Marlene's Designer Portraits

At my desk…

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:20:23 +0000

September 1st – fall really seems to be in the air! I have an outdoor session scheduled for later today and one for tomorrow, but it is threatening rain. I always encourage my clients to book early – because once this time of year comes around – it seems like we run out of days to photograph! I’m looking out my office window and see my Green Ash trees starting to change from green to yellow. Yes – fall is definitely in the air!

So you’re probably wondering why I titled this “At my desk…”. I belong to a Discussion Board dedicated to maternity and newborn photography and we are given ‘assignments’. One of the assignments – ending tonight – is to do a “Self Portrait” that shows our likes or interests. Having left this till the last minute I needed to come up with something quickly. And then it hit me – I do spend so much time in front of my computers!!! So, you see me in this photograph sitting in front of “Toby” – he’s the guy that books my appointments and has my accounting software and all studio forms and policies, etc. He also loves searching the web and assists me in communicating with friends via email and Facebook. Behind me you can see “The Rock”. Now “The Rock” is absolutely amazing – he’s go so much brawn in his little body and he’s quite a work horse! He stores all my client files and only has a few tasks to do. Photoshop and Lightroom are his best friends. I won’t even get started on “New Guy”, “Mac” and “PPAM” – yes – I have 5 computers!!!!!

This is me – today!

How do you choose?

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:59:11 +0000

On August 13th I had Kas, Lorraine, Blake & Kaylee come in for a family portrait session. Kas is my ‘go to’ guy for all things computer related! I’ve been using his services for over a year and couldn’t be happier. Whenever I have a problem I just have to call him and he takes care of it.

I photographed Kas and Lorraine on their 1st wedding anniversary 4 years ago. Since then they’ve come in for portraits when Blake was little and now, since Kaylee has arrived – it was time for a new portrait (and Kas & Lorraine’s 5th wedding anniversary portraits!). Congratulations! I don’t often see couples coming in for their anniversary portraits until they get till their 25th – so it’s wonderful to see you celebrating each year.

Lorraine’s comments, after I showed her the images is “How do you choose? I’d like to have them all!” And now, when I want to post these here – I, too, couldn’t pick just a few – so you’ll be seeing all my favorites.
Enjoy!

Together 50 years

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:34:21 +0000

On June 28th I braved the sodden grass and mosquitoes to photograph the Oswald’s on their yard out in the country. Erwin & Norma and family came into the studio for family portraits on their 25th and again on their 45th wedding anniversary. Now they were celebrating 50th years together and they asked me to photograph their family.

Thank you Norma and Erwin for the opportunity and for your hospitality!

Black Beans and Basmati Rice

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:29:15 +0000

I’m not much of a cook – I used to be – when I was growing up in a family of 7 siblings and my parents. I was the second oldest child, and at age 12 my job was to bake a batch of dinner rolls each Saturday – about 6 dozen at a time! I did other cooking as well but mostly experimental. Over the years I have not enjoyed cooking – there are more exciting things to do! But a couple of years ago I took some Healthy Cooking Classes at the Steinbach Arts Council. At the time, the instructor was Walter Zogar. Walter has written a book and has his own website and believes in and teaches healthy cooking. He opened my eyes to how fun it could be to cook! I came away with a lot of great recipes – but what I learned was how to recognize ingredients well enough to create your own dishes!

Today I was adventurous and didn’t want to heat up the house (it is now 31.8 degrees out there at 6 pm!!!), so I used my rice cooker to cook up some brown basmati rice. I didn’t have a lot of ingredients in the house – but I sliced up some garlic and heated that – added a tin of black beans (rinse well to get off the high amount of sodium content); several squeezes of Mixed Herbs; 1/2 can of whole canned tomatoes and – my secret ingredient – sliced ripe black olives!

Simmering on the stove….

And – ready to eat. Yes – it was just as yummy as it looks!

I have to say that I have learned a lot about cooking from two great friends, who are also great photographers! Inge Skliors and Patty Boge. And yes – I kind of got this idea from Patty’s Brazilian Black Beans (Feijoada).

Photo of the Day

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:14:32 +0000

Last weekend I made a whirlwind trip to Vancouver to see my nephew. He’s been living and working there for about a year and absolutely loves the views in and around Vancouver! He asked me to come out and photograph some of his favorite views for wall decor in his home and office. I arrived noon on Saturday the 14th – but the lighting was not great – so we scouted locations to photograph. By the time the evening sweet light was done, I felt we got some wonderful images, but Steve wanted the Vancouver skyline at dawn. “You do know what time the sun rises, don’t you?” I asked him. “Not sure,” he said, “I’ll check”. He Googled it and announced, “6:04 am.” Seriously?? To quote a good friend “If God wanted us to see the sunrise, he would have scheduled it for 11:00 am!”. We didn’t get to bed till 1:30 in the morning Pacific time (3:30 my time!) and 4 hours later we were up! Couldn’t find a Starbucks or Tim Hortons open at that time of morning. Sad. But seeing this view made it all worth while and this is one of my favorite images!