found me through Facebook and mutual friends.

Caitlin was both of the above. We went to the same high school but weren't in the same social circles, she's a lot cooler than I am ;) When I logged into my Facebook a few weeks ago and saw she had messaged me I was completely blown away. And I blushed. She said that she had been following my blog for some time and was interested in an engagement session. Sometimes I feel as if I should give up on this blog. It doesn't seem like I get much traffic most of the time. Once I read her message I made a promise to myself to never think that way about this blog again. Even though the majority of people that view this don't leave any sign of being here, at least now I know they have been. :)

Well Caitlin and her fiancee Joe agreed to meet with me at the RIDICULOUS hour of 8:30am in Kentville for their engagement session. Any of you that know me on a personal level know that I do not do early mornings that well. Matt say's I'm not "fully there" for the first hour after I wake up. Hahaha. Anyways.... :P Kentville is such a beautiful town. It is about an hour outside of Halifax and always feels friendly, no matter the time of year. I was sooo happy that they chose it as the location for their session because I knew we would get awesome images here. One thing I have been dying to do is photograph a couple on a university campus. I am always in awe of different universities. Always so beautiful and so full of life. I even feel smarter when I'm there.

Well, I will stop yacking your ear off and show some of the images. Caitlin and Joe are the stars of this post, not my babbling :)

This school ground is where Joe proposed to Caitlin. It is an extra special spot for her because her grandfather was the principal and her mom went to school there. So cute :)

Click HERE to view the entire session in the slideshow.

Healthy Blog

2009-10-31T22:52:00.003-03:00

In the past I have made quite a few blog posts about my running, getting into shape and other topics not related to photography. So I have decided to start a second blog. This one I hope to make one post a day just showing how well (or not well) I ate that day, any exercise I completed and to keep track of my goals. I hope that with all of this information going on the internet it will make me more accountable and think twice before reaching for that double chocolate cookie :)

If you are interested you can read my daily health/fitness posts HERE.

Here is a sneak peak as to what tomorrows post will be about.

Wile Family at the Dingle | Portraits

2009-10-28T23:35:00.003-03:00

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing family. My cousin Danny and his wife wanted to get some family portraits taken for Christmas. I photographed their oldest when he was still little in 2007. Parker has grown a lot since our last session and he introduced me to his baby brother Spencer.

Here are some photos from our session :)

Click HERE to view the slideshow of the rest of the images.

Operation Beautiful

2009-10-16T11:02:00.000-03:00

Women are not told enough how beautiful they are. When I stumbled upon Operation Beautiful I fell in love. Basically it is women around the world posting anonymous notes in public places to help women feel great about themselves.

The first note I posted was in a public bathroom but there were girls in there at the same time so I didn't take a photo. But here are the second two I posted recently.

Spread the love girls! Put a smile on someones face and cheer up another beautiful woman. :)

Newborn Layla | Portraits

2009-10-15T19:40:00.000-03:00

Over the summer I had the awesome opportunity to photograph maternity photos with Lindsay and Nathaniel. This couple was SO much fun to work with. Since the photo session I have been awaiting little Layla's arrival. When Lindsay called and told me in the last week of September that she had given birth I was bubbling over with excitement!

One of the goals on my 101 in 1001 list was to photograph a newborn within the first week of their birth date. Well, it's now something I can cross of my list. Little Layla was just 1 week old exactly when I photographed her. I think I was stunned the whole time from how beautiful she is. She has the tiniest fingers and toes I have ever seen!

Well, without further ado, her she is :)

Cormier Family | Portraits

2009-10-13T19:07:00.000-03:00

As I am building my website I decided I needed some new portrait work to put up. So I went to the ever faithful twitter/facebook and updated my status to ask people if they would like their portraits taken. Well in just 2 hours I think I got like 9 responses! Hahaha. Nancy was one of them.

Nancy's husband has been serving in Afghanistan for a while now and as a surprise she wanted to get some portraits done with her and her two children, Alan and Laura. I had met Alan and Laura years ago when they were still little kids. Well, needless to say they aren't little kids anymore! Ha ha ha. I was taken back by just how beautiful they are. Laura is smart and absolutely stunning. Alan is so charismatic and handsome. He made us all laugh quite a bit. :)

Here are some photos from the session.

Click HERE to view the rest of the photos in the slideshow.

