Natasha & Mike - 6.7.8

Hey Natasha & Mike, Congratulations!! What a fun day we had, the weather was perfect, after a miserable day leading up to the wedding we were all a little worried about rain but it was "picture" perfect on Saturday, here are just a couple of photos for you guys, I can't wait to show you guys the rest.








I also had to share this last photo... You could tell there was a very proud father in the house as well, Natasha's dad was busy snapping photos all morning while everyone was getting ready... she's beautiful dad.

Can you see a difference??

Just a warning to those PC lovers out there you may not want to read this post :-)

Okay so as I posted the other day I just got a new 24" iMac and never really thought about the packaging that much until yesterday. Anita came home with a new PC system that she got for work, had to be for her work, I wouldn't of allowed in the house otherwise :-) Like I said I never thought about packaging that much until I opened up this system for her to to set it up. Here's a photo of what I saw when I opened the box containing the install DVD's and mouse etc for her work system...



I just burst out laughing when I opened this box. You might wonder why, well here's what you get when you open the same content boxed by Apple...




(I didn't take these shots I found them online, I didn't know I was going to blog this.)

So can you see the difference?? And this is just the start of the whole Apple experience.

Who says size doesn't matter?

So yesterday I broke down... well okay it wasn't much of a break down... I just went out and got my computer. I had been wanting one for a while and here it is....



24" inch screen and 4 Gigs of RAM, what a joy to work on. I was never a big believer in any brand of computer in the past but I have to say, going to Apple is one of the best moves I could of ever made, once you go Mac you'll never go back!

Let's take a walk...

I'd love to say I walked this, but honestly... I don't think you could get me on this path.

Had to pass this along...

I saw this on several blogs today ( Dane Sanders, Trevor Brucki & Jeremy Dueck). When I saw it I thought yeah I gotta share this as well...

What a friend!!!

So last night we had Trevor & Lois down for supper (Trevor Brucki Photography), they brought desert, which at first seemed like a really nice gesture until I saw the cake they brought...



You can see his full post here.

With friends like this you really don't need enemies:-) It was great having you guys over here last night, and thanks for the desert!!

Finally!!!

Well if you're reading this and have been here before then you'll know that the entire blog has changed. I've been thinking of doing something different for a while now and this afternoon was a great day to sit down and do some serious work on the blog. There are more changes coming in the near future as well... on the main website. Hope everyone likes this new look ... email me and let me know what you think.

Alyssa's "Formal" Grad Shoot

So we did these shots last night... I"m not sure if this felt more like a grad shoot or a model shoot for a top fashion magazine... Alyssa you were amazing to photograph. I think we did "just one last shot" about 20 different times, I couldn't stop shooting. You're going to love the rest of the shots we got, but for now here are a few shots for you. Congratulations on your up coming graduation.

Chelsea - Round 2

As you saw yesterday I did the casual photos of Chelsea last night, well tonight I had the pleasure of doing the "formal" photos. I use the word formal loosely as most of the shots aren't really that formal, but Chelsea is wearing a beautiful formal gown.
Once again I had such a hard time picking which images to put up here ... too many to choose from and everyone of them amazing. Here are a couple. Congratulations on your upcoming grad Chelsea.

Chelsea - Grad 2008

I did a shoot this evening for Chelsea who is graduating in just over a month. Today was part 1 of 2 photo shoots, we did the casual shots today and will be doing the formal grad dress shots tomorrow evening, looking at the time I guess the shots will actually be done tonight :) Here are just a few of the many shots that we got, I always have such a hard time picking just 3 or 4 shots to put up on here... I'd like to post all of them because every shot rocked!!!




This shot was taken in an alley way that I have walked past many times when I've gone out for a walk with my family and every time I walked by it I'd stop and say to myself that I had to use it in a photo sometime. The only problem was that at the other end was a grocery store and cars and a church, but I thought I'd give it a shot tonight... am I ever glad I did.

Alyssa Groening - Grad 08

I know we're only about half done your shoot Alyssa but I know you were pretty anxious to see some photos so here are a couple of shots for you. I had a hard time picking just these shots, there are so many amazing photos. Hope you like them and can't wait to do the formal grad gown shots with you as well. Enjoy!!!

