Awesome Mondays part 4

This time next week we will be shooting at the Chelsey retirement home which is very exciting! This week I'm going to be doing a presentation for Investing in Children After School so I'm sure by when I post the blog for next monday I will have lost of news!

Aileen's daughter happened to be visiting when we were at the Waverlly taking the portraits and I ended up talking more to her instead of Aileen herself as Aileen seemed to be getting on like a house on fire with Shealee, one of our lovely makeup artists. Aileen had been a nurse and the old 'once a nurse, always a nurse' was very visible and I loved capturing her hands for this reason also.

Edna

One of two gentlemen who came just to have their portrait taken, John is originally from england as you can see by his shirt and we had a bit of a joke a round about doing his hair and makeup for him. 

Marj

Another Awesome Monday!

Here is the third installment sharing portraits I took at the Waverlly for the Awesome London project I am doing. This week I had two very humbling experiences around the project that I would like the share with you. A future wedding client was looking at my blog and sent me an email to express his feelings about the project-  'I have a huge respect and appreciation for the elderly community and you for bringing so much happiness into their lives. I just wanted to let you know what a wonderful human being you are, and how much your thoughtfulness touched me.' I was humbled by his email and I'm just so happy I have been able to do this project! The second experience was that I was 'spotted' and the guy hadn't seen my pitch but had been applying since the second round of entries and I gave him some hopefully helpful tips about applying. It's pitch night tonight and Joe Kools from 7pm so come check it out and see what great ideas people in the community have and how you can apply!

So I've already spoken enough at the beginning of this blog so I thought I would let the photos speak for themselves today.

Anna

Chris

Dee Dee

Awesome Mondays

How Awesome is this Monday weather!?! I also managed to get a sleep in which was awesome! Shooting weddings/ organising future awesome shoots/ working my 9-5/ organising spring mini sessions all while fighting off a cold has really taken it out of me this week but being able to share photos and stories like these below makes it all worth it! If you missed last weeks Awesome behind the scenes blog post you can go check it out.
For the next awesome shoot day which is May 6th at Chelsey park I am still looking for makeup artists and hair stylists so if you know of anyone who might be interested in coming along please get them to contact me. Another thing I am thinking about is asking some journalism students to come along to help me record the stories of these seniors as so many of them have had such interesting lives. If this project was to get any more awesome and get turned into a book etc I would love to have someone skilled in writing to come along with us.

The portraits below show the lovely lady, a little about their story that I got to chat to them about and the photo of their hands which is a side project that I am doing.

Klara is originally from Russia, and from what Deanna her makeup artist told me she is currently writing a book about the her amazing life where from Russia she moved to Germany was in concentration camp at the age of 17. She married a man from Poland who was helping the people in the concentration camp with bringing them basic necessities including shoes and came to Canada through Pier 21 in Halifax. She kept saying how extremely thankful she was and felt like everything was given to her and the other immigrants and very lucky, she had one son then 3 daughters who live close to London.

Maia is an artist who told me she especially likes doing drawings of babies and her daughter is an artist as well, she makes jewellery including the necklace Maia is wearing. Sarah the recreation co-ordinator at the Waverlly told me that she was a hippy and has her room beautifully decorated with paintings etc. 

Marion is a lady with a big, bubbly personality who told me that since appearing in the Call Me Maybe video (she the the one that all the boys are chasing after in one part) that people had been literally calling her 'Maybe'. I thought it fitting that she was happy for me to do some bright silver nail polish for her. 

Mothers day special and Spring Mini info

Spring is finally on the way (not that it really looks like it out my window) so here are the details of my Spring Mini Sessions! 

These 30 minute long sessions will take place in Gibbons Park in London and will be styled with vintage props including a couch (below) and teepee set from Found Decor Company

Prices start at $60 for 5 full high resolution images on disc with print release, $90 for 10 images and $120 for 20 images. You can decide what package you would like to go for after seeing the photos.

Can be used for Family, Kids, Newborn, maternity, Pets, Engagement, 'In Love', High school seniors, or for any other portrait session you can think of. 

To book a session please get in contact ASAP. Sunday May 26th will be the main shoot date but if you are not able to make it on that date some varying times will be available May 23rd- 28th. All images will be back in time for you to make prints for Fathers Day.

I guess I'm kind of getting a bit ahead of myself by speaking of Fathers Day, especially as we haven't even had Mothers Day yet! For my special for Mothers Day I am giving a 20% discount off of any gift certificate bought in between now (April 12 2013) and Mothers Day (May 12 2013). Thats a saving of $60 on a 2 hour family shoot! 

Contact me to find out more!

To celebrate to Mothers Day special I thought I would share this shoot I did when I was at home in Australia last November, with Beth and her daughter Ruby. We picked pretty much the windiest day possible to be shooting on the Terrigal peninsula but we managed to still get some cute shots.

Awesome Mondays!

Lets face it, Monday's have a bad wrap. From the time were little kids it's the day that parents leave us to go to work, then we grow a little more and we have to go to school after having had a nice rest over the weekend, and the same thing happens again when we leave school for jobs. I'm going to try and bring a little Awesome to your Mondays. 

Last Monday I started my 'Awesome project' titled 'When was the last time you had your photo taken?' For the residents of Waverly Mansion they are used to having various cameras around, if you haven't already seen their YouTube channel got a lot of hits a few months back when their Call Me Maybe parody went viral. Even though they may be used to cameras being around, most of the ladies (and two men) I photographed said they hadn't had a portrait like this done since they we much younger. 

Today I'm going to start with some behind the scenes shots I took to show you how it all kind of went, in case any other homes or centres in London are interested in being involved they can contact me.

Shealee and Deanna were our wonderful makeup artists who were both wonderful and I'm sure heard some lovely stories from the ladies and I'm going to be sharing a couple of stories with you in coming weeks. Barbara was another volunteer who came along to chat with the seniors and paint some nails. If you are, or know of someone who is interested in volunteering in upcoming shoots please contact me.

I also strongly urge anyone with an awesome idea to do good in the community to apply for an Awesome grant.

And for the unveiling of the first portrait, here is one of the most caring (what I call 'Nanna smiles') smiles around. 

Annie