Champagne Family at the Dingle | Portraits

2009-10-11T21:02:00.000-03:00

I'm sure everyone has at least one friend that has a significant other. I find most of the time I am really good friends with one or the other in the couple but not usually both. That is except for Dave and Alexis. They are two of the best people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Alexis and I have very similar personality traits and views on life whereas Dave and I are both really nerdy. I absolutely adore these two and when they asked me to photograph them with all of Dave's family I nearly jumped for joy.

Dave has a pretty big family. He has 1 older brother and two younger brothers. All together with his parents, sister in law and Alexis there were 8 people. I have never photographed a family that consisted of children above the age of 9, so this was pretty new to me. I don't know if they like being in photos much but they were fun to photograph. We did the more traditional type family portraits and then we had some fun with the boys. Boy did they ever make me laugh.

Well enough chatting, I present to you, the lovely Champagne family :)

Click HERE to view the rest of the photos in the slideshow.

Brittany | Maternity Portraits

2009-10-03T08:44:00.001-03:00

The first time I met Brittany was at a portfolio day in Dartmouth around 3 years ago. When Brittany walked in the room she had this presence that just demanded attention. Sure, she's beautiful but she is such a confident and fun woman.

She messaged me a few months ago letting me know that she is pregnant and that she wanted to have a maternity session before she has her baby. I obviously said yes and started to really get excited about the session. I hadn't seen her in such a long time and I knew we would have a lot of fun together.

Here are some photos from our session. Brittany is so wonderful and she is going to be an amazing mother :) I can't wait to meet little Audrey!!

On a little side note, I have been finding it really hard to blog often. I have never kept a consistent journal or blog so it isn't second nature for me to constantly be updating this. I'm hoping to change that though. I have lots of photo sessions to post in the next two weeks and it is a really exciting time for me right now, I'm learning about really making a strong brand for your business and I'm starting to take what I'm learning and put it into practice. I'll be blogging about that soon enough :)

Happy Saturday!!

Excited!!!

2009-09-23T13:58:00.002-03:00

This post is going to have NOTHING to do with photography. Just a heads up ;)

I have this little obsession with books that I'm pretty sure I have confessed about before. Well some of my favorites are by Stephenie Meyer. For those of you that don't know who she is, she is the author of the Twilight series and also The Host. I have read all 5 books and I absolutely love them all. I don't think there is anyone out there that doesn't know about the Twilight books turning into a movies. If you haven't though you should go read all 4 books and then watch Twilight the movie.

November 20th, 2009 is when the second book, New Moon, comes out in theatres. I am SO excited. Here is the most recent trailer for the movie. It gives me shivers everytime I watch it!! Hahaha.

Now this was just released today on Stephenie's website... The Host has just been picked up and they are going to turn it into a movie!!!! Now a lot of people have read the Twilight books and not The Host. If you haven't, put down what you are doing right now. RIGHT NOW. And RUN to the book store or library and get The Host. It is Stephenie's first "adult" book and I will admit, it took me a while to get into it but it was soooooooo worth it. The only reason I like Twilight more than The Host is because there are more books in the Twilight series. Hahaha.

Next post will be back to your regularly scheduled programing :)

101 in 1001 | Update

2009-09-18T10:50:00.002-03:00

I was going through one of my journals the other day and I stumbled upon my 101 in 1001 list that I wrote back in July. As I read through it I realized I was completing a lot of these goals without even knowing it. So I decided it was time to make an updated list and post it again. Here it goes:

1. Register my business
2. Launch my website
3. Photograph a baby that is less and 1 week old (hopefully do this this week)
4. Brand my business
5. Order my first sample albums
6. Attend WPPI
7. Meet someone inspiring
8. Intern w/ Jamie Delaine or Sarah Barlow
9. Create a canvas print from a vacation in Italy, Las Vegas, and the Caribbean
10. Upgrade to the Canon 5D MK II
11. Take a course/workshop in creative writing
12. Post in my blog 4 times a week (1/141)
13. Go for a shopping trip in Boston
14. Read a photography related book once a month for 6 months
15. Read a business related book once a month (2/33 - Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders, 10-10-10 by Suzy Welch)
16. Read a book related to a topic of personal interest once a month (2/33 - Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Still Alice by Lisa Genova)
17. Paint 3 canvas paintings for our living room
18. Frame 100 photos
19. Take a homeless person out for lunch and learn about their life and their dreams
20. Bottle my own wine
21. Have my photography published
22. Go sky diving
23. Photograph a musician
24. Photograph an artist
25. Photograph a writer
26. Make strawberry & blueberry jam (07/07/09 – strawberry jam)
27. Run a marathon
28. Meet Jasmine Star
29. Take a hot yoga class (completed at Moksha Yoga in August 2009)
30. Photograph at least 5 weddings each year(2009 - 05.16.2009, 06.14.2009, 09.22.2009)
31. Become a member of Canon Professional Services
32. Learn how to make HDR Photographs (07.14.2009-Ryan's trip to Halifax, Post here)
33. Join a craft class/club
34. Do 20 consecutive pushups
35. Do 20 consecutive pull ups
36. Plant a tree
37. Take a photo a day consecutively for 2 months
38. Knit an Afghan blanket
39. Learn how to clean my camera
40. Don't talk for 1 whole day
41. Spend 6 hours blind folded
42. Bake a cheesecake
43. Learn about another religion
44. Host a social networking event
45. Solve a rubik's cube in less than 1 minute (got it to around 2 minutes)
46. Hike for 1 hour naked
47. Make my own candles
48. Make my own jewelry
49. Photograph for a not for profit organization/charity
50. Start a food fight
51. Bike the Cabot Trail
52. Have my own garden
53. Take a ballroom dance class
54. Get a facial
55. Blow glass
56. Actually send out Christmas Cards
57. Have a romantic weekend at a bed & breakfast
58. Get a touch up tattoo
59. Make my own ballpoint pen
60. Keep a journal for 1 year
61. Get another kitten
62. Make a sculpture
63. Learn how to play 1 song on piano
64. Buy a house
65. Coach soccer for a summer
66. Donate blood
67. Donate plasma
68. Bake bread from scratch
69. Spend 1 whole day in bed with Matthew
70. Do some macro photography
71. Organize our storage room
72. Volunteer for charity/non-profit/hospital
73. Get a 6-pack
74. Photograph 1 wedding for free for a deserving couple
75. Write a poem
76. Have Matt teach me to snowboard
77. Complete a 50 photo self portrait project
78. Have professional photos taken of Matt and I
79. Read the Bible
80. Blog a wedding within 12 hours of photographing it
81. Make plans with dad once a month (2/33 – 07.09 Harry Potter Movie, 08.09 Birthday)
82. Quit my job
83. Help a stranger with complete disregard for personal gain
84. Visit Ovens National Park
85. Go on a roller coaster
86. Photograph a hummingbird
87. Learn to french braid my own hair
88. Have a sexy girl party
89. Make corned beef and cabbage
90. Photograph a beach at sunrise
91. Photograph my grandparents
92. Photograph Matt's grandmothers
93. Organize my printed photos
94. Make a photo album of Matt and I
95. Take on a mentee (summer ’09 – Quentina Parsons)
96. Send a balloon with a message in it into the sky
97. Complete 5 cross stitch (1/5 completed)
98. Decorate my home
99. Have a girls night with all of my close girlfriends
100. Make an official business plan.
101. Tell the people that are important to me that I love them more often (every day)

Wow. Lots more to go that's for sure. I also just crunched the math and it looks like March 26th, 2012 will be my last day of this project. It seems so far away from now but I'm sure it will creep up quickly.

What I Use

2009-09-10T14:54:00.003-03:00

In my last post I was asked "I'm looking for an Slr but dont know what brand to buy. What kind of camera would change for if you had the chance?". So for todays post I decided to talk a little bit about what camera gear I use and why.

I will be quite honest, even though I am a Canon shooter I think Nikon cameras are awesome too. I also have no idea why I decided to go with Canon, especially since the person that helped me get my camera shoots Nikon. Who knows? The first camera I bought was a Canon Rebel XTi. that thing is a kicker. It worked so well for my first year. It inspired me to photograph everything. I definitely recommend any of the Canon Rebel series to anyone that is just starting out. During my first year I bought a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. Wow. This thing has also been a trooper. It has consistently produced some of my favorite shots in my portfolio. To this day it is on my camera at least 75% of the time. It's a great lens especially for its price.

A year ago I decided it was time to upgrade my camera though. So I bought the Canon 40d with the kit lens (Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6) and the Canon 70-200mm f4 lens. This camera has added so much to my business. I feel like it brought me from hobbiest to photographer. Even though I am not doing this full time yet I still feel like this camera has helped me raise the bar so much in only a year.

So far this year I have photographed 3 weddings and I have felt consistently limited to what I could do because of my lenses. The 70-200mm has been great for ceremony images when I don't want to get to close to the action and also for journalistic photos of the guests when I don't want them knowing I'm photographing them. The 50mm has been awesome at getting those great depth of field, sharp images I love. But I am not always able to get far enough away from my couple to get full frame shots.

