Hello! I’ve been M.I.A. for a bit. I just got back from my trip to Paris last week! I will blog about my adventures in the next post. In the meantime, feast your eyes on this Summer Vintage Picnic theme for Ilinca‘s portraits. I’ve teamed up with Stacked Events to properly execute this theme. I was overwhelmed with what Aaron and Jenny from Stacked put together for this shoot! Last time I worked with them was at the vintage shoot for Noah and Sophia. This shoot was taken in Brampton at Chinguacousy Park. That park has everything! Well it had a greenhouse garden, a red barn, a petting zoo, and a park. Anyway, enjoy!

Happy Wednesday!

P.S. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows Part 2 comes out tomorrow midnight!

I don’t know what it is, but it seems like everyone is having babies this month! I know, at most, three soon-to-be-mothers who will be giving birth or already gave birth this month. I was excited when Hannah messaged me to take her maternity portraits. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her. The last time I saw her she didn’t have a baby bump! This was the first time I actually visited her house, and I already love what she’s done to it! Hannah and Mark are so sweet and perfect together. I remember going to Blue Mountain with her and a few others. I know I had a great time because, until now, all I remember was laughing the whole trip! I can’t wait until I meet their little one.

Some of the clients I’ve worked with come to their photo session with little or no experience. And that’s okay! Whether you want your portraits captured or just want some photos to give to your parents, other half, friends, or to keep for yourself you don’t need modeling experience because I, as the photographer, will help you warm up to the camera and will capture your different sides of personality. It’s going to be a fun experience! Don’t tell me you’ve never watched America’s Next Top Model. I’m sure you’ve taken photos with your friends, so you obviously know how to pose in front of the camera. Who doesn’t love photos?

I shot a portrait session about two weeks ago and she tells me she has no experience in front of the camera but only watched her friend in a photoshoot. I tell her, “don’t worry, it’s okay“, I had no doubts because she’s gorgeous and easy going. I usually hang around when my clients are getting their makeup and hair done. This is a way for me to get to know them and observe them (not in a creepy way, lol). I love the make up artists that I work with because they make my clients feel comfortable and fabulous. From the beginning of their conversation, that’s when I get to work. I will take “behind the scenes” shots, well that’s what I tell my clients when they’re getting makeup and hair done, but really I’m looking for angles, smiles, characteristics, and behaviour from my clients. Sometimes I would joke around with them and get really close and tell them I’m taking photos of their pores because my camera can capture it. Lol. But anyway, the beginning of the actual shoot where I actually take their photos, I would have a chat with them and have a conversation while I take their photos. So I can capture their candid moments. In the middle of the shoot I don’t even need to direct because most of my clients have already warmed up in front of the camera.

A.G. was the client I photographed two weeks ago. She was the one who told me she had no experience. When I started taking her photos, she was definitely NOT inexperienced. She was a natural. I asked her again, “are you sure you haven’t done this before?“, with raised eyebrows. I just continued shooting.

Oh yes! To see what I’m talking about, here is her set from the photo session. She is a doll!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

P.S. Have you tried bootcamp? I did it yesterday and I am definitely feeling sore, yes I’m a big baby! BUT, hopefully this will help me to easily lug my gear around, now that wedding season is around the corner.

A lil’ update for you, my lovely readers. The weather is definitely getting warm and wet, might I add. Spring is definitely around the corner and since we’re going to have daylight savings time this Sunday we’re going to “spring forward” by one hour. I’m just getting into the groove for the coming season. I’ve recently shot a wedding last month, you can check it out here if you haven’t already. I’ve also shot a Christening the last weekend of February so check back for that, adorable twins! Next month, I’m going to see how much Kiara has grown!

If you’re waiting for what the title of this post is about, here it is.

Helios 40-2 85mm f/1.5 M42 MC Lens

Don’t worry, the lens itself is not scratched up, it’s just the filter applied when I took it with Instagram.

An old Russian lens. It’s actually belongs to a friend of mine. When I saw it I was like “what is that strange contraption you got on your camera?”. Because all I saw was this big silver tube with screws! Of course, I asked if I could give it a try. A manual lens. It has three rings: focus, aperture, and “open/close”. The open/close feature ties in with the exposure. Anyway, I was playing around with it and took a photo of my comrade (yeah he’s Russian), Mikhail. He tells me stories about Russia and how they drink Vodka as water! Well, mainly because vodka there is cheaper and almost the same price as pop.

Pretty cool huh? Its an 85mm lens and I could get closer to my subject than the Canon 85mm f1.2.

Oh! And I’m also going to do a little bit of update on my blogsites

Have a great weekend!

Louise is a gorgeous sweet girl! I also love her name! It was actually on my list of baby names when I get one in a few years… Lol. When I met Louise I thought she was mixed with French or something foreign. I was wrong. She’s Chinese! Full. I had fun photographing her, and she did too because she did a mini dance at the end! We were definitely laughing at the end.

Enjoy!

LOVE her smile!

P.S. Anyone tried chocolate rice porridge? Mmmm-mmm good!

Youtube Beauty Guru, Rose Russo. You should check out her Youtube channel Rosebud143 and R0SERUSS0. I finally got around to posting the full set of photos. I’m usually good at posting it the same week. I guess I got occupied shooting 4 portrait sessions, one after another. Anyway, you should definitely check out her very own eyeshadow palette at Chickaboom. She’s not only beauty smart but she’s also talented! She plays the piano by ear. You can see what I mean here and here.

This photoshoot took place at her house. We also planned to bake cookies after the shoot but we got caught up taking photos that it slipped our minds.

Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a great start to their new year! This month I did a photo session with Rose Russo, we go way back. We’ve been friends since high school. She’s still the same sweetie pie that she was back then, and she shares that with the world now, if you know what I mean

Enjoy! Make sure to check back for the full post with MORE photos from the session

Yesterday, I had a photo session with Christine. I took some portraits of her and some fashion portraits as well. It’s getting pretty chilly here in Toronto, hence the choice of clothing; long sleeves. Here are my faves from the set:

I received a love-ly letter