52 Week Challenge - Week 4

This week's theme is "Winter"

I hate the cold but when it warms up a bit and we get snow, I love the winter!  I especially love it as a photographer...the snow works well at bouncing beautiful light onto people and really makes colour pop.  The Winter is truly a wonderful time to get portraits done if you're willing to brave the cold!

If you would like to play along with the challenge, next week's theme is "sleep"...would love to see what you come up with!

Belly Contest 2012

I had so much fun with last year's contest that I decided to do one again this year.  For something different, this time i'm looking for Bellies.

How to enter the contest:

If you're pregnant (or know someone that is), live in the Ottawa area (or willing to travel to Ottawa) and due before June 2012, email a picture of your belly to me at michelle@barbeau.net and you'll be entered into my contest to win a Free maternity session,  a  Free newborn session and an 8x12" Storyboard that includes one image from each session.  That's two free sessions and a storyboard, an over $400 value...how great is that?!    For more info about Maternity and Newborn sessions, please visit my website

Important Notes:

• The picture must be taken by you or a person in your household and you (or the person that took the picture) must agree to have it posted on my blog.   By emailing me the picture, you're accepting these terms and that the picture is okay to be posted on my blog for this contest.  No professional photos please.  
• Only one entry per household
• Pregnant Bellies only...thought I would put that in there because I know a few guys that would think it's funny to send me a picture of their beer bellies!  :)

I will be accepting entries until February 10th then on February 13th will post the entries on my blog.   Visitors to my blog will then vote on their favorite picture and the photo with the most votes wins.   

Easy eh?

So, go get your camera and have some fun.  Take a picture of yourself in the mirror or get your spouse or kids to take a picture of you.  Feel free to decorate, paint or anything else you would like to do to your belly.  Don't like your picture taken then leave your head out and get a belly only shot.  Get Creative!

Can't wait to see all the entries!

Here's an example of a storyboard

Michelle
xxoo

52 Week Challenge - Week 3

This weeks theme is "Breakfast"

Breakfast was pretty boring this week. I usually have cereal during the week because it's really fast and i have to get the kids out of the house for 7:30am (i'm not a morning person!). My husband usually cooks a fancy breakfast on the weekend but he was away on a work retreat...i did make pancakes but the kids ate them faster than i could take pictures of them! :)

on another note: I've noticed that when i've been in western Canada and also in Arizona that you can only buy milk in jugs and cartons in the store. Is Ontario the only place that sells their milk in bags? 

If anyone would like to play along with the weekly challenge, next week's theme is Winter...would love to see what you come up with!

Favourites of 2011

I want to Thank all my clients for making 2011 a fantastic year!  I feel so honoured to of met you and have you trust me with freezing a special moment in time for you!

I thought I would share my favourite photos of 2011... I had such a hard time narrowing it down that I decided to do it in 4 categories!  :)

Newborns

Children

Families

and Couples

I'm looking forward to all of you that I will meeting this year!

52 week project - week 2

This week's them is "Cold" which is really appropriate because we're in the middle of a cold snap here in Ottawa!

It's seems like the most beautiful, sunny days around here are the coldest.  You wake up to the gorgeous sun, get bundled up to go outside and think...what a great day, then it hits you!  The wind chill!!  The cold isn't so bad if you have on your winter gear but there's no escaping the dreaded wind chill.  For this weeks picture, we were taking the dog out for a super quick walk and found some shelter under a big tree to escape the wind.  It was -17C outside but with the wind chill it felt like -27C (about -17F).  This past weekend, there was a frost bite warning which pretty much means that you better cover up any exposed skin when you're outside or it's going to freeze.

As i'm sitting here typing this, the current temperature is -33C with the windchill....brrrr!  It sounds like it's going to warm up tomorrow thank goodness but unfortunately we're supposed to be getting ice rain and a huge dump of snow.

My Turn in Front of the Camera

I've been wanting to get some family pictures done for awhile now.  I've tried to do the camera on a tripod with a remote thing but I just couldn't get the type of candid pictures that i love....natural pictures that show our personalities and the connections between us!

While we were in Arizona visiting my parents for the holidays,  Jill Candland (you may remember the feature I did on her last year) was kind enough to do a family shoot for us.   I met Jill through an online photography course I took a couple of years ago and she's such a sweet and amazing woman!  It was so much fun to see her in action...check out the family picture of us with the cactus, she was laying flat on the ground full of rocks.

She posted some of the pictures here and here if you would like to check them out.

Thanks so much Jill...these pictures will definitely be cherished and I can't wait to get some of them printed out and put on our walls!

Happy New Year!

I had a great and relaxing holiday season and am now trying to get caught up on my blog.  I just thought i would pop in for a bit to share a project that i'm working on this year.  It's a 52 week project that i'm doing with a group of other photographers and will be posting my picture every monday (and will hopefully have links to the other photographer's photos when we figure out how to set it up :)).  I usually do a picture a day project which you can see at http://mbarbeau365.blogspot.com/
 (i'm a little behind updating it but hope to catch up this week).  I've found the picture a day too time consuming so this year i'm doing a few projects instead....the 52 week project which i'll share on this blog and an alphabet and a "glimpses project" which i'll share on my picture a day blog.  Now that i think of it, i may even be busier with 3 projects rather than 1!  :)

Here is this weeks theme "Newness":

We spent our holidays in Arizona this year (quite a change from our usual snowy Christmas) and everyone assumed my daughter was a teenager so she ordered from the adult menu in the restaurants.  She's still 12 but has grown a lot in the past year.  I'm with her all the time so don't notice it as much so it was strange to see her through other people's eyes.  I think this year is going to be interesting as we enter into a new stage of life as parents of a teenager.