Thats why a few weeks ago I purchased the Canon 20mm f2.8 lens. I have used it at a portrait session so far and it is unreal how different it is from my 50mm. I'm so far away from my clients now. Ha ha ha. I'll be posting images from the portrait session this week. I can't wait to go out and use it for my next sessions.

To finally answer my readers question I would love to get the Canon 5d Mk II. This camera is a full frame (40d has a 1.6x crop factor), 21 MP beast. It also has video capabilities and amazing ISO capabilities. I think that will be after next years wedding season though :)

So my gear list is:
Canon 40d
Canon Rebel XTi (backup)
Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM
Canon 50mm f1.8 II
Canon 70-200mm f4L IS USM
Canon 20mm f2.8 USM
Canon 580EX II
ShootSac

A great website to read reviews on gear is Fred Miranda. Hope this answered your question and helps :)

Progress

2009-09-09T20:50:00.002-03:00

The past couple of weeks I have been creating my website and my business design. I haven't been able to get it off my mind specifically the past couple of days. I have learned a lot about SEO (search engine optimization) and about branding your business. If I'm MIA for the next little bit it is because I am working on everything.

Here are some photos taken at the public gardens. Enjoy :)

Melissa & Justin | Wedding

2009-09-07T18:56:00.008-03:00

In winter of 2007 I met with Melissa for the first time. She had contacted me on Facebook about possibly photographing her wedding. At this point I had my camera for 6 months and hadn't even thought about photographing weddings. When we met at Starbucks we hit it off. Melissa and I got along so well and she was just so excited about her wedding and having me be apart of it, how could I say no? We decided that since her wedding wasn't until summer 2009 we would not only do one engagement session, but we would do multiple. In the end we had 3 engagement sessions in all different seasons. They can be viewed here, here and here. At this point Melissa and Justin were used to being in front of my camera and I had gained a lot more confidence about photographing their wedding than I had originally.

Finally the day came and it was perfect. My second shooter Harrison and I went to t-off with the guys at 8:30am, then went to meet the girls while they got their hair and make-up done. The ceremony was beautiful, the Links at Montague was a great location and great vendor and the couple were happy when all was said and done.

Melissa and Justin, thank you so much for having faith in me from the start. You two are no longer my clients but my friends and I am so proud to say I photographed your wedding.

Melissa's gorgeous dress. She got it from the wonderful Dreams Bridal and Floral Boutique.

Melissa getting her make-up done by Naphtali Carleton from Caryl Baker Visage. Her hair was done by Genevieve Pettipas at the Golden Clipper.

Leona is so cute. So full of energy and loved jumping into photos. :)

This beautiful and delicious cake was created by the ever fabulous Jennifer Harrison of Layers Wedding Cakes.

The Links At Montague is a fabulous vendor. Everyone was so nice, the decorations were beautiful, great food and a beautiful golf course. They even let us drive around in golf carts ;)

This little guy did not want to walk down the isle. He was SO cute.

I think this is my favorite. Such a beautiful smile.

The party was pumping because of the DJ from Atmosphere Entertainment.

Click HERE to see the slideshow with more photos!

Ashley | Portraits

2009-08-30T11:51:00.007-03:00

Oh where do I start with Ashley. We have worked together multiple times over the past year and a half. This summer we did an engagement session with her and her fiance Daniel and I am so excited to photograph their wedding next summer. Ashley is the kind of client that turns into more of a friend than a client. As cliche as that may sound it's true. And I think it is why we get such rocking photos. We are so comfortable with each other that the photos aren't awkward. They're completely natural and full of "Ashleyness".

This particular session was set up so that I could bring along a good friend of mine, Quentina. She is starting her own photography business and wants some more experience shooting so Ashley and I set this up for Quentina to second shoot.

Well here are the photos. Enjoy :D

Testing 1..2..3..

2009-08-29T19:46:00.005-03:00

I have started using a program called ShowIt Web to make online slide shows. In order to test this I have created a show from the engagement shoot with Ashley and Daniel last month. I hope this works!!

Update.. After doing some testing looks like the best way for me to do this is to link it to another page online. Click HERE to view the slideshow.

New Lens

2009-08-27T13:51:00.004-03:00

This year I have photographed 3 weddings so far and I have found that I am consistently limited with the lenses that I have. I don't have a quality lens that is wide enough to do group shots and a lot of other shots I want to capture.

