Desmond is a photographer from Brandon, MB. He is originally from South Africa – I love his accent! He joined the Professional Photographers of Canada-Manitoba a few years ago and that is when I met him for the first time. My good friend, Inge Skliros introduced me to Desmond. Desmond is a great photographer and when he asked me to photograph maternity portraits of him and his wife, Rebecca and son Tobias, I was so pleased! Inge photographed Desmond and Rebecca when they were expecting Tobias and did a fabulous job.
Originally Desmond booked a session at my studio, but due to unforeseen circumstances, and the Open House that he and his wife had on Friday, March 27th, featuring some of his outstanding African images – I called him to ask if it would be more suitable for me to head out to Brandon. I told him I was starting to photograph in client’s homes and would he be interested in that option? He thought it was a great idea and I headed out to Brandon for some business and pleasure. I did attend his Open House event (I’ll be posting a few images from that soon) – and the next day I headed back to his home and was introduced to Tobias for the first time (well, I had met Toby before – but he was too little to remember me!).
Before I had been there a minute, I was down on the floor with Toby and we were playing with his cars (the two he doesn’t seem to ever part with I’m told!). But before the beautiful window light started to fade, we went to work! I started off photographing in their light and airy front porch.
We then went to the second story and I saw this beautiful window light and knew I had to use that area as well. I love this series of images…
I love it when children want to ‘kiss the baby’ – little Tobias had to stand on his tippy-toes to reach the baby! 
After that, we went to the third story and did some photographs on Desmond and Rebecca’s bedroom. By this point Toby had decided that he didn’t really want to be there…but we did get some great shots of him on the bed…
Tobias decided to go watch “Barney” on TV and I then photographed just Desmond and Rebecca. I love this series of images!
Awwww – just so moving (and yes – the baby was letting us know that he (or she) knew what we were doing! ….
We then went downstairs into their living room and at this point there was very little window light – but I used the spotlights on the ceiling as well as the dining room lights to light these images. Rebecca is such a beautiful, pregnant woman – I love the lines of her neck on this image!
Isn’t this series of images just priceless? There is always a point where a young child has just had enough – and Toby was in and out of the photographs. I think that these show how busy a young child can be and I know that Desmond and Rebecca will be loving these images for a long time!
This is another of my favs…
Then Desmond asked me to do a few photos of just him for business purposes. I photographed him beside one of my favorite African images that he has on display (and for sale).
While I was photographing Desmond in the dining room, Tobias kept turning the overhead light on and off and when I turned my camera on him he had this cute look on his face (at least, I think it’s a cute look!)… The light switch is lower than most and he can easily reach it!
We went back to the front porch and Toby followed us. I just had to do another photo of father and son.
These are perhaps my favorite images that I took of Desmond…
And that was the end of the session. I want to thank Desmond, Rebecca (and Tobias) for welcoming me into their home and capturing this special time of their life in photographs they will look at for years to come. Thank YOU!
This last image is my absolute FAVORITE from the entire session. It was one of the first photos I took … but I like to leave “the best for the last”. Don’t you agree???
Till next time!
by admin
4 comments