I was the winner of a draw  for a free photo session & a 12″ framed portrait @ Marlene’s studio.  This came at a perfect timing, as we have just adopted a baby and wanted to take family pictures!  Thank you Marlene for a wonderful job!!  Great Pictures!! Erika, Marlin & Justin Penner  Steinbach, Manitoba

On Tuesday, October 25th, I had the pleasure of speaking to about 30 moms at the local MOPS group.  (MOPS – Mothers of Preschoolers)    I touched a bit on “Tips to Shoot Like a Pro” – but mostly I spoke on the legacy of photographs.   How often is the Mom the photographer in the family – and rarely on family photos?   Make sure you have photographs of you in the photos – your children will appreciate and value that in years to come.   I also stressed the importance of backing up your digital files.  In this era of digital cameras – I have heard from quite a few people that their computer crashed and ALL their photos were gone!   So I hope I made it clear to everyone that they need to PRINT up their favorite photos – you will always have a memory and you can always scan the snapshots and make more prints – but if you just keep them on your flash card, or memory stick – be prepared for your photos not to be permanent!    It frightens me how there will probably be huge gaps in your children’s ‘history’.  There are too many people that take thousands of photos and never back them up or store them off site for safekeeping.  There are many photographers who hand over a CD of images these days – but my question is, do they keep a copy for themselves if the CD the client purchased can’t be accessed one day – or if it is lost and or damaged.  If you get a CD – make a duplicate – store it on an external drive – have multiple copies!!!!   I always look back through the photos that were taken when I was growing up – and it is these photos that stir my memories of my childhood.  I am such a visual person that I need a photo to trigger my memory.  If I wouldn’t have these photos, much of my childhood would be lost.

Okay – enough of my little story… here are the lovely portraits taken of Erika and her family…

Isn’t this next image just adorable?   Children have a mind of their own – and they often dictate the way the session is going!   Justin wanted to explore and be independent as many young children his age tend to be!

Christine, Todd, Taylor, Zachary, Josh Sheppard Calgary, Alberta

I was so pleased to get a call from Christine earlier this year.  Once again the family was coming to Manitoba to visit family and they wanted to have an update on their family portrait!   We booked a date for a Friday evening, and with our beautiful summer weather – we lucked out and the session happened!  I laughed when Christine said that on the drive to the studio the kids asked, “Mom, do you think Marlene will remember us?” Yes, of course I remembered them – they have matured a lot since the previous portrait and were so easy and fun to photograph!  After the session, Christine and Todd wrote some wonderful comments which I’m so happy to share here…

“We’ve been coming to Marlene’s for portraits even before we were married.  She’s photographed our wedding and all three of our children as they grew up.  Despite the fact that we live in Calgary, we would never go anywhere else for our family portraits!  She’s fabulous!!”  Chris Sheppard

“Marlene has been taking photos of our family for nearly twenty years.  I first became aware of her work when I saw the wedding photos of a university classmate.  As soon as I saw those photos, I knew that she had a unique gift for composition and photographic excellence.  Since then, all our sessions have produced works of art that we treasure as a visual history of our growing and changing family.  Her beautiful portraits capture a moment of our lives that we can display in our home and look back on with pride.”  Todd Sheppard

Here is the family in 2011…

and in 2005…

I’m looking forward to our next portrait session…  

“We’re completely impressed by Marlene’s artistic work!   Our photo session was fun and relaxed.  Thanks for redeeming the infamous ‘family photo’ shot.  We’d definitely come again.” Robert & Sina Bateman and girls, Steinbach, Manitoba

I met Sina in early May when she came into the studio for a pre-session consult.  She definitely knew what she liked and didn’t like.  I love clients like this.   I had a clear idea of what I was going to do when they came in and I found  photographing them was so easy.  But I should say that all my clients that come in for a pre-session meeting get a chance to know me as well – and that makes for an easy session!

Here are some of our favorite images from that session…

And then I wanted to try a family on my new copper tiles and we were all pleased with the results.

Such a beautiful family!  Thank you.

“I chose to have Marlene photograph my family because I have friends who have taken pics here and they look amazing!   Marlene made us feel completely at ease and I have to say that the portrait experience was just awesome.   I love our portraits because they capture our family – they look natural and very much us!” Tracey, Cody & Denver Braithwaite, Grunthal, Manitoba

Families are so precious.  And having beautiful artwork on your walls to show how close your family is, is priceless.   When Tracey called a short while ago she wanted to have a family portrait taken quite quickly.   I asked her what was most important to her about these photographs.  She told me that she had recently lost both her father and mother (I believe within a 6 month period) and she wanted to show her boys how important family is and to display these on her wall, for them to see and be reminded that they are the most important thing to her.   She was also going to be moving out of province as soon as school ended, and that was the urgency.  Cody had recently broken his leg and was in a cast, but that didn’t stop us!    Denver was a little imp and kept hamming it up for the camera.  I love the emotion and closeness I see here.   More portraits from the session…

Thank you, Tracey, for trusting me to create some artwork for your little family.  Good luck in the future!

“I have been thinking about this testimonial for quite some time.  I have wondered how to word all the emotions I have experienced over this photo since I first saw it.  I am going to do my best here! My fear it is that you will not know how meaningful this photo is for me…..  but I will try! This past summer we asked Marlene to make the trip to my parent’s cottage to take a family portrait  and have her take everyone’s individual family photo.  Brian and I chose to have our family photo by the dock.  We wanted her to make sure the boat was in the photo as well.  The dock area for us is where we spend time with our boys when we are there –  laughing and just relaxing!  We spend many hours on the boat with them.  All we wanted was for her to capture this as a memory for my parents.  What we ended up with was far more!  We ended up with an incredible photo that as I pass it in my house I stop and take it all in again and again.  I am reminded daily of all our memories and the beauty of cottage life.  When we are out and about people stop us to say what an incredible job Marlene did on our photo.  Marlene, you made our day so easy!  You made my boys laugh as you took the photos.  Thank you for the time you took with us. Before Christmas we had Bailey’s hockey team here.  I cannot even tell you how many people just love the picture.  You do incredible work, thank you, thank you , thank you.”  Lara, Brian, Bailey & Gabe Funk  Steinbach, Manitoba

Marie, David and Lara came by this summer to talk about family portraits.  The last time I had photographed the entire Klassen family was in September 2002 in their back yard.  This time they wanted something different.  They asked if I would drive out to their cottage?  Of course!   David brought a CD of photos taken at their cottage and I could see that it would work beautifully to photograph in and around the area.   We set the date for the 21st of August, knowing that we had some time if the weather didn’t co-operate; which seems to happen frequently when outdoor portraits are planned!   But we had a beautiful day!

Once I arrived I checked out the various areas and decided to photograph everyone in different areas to make use of the variety of locations.   We started off with Brian and Lara and the boys at the boat house.

Next David and Tara and little Anika, who adored throwing pebbles into the water.  The weather was hot and the water pleasant.  Then I took Darren and Melanie into the wooded area and saw a colorful stack of freshly cut logs and I knew I wanted to use that area and after that we walked over to another clearing by the lake.   Next came the photos of Tanya and Maya on the deck.  Grandma and Grandpa and the kids came next and by that point little Anika had almost had enough!   But once we found out what Anika wanted (to hold a little tube of lip gloss), we were able to photograph the family on a rocky area that was large enough for everyone – a perfect location!  We ended with Leonard and Marie at one of their favorite rocks.   Because of the forest fires happening in BC at the same time – there was smoke in the area which gave this spot a beautiful glow.

A perfect ending to a great session.   Thank you to all who made it so enjoyable!  And thanks Lara for those wonderful comments!