This past wedding I had my sister's boyfriend Harrison second shoot with me and he mentioned that he had never been to Henry's. So since he is a soon to be photo student and photography is how he wants to make his living I thought it would be fun to bring him to Henry's to take a look around. Last night while we were at the one in Bayers Lake I was looking at the selection of used Canon gear they had. One of the items happened to be a Canon 20mm f2.8 USM lens. I fell in love. The person working there put it on the Canon 50D (I have the 40D so pretty much the same camera) and let me play around with it. Right there I fell in love. It is super wide and still has good aperture abilities. Not as good as my 50mm but waaaay better than any of my other lenses. I knew this is what I needed to get those photos I had been trying to capture but never quite getting. After talking it over with Matt we both decided it would be a really good investment and if not, they have a 14 day return policy ;)

Needless to say today I bought it and I feel inspired!!! I was kind of in a dull phase for a while where I wasn't that inspired by anything and now it has gone away. I can't wait to get together with some friends this weekend for a portrait session (if hurricane Danny stays away) and again next week for some more portrait sessions.

Lots of photos to come :D Here's my baby!!

MIA

2009-08-21T23:18:00.005-03:00

So I will admit that I haven't been blogging at all and from my 101 in 1001 post I was supposed to be blogging 4 times a week. Lately it has been crazy doing last minute photo sessions, rehearsal dinner and getting everything ready and organized for tomorrow. Tomorrow I finally photograph Melissa and Justin getting married. They originally booked me Jan. 08 and now the day has finally come. I will be sure to post more on Sunday (hopefully some photos from the wedding) but until then this one teaser of Ashley will have to do.

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Do As You Preach

2009-08-14T12:30:00.002-03:00

As many of you readers may already know I tend to reference Jasmine Star a lot in my posts. The reason being is not only is she an amazing photographer and person, she is also one of the smartest business people I know. Well I don't personally know her but you catch my drift. One of the many things she has taught me is that you're clients will book you because they like who you are as a person and that is what will differentiate you from other photographers. If you have read her blog it is witty, funny, and very personal. Whenever I talk to other photographers I always try to emphasize this point. I always remind them that your biggest asset is you. I mean really, you are going to photograph a couple on one of the most important days of their lives (if you are a wedding photographer). This is a huge responsibility and clients will only give this to people they trust and people they connect with.

So here's my point, I need to do what I preach and blog about myself. Something really personal. Something that gives me butterflies knowing that when I push "Publish Post" it will be out in the world of the internet for potentially millions of people to read. Ok give me a break, I know my blog isn't THAT popular ;)

A week ago tomorrow I found out that my grandfather has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. The day started off as a normal start to our weekend. Matt and I had invited his mom, her boyfriend and my parents over to have beer can chicken. The best chicken I have EVER had. Definitely recommend it :) Well the first thing she did was come over and tell me that he has officially been diagnosed with dementia and most likely Alzheimers. At this point I was still cooking and getting everything ready and since we knew he was getting these tests done I didn't really think a lot about it.

The day continued as normal. We ate, chatted, cleaned the dishes, went downtown to meet up with Matt's dad, second cousin and sister, and then came home and went to bed. The following morning, I don't remember who called who but I was talking to my mom on the phone and I had asked about the test results. She said that there were 7 stages of Alzheimers and by going through the symptoms my mom thinks he is in stage 4 already. She continued to tell me the symptoms of each stage and that is when it hit me. This is real. This is actually happening. I asked her how long it would take for him to get to stage 7 and she said they have no way of knowing. It could be 1 year, it could be 5 years. At this point I am crying in bed and Matt is trying to comfort me. My mother is super upset on the other side of the phone too and she is trying to comfort me. How do you help someone feel good after finding this out? How do you look at the bright side?

After I had calmed down I realized there is so much that I don't know about this disease and if I'm going to be positive and help out as much as I can I need to learn what exactly I'm dealing with. So this week I went to Chatpers (yet again for the billionth time in the past few months) and found their section on Alzheimers. I proceeded to look through the books that they have available. Reading the back cover, the first couple of pages, the reviews online. I decided to buy "The Alzheimer's Project: Momentum in Science" by John Hoffman and Susan Froemke and "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova.

I am hoping that after reading these books I will be able to not only understand more about Alzheimers but to be helpful with taking care of my grandfather.

Zsolt Zsigmond | Feature

2009-08-13T11:05:00.006-03:00

I have done one feature before on Jasmine Star, a wedding photographer in California. I have decided I want to do them more often on either photographers or just a topic of photography. So that brings me to todays feature.