Kelly & Chuck

Hey guys I'm hoping you are having a wonderful time on your honeymoon. Thought I'd put up a few of your photos to "tease" you guys while you're gone, I can't wait to show you guys the rest.







This last shot was captured during the ceremony as the family gathered around the couple in a prayer for them, Chuck and his grandmother have a wonderful relationship. Being that she was in a wheel chair she could not stand around them but offered him her hand instead.

The Making of a photograph

So Sunday evening I went out with a couple of friends, Jeremy Dueck, Patty Boge, and Alex Morrison, and had some fun just playing around with our cameras. One of the locations we went to was the Graffiti Gallery on Higgins Ave. It's a super cool location and you immediately get drawn in by all the great art that's on the walls... it's amazing work. Here is a shot of one small section, it's rather unimpressive, with a weird color of light coming from the street lights.



So how do you make this graffiti "pop" and make it look amazing, well we started painting ourselves. Okay not with paint, I can't paint like this but with light is another story. We took out some spot lights and while we were making the 30 second long exposure ran into the photograph and started "painting" the graffiti with light. We don't show up in the photograph because of the long exposure, as long as we keep moving we don't register in one spot long enough to be visible, you kind of become a ghost. Only one problem 30 seconds wasn't long enough to "paint" all the graffiti in one shot, so we had to do it in 3 shots...





This is where we go into Photoshop and start "building" the image. We layered all 3 images together and selectively added only the parts that were "painted" with light to build the image with all the graffiti lit up. Then add your own recipe of Photoshop filters/actions to give it that extra pop and you end up with this shot.



It's great to go out and play like this sometimes to reenergize yourself creatively.

Shy little Bobby

I had the privilege of being able to photograph Bobby this afternoon. She tried being all shy when she came in with her Mom but that didn't last too long, she was a little natural in front of the camera and she had all the different looks covered from princess to 'gangsta' Thanks for coming out today Bobby, I can't wait to photograph you again.

Still storming

We never made it to Minneapolis last night, the roads were horrible so we found a hotel close to the Albertville Outlet shops, so don't worry we're still gonna be shopping and hopefully making it Minneapolis later today.

Yuck!!!

We are on our way down to Minneapolis right now and it's like the middle of January out here only worse because it's the middle of April. Oh well better here than at home I guess.
-
Steve Hiebert
Personal Expressions Photography
Website: www.personalexpressions.ca
Blog: www.personalexpressionsphotography.blogspot.com

--sent from blackberry mobile device--

Minneapolis

We're heading out of town for a couple of days to do some shopping... well my wife is, I'm along for the ride :) Talk to you all when we get back.

Lightning Legs Janae

I photographed Janae this morning, she came down to the studio with her Mom and brother Jordan, whom I had photographed a little while back. As the shoot was going on her brother Jordan who is 2 was getting restless so Mom took him outside for a little walk. Janae and I did a bunch more shots, being 5, going on 20 she carried on quite a conversation with me, it was really cute. After we were done the shoot and we were waiting for her Mom and brother to return she was telling me about her birthday which was only "30 sleeps" away and that she was pretty excited about it, then she went on to tell me that "My Dad calls me lightning legs because I'm faster than my Mom, my Dad AND my brother." It was priceless... what a cutie... Happy Birthday Janae.

Wake up call

For those of you that don't know, today is my birthday, so anyone that hasn't bought me a gift yet still has time to go out and get one today :) Okay only kidding. I got a particularly cute wake up call this morning... I was still in bed and Kai came running into the bedroom yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!!" and then stood there with a huge grin on her face being all proud of what she had just done... how could I get upset, even though it was around 7:30, oh well maybe next year I'll get to sleep in :)

We had 'SNOW' much fun...

Last night we where hit by a freak snow storm that lasted about 15 mins ... it was beautiful despite the fact that I really don't want any more snow right now. After it stopped snowing Kai and I decided to outside for a little "walk" and well I couldn't resist letting her loose to play in the water on the edge of street. You can almost hear her laughing on the last photo... she had a blast and I, Dad had a blast watching her. It's crazy how the world changes when you look at it through the eyes of a 2 year old, things become a lot more fun.