Joy to all around the world!

Another year gone by and we are humbled and grateful for all the joy that we have shared with our customers. We greatly appreciate our wonderful customers here in BC who come from near and afar to visit us and have us take portraits of their children. Our baby photography is in family homes in Burnaby, Richmond, Maple Ridge, Mission, Abbotsford, Surrey (and White Rock), Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, North Vancouver and West Vancouver, Delta etc. (I hope I haven't left anyone out!) Oh, and we want to thank all our customers from the interior: Kamploops, Vernon, Kelowna, 100 Mile House, Prince George and all over BC. Plus all the families on Vancouver Island too... we thank you and wish you all a wonderful holiday.

We also really appreciate our customers from around the world that happen upon us while touring around Granville Island and The Kids Market. We have sent portraits to places as far away as Tanzania, north to Sweden, south to Australia, west to Hawaii, and east to Japan! No matter what the language, laughter is universal and sounds the same from all babies and children. It is also my privilege to have learned how to say “thank you” & “so cute” in many languages.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season with family and friends.

Yikes, the last day to mail out Christmas cards is Dec. 18th! Time to “cheat” with ecards and online custom cards!

I’ve got to get going on this. I used to make my cards by cutting out paper, stamps, ink, and embossing powders and gun.

Now, I’ve become addicted to digital card making and scrap booking. I still like working with paper (and I’ve got a few craft towers of stuff that I promise to use up!) but the ease of the digital option is inviting too. And hey, all my images are digital! For the really serious folks, check out Scrapbook.com (then click on superstore - this is where they keep all the digital goodies!) The really neat thing is that they also have ebooks that you can download for “how-to’s” and a big book of quotes too.

For the time strapped, (that would be me!) I find that I can create some nice cards over at Snapfish, Kodak (they carry card designs by Martha Stewart!), etc... but the one company that specializes in ecards is Blue Mountain. They have some great ecards and Create and Print cards too. These are cards that you design and customize and then print them yourself... it really saves on the time as there is no waiting for an order to come from somewhere. You can even print up wine bottle sleeves to dress them up for gifting. Check it out here: BlueMountain.com (note click on Create & Print for the projects)

Have fun clicking!

While I had a few moments at the Portrait Studio, I discovered online shopping with The Hudson’s Bay & Sears!

In the past, I’ve shopped for books and CDs online, but now I can even get things from the Bay and Sears. For some reason, I just always thought I had to go to the mall and shop in person at these stores! The clothing selection isn’t as vast as shopping in person, but there is a “sales” and “clearance” section. Oh joy!

I usually shop at the big department stores for my hard to buy for and older family members – just a habit, I suppose. I like their hassle free return policies and the fact that if they do exchange the gift, there are lots of other options to suit their needs and wants.

Anyways, back to shopping at the Bay & Sears (online!!!)

Photography Tips for the Holidays: Avoiding Red Eye, Get Closer, and Making Prints

We all bring out our cameras during the holidays… getting together with family and friends is one of the most enjoyable things to do this time of the year. Be sure to capture these times with some great and candid photos of everyone. Here are a few tips to help create better photos:

1. Avoiding red eye in children: Red eye is caused when people look at the flash, the light from the flash hits your retina, which is red from the blood vessels. Now, it is easy to tell adults to not look at the flash… for children, try holding up a small stuffed animal just above the lens or just off to the side (but not too much off to the side) and tell them to look at the toy instead.

2. Get closer for better composition. When taking a group photo, the closer, the better. Try to arrange people into a pyramid formation and get everyone in nice and close. One of the best times to get a group photo is just before dinner is served.

3. If you are using a digital camera, remember to shoot at a medium file size if you would like to print any of the images. Using too small of a file size will result in grainy pictures when you go to print them. You can always easily resize the images to be smaller for emailing or posting to websites.

Now, what to do with all those great and candid photos? Store them for free on any of the many great photo storage sites available:

Photoworks.com

Snapfish by HP

Special Offers from KodakGallery.com

-