Zsolt Zsigmond is a nature and landscape photographer in Hungary. I stumbled upon his photos through a website called DeviantArt. I was absolutely taken aback by how beautiful and breathtaking his photographs are. I have no other words for his work because it really is breathtaking.

Here are some examples.

Sam & Luke | Portraits

2009-08-10T21:09:00.006-03:00

Hanging out with Sam and Luke for an afternoon of taking photos was so much fun. These two are so in love that it just radiates off of them. They like to make funny faces and be goof balls too so we got along great! Hahaha.

Here are the photos from our session.

Unique

2009-08-02T23:34:00.003-03:00

Sometimes I find myself aimlessly surfing the internet. I don't do it often but when I do I always stumble upon something inspiring. Whether it is an artist's profile on DeviantArt.com or an amazing blog or photography website. Sometimes it even leads me to YouTube.com. A friend of mine told me to look up this video and I remembered to do so a couple of days ago. A lot of you may already have seen it but I was completely blown away. Check it out...

It really started me thinking about being unique. About making not only your wedding but your life different. Doing what you want with it and as one of my tattooes says "Be True" to yourself. Matt and I have started to change the way we live and I have never felt better. We have moved to eating foods that have gone through the least amount of processing as possible. I have started going to hot yoga and reading books I normally wouldn't. As corny as it sounds I feel like I have started to broaden my horizons and it is the best feeling in the world.

Just thought I would share that :)

Montreal Trip

2009-07-30T23:54:00.005-03:00

My sister and I have played soccer for the last 10 years and every summer we have always had lots of games and tournaments to go to. I quit playing soccer a few years ago and this is the first summer my sister hasn't played so there has been no traveling for the family. Instead my mom offered to bring the three of us on a shopping trip to Montreal. It was so much fun to spend so much time with my mom and sister. We haven't done something like this in a long time. Here are some photos from our trip :)

All of us together :D Gotta love self portraits.

Saint Paul St in Old Montreal.

This is the restaurant we ate at to celebrate Mom's birthday. Such good spaghetti!!! :D

Window display for the John Lennon and Yoko Ono Bed In for peace.

Mom and Jess :)

There is a piece of the Berlin wall in part of the underground tunnels/shopping mall. Pretty cool to see!

I love street performers!

Have a good Friday!

Just Breathe

2009-07-29T22:39:00.003-03:00

I have done yoga a few times in my life but I had never tried "hot yoga". About a month ago I caught up with a friend of mine and she mentioned that she has taken hot yoga classes before. So this past weekend I decided to go to one with her.

It was at a place called Moksha Yoga in downtown Halifax. On my way there I was really nervous because I had no idea what to expect. I was really amazed by the amount of people that were there. And of course I ended up being the mat beside the instructor. Talk about making sure my posture was proper! lol.

The room was completely silent for the full hour besides the instructors directions. The heat was waaay up there and I have never had a work out like that before in my life. It really was amazing. I got kind of light headed during some of the standing poses so I had to go back into childs pose on the floor but other than that it was great! I used to go to spin classes multiple times a week and I swear I have never sweat as much as I did during this hot yoga class.

I got their complimentary unlimited one week pass so I'm going again tomorrow morning and on Saturday. I definitely recommend it to anyone that is looking to strengthen, tone, relax, sweat, or gain flexibility.

On another note I haven't been posting much in the past week because I was in Montreal for a couple of days with my mom and sister. We took a shopping trip to focus on certain aspects of our wardrobe. I got some comfortable business outfits for when photographing weddings which is exactly what I wanted. Needless to say, there will be some photos coming up in the next few days from our trip.

Happy Wednesday!

MacSween Family | Portraits

2009-07-24T10:17:00.000-03:00

I know Andrea through a friend at work. She actually used to live in the same apartments/condos as Matt and I currently live. We never got a chance to spend much time together but even without spending time together I knew Andrea is an amazing person. She is always so full of love and happiness. So when she asked me to photograph her and 2 of her siblings together I was so excited! Their mom is turning 50 this month and since they don't have any photos together they figured why not get some done and frame one for their mother. I absolutely loved the idea so we set up a date.

Now it has taken me a while to post these just because I didn't want to post them until after they gave their mom the present.

Enjoy the photos anyways :)

Tall Ships

2009-07-23T09:02:00.000-03:00

Last week my good friend Ryan stayed with us for a few days while visiting in Halifax. I mentioned our HDR photo adventure for in this post. We also decided to venture downtown for a few hours on Thursday to see the Tall Ships along the water front. I have seen them before so it wasn't really anything new but I got to try some new photo techniques and we had Beaver Tails!!!!!!!! Yummmmmmmmmmm.

Here are some photos from our Tall Ships Adventure.

There shirts were all in Cows, one of the best ice cream stores ever.

This was on one of the bikes we walked by. I couldn't help myself. lol

101 in 1001 | Update

2009-07-19T01:18:00.004-03:00

I don't have a whole lot to update for my 101 in 1001 list that I previously posted about. But as promised I am posting my first update :)

1. Register my business
2. Launch my website
3. Photograph a bay that is less and 1 week old
4. Brand my business
5. Order my first sample albums
6. Attend WPPI
7. Meet someone inspiring
8. Intern w/ Jamie Delaine or Sarah Barlow
9. Create a canvas print from a vacation in Italy, Las Vegas, and the Caribbean
10. Upgrade to the Canon 5D MK II
11. Take a course/workshop in creative writing
12. Post in my blog 4 times a week (2/143)
13. Go for a shopping trip in Boston
14. Read a photography related book once a month for 6 months
15. Read a business related book once a month
16. Read a book related to a topic of personal interest once a month
17. Paint 3 canvas paintings for our living room
18. Frame 100 photos
19. Take a homeless person out for lunch and learn about their life and their dreams
20. Bottle my own wine
21. Have my photography published
22. Go sky diving
23. Photograph a musician
24. Photograph an artist
25. Photograph a writer
26. Make strawberry & blueberry jam (07/07/09 – strawberry jam)
27. Run a marathon
28. Meet Jasmine Star
29. Take a hot yoga class
30. Photograph at least 5 weddings each year
31. Become a member of Canon Professional Services
32. Learn how to make HDR Photographs
33. Join a craft class/club
34. Do 20 consecutive pushups
35. Do 20 consecutive pull ups
36. Plant a tree
37. Take a photo a day consecutively for 2 months
38. Knit an Afghan blanket
39. Learn how to clean my camera
40. Don't talk for 1 whole day
41. Spend 6 hours blind folded
42. Bake a cheesecake
43. Learn about another religion
44. Host a social networking event
45. Solve a rubik's cube in less than 1 minute
46. Hike for 1 hour naked
47. Make my own candles
48. Make my own jewelry
49. Photograph for a not for profit organization/charity
50. Start a food fight
51. Bike the Cabot Trail
52. Have my own garden
53. Take a ballroom dance class
54. Get a facial
55. Blow glass
56. Actually send out Christmas Cards
57. Have a romantic weekend at a bed & breakfast
58. Get a touch up tattoo
59. Make my own ballpoint pen
60. Keep a journal for 1 year
61. Get another kitten
62. Make a sculpture
63. Learn how to play 1 song on piano
64. Buy a house
65. Coach soccer for a summer
66. Donate blood
67. Donate plasma
68. Bake bread from scratch
69. Spend 1 whole day in bed with Matthew
70. Do some macro photography
71. Organize our storage room
72. Volunteer for charity/non-profit/hospital
73. Get a 6-pack
74. Photograph 1 wedding for free for a deserving couple
75. Write a poem
76. Have Matt teach me to snowboard
77. Complete a 50 photo self portrait project
78. Have professional photos taken of Matt and I
79. Read the Bible
80. Blog a wedding within 12 hours of photographing it
81. Make plans with dad once a month (1/36 – Harry Potter Movie)
82. Quit my job
83. Help a stranger with complete disregard for personal gain
84. Visit Ovens National Park
85. Go on a roller coaster
86. Photograph a hummingbird
87. Learn to french braid my own hair
88. Have a sexy girl party
89. Make corned beef and cabbage
90. Photograph a beach at sunrise
91. Photograph my grandparents
92. Photograph Matt's grandmothers
93. Organize my printed photos
94. Make an photo album of Matt and I
95. Take on a mentee (summer ’09 – Quentina Parsons)
96. Send a balloon with a message in it into the sky
97. Complete 5 cross stitch
98. Decorate my home
99. Have a girls night with all of my close girlfriends
100. Make an official business plan.
101. Tell the people that are important to me that I love them more often

Photos are always good in a photo blog so here is a sneak peak at a session I had last week. I can't actually post it for 2 weeks but I thought I would put out a little teaser :)

HDR Response

2009-07-18T00:52:00.001-03:00

I originally posted a few HDR images in this post. I then received the following comment:

I prefer to see more what my eyes see in photos, to me these look almost fake , cool looking but still not capturing what the person would have seen at that particular moment of the picture being taken..

I just wanted to address this. When looking at a scenery with the human eye we can see any more ranges of light than a camera can. For example, at sunset our eyes can see both the details and colors in the sky and also the details in the landscape portion of the scene. Cameras on the other hand do not have this ability. If you were to expose properly for the sky then the landscape portion of the scene would be completely silhouetted, which is not what our eye would see.

To further demonstrate my point please view the following images.

HDR:

Original 3 photos it was formed from:

None of these photos are edited.

I use a program called Photomatix Pro to actually create the HDR image. It takes all of the best exposures for each part of the image and combines it into one. This "HDR" file is not readable by printers or computer screens so you need to then do what is tone mapping. I don't know a whole lot about tone mapping but it basically changes the HDR file into a JPEG/TIFF file that is viewable on computer screens and printers.

I hope this clarifies any confusion there may have been :) I totally recommend a book I am reading called Complete Guide To High Dynamic Range Digital Photography.

Have a good weekend!

Lindsay & Nathaniel | Portraits

2009-07-17T00:23:00.000-03:00

Lindsay contacted me a few months ago stating that she wanted to get photos done as she was pregnant. She moved back to Halifax with her boyfriend Nathaniel and we setup a session. I haven't seen Lindsay since high school but she hasn't changed. She is still all smiles and the sweetest girl ever. It was my first time meeting Nathaniel. He laughed at my jokes so I definitely think he's a cool guy. Hahaha. I have such lame jokes btw.

We went to Conrads Beach in Dartmouth to take these photos. It was actually my first time going to the beach so far this year and I miss the sand. We had a lot of fun with the sun setting. At one point I asked Lindsay and Nathaniel if there were any particular photos they had a request for and they said that they love my work and that they trust me to take great photos. It definitely wasn't the response I was expecting but it did melt my heart a little bit. My clients are the most amazing clients ever. Even from the beginning they have always had faith in my abilities. I love you guys!!!

Ok, enough with the mushy stuff ;) Here are some photos from our session. I can't wait until Layla is born. She has such loving parents and I think it will be so much to photograph them again.

HDR

2009-07-14T23:53:00.005-03:00

HDR photography is defined my Wikipedia as "high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows."

So basically you take multiple photos of the same scene at different exposures and then combine the photos together so that you get the best exposure for each portion of the website. Or at least that is the best way that I can describe it.

My friend Ryan, who is a photo guru, promised to help me learn how to take HDR photos. He has been in the maritimes on vacation for a little over a week and we got together tonight at Conrads Beach to try the HDR technique. The taking photos part I understood beforehand but processing was the part I had no clue how to do.

This is the result of one of the images I created. More to come soon :)

**Edit** After posting this I went back through some images and found these series of images that I took after I did Ashley and Daniel's engagement session. The HDR image is awesome!!

Paul McCartney Concert

2009-07-12T12:06:00.008-03:00

Last night Matt and I got the chance to go see one of the most amazing musicians of our time in concert. Paul McCartney was absolutely mind blowing. He is 67 and had sooooo much energy on stage, sang like there was no tomorrow and was phenomenal to watch. It was the first concert I have ever been to and I don't think I will ever experience such an inspiring event again. I can't stop saying good things about his concert. He did 3 encores, brought out a Celtic band and had fireworks go off during one of his songs. He played one of my all time favorite songs, Black Bird, and I cried. Yes internet, I cried like one of those crazy fans. Hahaha. One girl had a sign that asked if he would sign her arm so that she could get it tattooed on her. And he did!!! He messed up during one of his songs because the sign distracted him so much and then he brought her up on stage and signed her arm!! I think there was roughly 50,000 people there (according to the paper this morning) and when everyone was singing the same song it was actually moving. Wow is pretty much all I can say at this point without repeating myself. Hahaha.

Here are some photos and videos from our night. I would have uploaded them last night as I got home as my 4th post of the week but we were just too tired and uploading takes a really long time I've found out. Enjoy!

Matthew's Introduction of the Paul McCartney Concert from Christine Newhook on Vimeo.

Let Me Roll It - Paul McCartney from Christine Newhook on Vimeo.

The Long and Winding Road - Paul McCartney from Christine Newhook on Vimeo.

Black Bird - Paul McCartney from Christine Newhook on Vimeo.

Band on the Run - Paul McCartney from Christine Newhook on Vimeo.

Fireworks from Christine Newhook on Vimeo.