A Yearly Tradition

October 10, 2019

Over the past #15years we have had the honour and pleasure of photographing many, many people in our community. One of our biggest thrills is our repeat clients - seeing families grow, watching kids grow up and documenting the evolution of our clients. And while we have many examples of doing multiple sessions for folks (and plan on documenting a lot of them through this #locpstories process), it’s only fitting that we show here the kids that set the record for the most sessions with us as a #TBT...

The first session was booked by Mom with specific directions....well, one direction, actually. She wanted to do photos of her two girls on a white background. Simple enough! The first session was booked on a PA day in November. Little did we know at that point that we would see them every year thereafter for a total of eleven sessions!

Of course, being “a creative”, I tried for a few years to offer different colour backgrounds...variety is the spice of life, no? Well, after a while I gave up on trying to offer a different look and just focused on the white. And something interesting happened that is now really only visible with hindsight....

The variety was achieved by capturing the girls at the age that they were in November of every year. We watched them grow from very young children to high school age kids. We saw each of their personalities change and shift and grow; we saw the years that they were full of confidence, and saw the times that maybe they weren’t so comfortable in their own skin. Looking through these photos now with the benefit of hindsight, I can very clearly see where each of them were on their journey.

The variety was also achieved by the different poses we did through the years. With each additional session, the girls came in with a stronger idea of what they wanted to do and what they liked. A teenager certainly has more opinions on what looks good than a five year old does! The sessions progressed to the point where I simply put them on the background and let them work it out together!

These are a just a few of the photos we captured from 2004 through 2014. Unfortunately, our archives for ‘06, ‘07 and ‘08 are stored offsite, and we’ve not had the chance to track them down (one of those sessions was with their “American Girl” dolls they treasured so much!!!). Hopefully we’ll get the chance soon and we’ll add them when we do.

We hope that you enjoy this retrospective look back at the evolution of these two girls as much as we have!!!

One of our best photos...period.

September 19, 2019

When we started thinking about the 15th anniversary of locps, and some of the images we created in the past…one of the first photographs to come to mind is this one….

Taken in December of 2004, Amy captured this moment in our Mill Street studio…and we’ve been haunted by those eyes ever since! In the single click of a shutter, an image that conveys so much emotion and so much feeling is really hard to put into words, even after so much time passing.

Liz had a footwear store around the corner from us, and came into our shop one day nervously with a request - could we capture the intimacy of her breastfeeding her little one? Of course we said yes!

The date was set, and I took the afternoon off. In order to help ease into the session, Amy took a bunch of photos working up to the feeding photos, and this is one of them. At three months old, Paige was not able to sit up on her own - most babies do so at six months - so mom lovingly held her for a bunch of them.

We used this photo as a sample everywhere. It was on a bunch of print ads and on our original website. We used it as our Gift Certificate image forever, it was the cover of a United Way brochure we designed, and it was prominent on the banners we had displayed on the outside of our second location on Main Street. In fact, Liz told us that when Paige was older, they would drive by and she would exclaim “There’s the Photo House!” when she saw herself.

Amy also captured the breastfeeding shots, but only a few. The session was cut short when, while naked and feeding, Paige had a bit of a bowel movement! It went everywhere!!! Poor Liz wasn’t sure what to do, holding a a baby without a shirt on and baby poop all over her. And neither did Amy - do you keep taking photos at that point, or do you start the clean up?

#TBT - Dance Photos with a Classic, Timeless Appeal

September 12, 2019

With our daughter starting dance class this week at Center Stage School of the Arts, we thought it might be a good time to revisit some photos we captured for them back in early 2006….

The vision was to represent the young dancer and their goal in reaching for the skills of the older, experienced dancer…an attempt to create a visual representation of the dream. So, in the cold of February we interrupted a dress rehearsal at the John Elliot Theatre and set about to capture the magic!

Utilizing one of the owner’s very young daughter, we pitched our lights around the theatre and set up our tripod on stage. Our young dancer was very operative, and very mesmerized by the ballerina in front of her! We got a bunch of great shots relatively quickly - which was good, because we were surrounded by dancers who wanted to keep rehearsing! - but we took a bit more time away from their practice to get a different look.

Studio lighting is the professional photographers tool for ensuring that you are able to get a proper exposure of all elements of the final image - to create a 2D image you need to be aware of all the light in the three dimensional world. On four of the examples below, there’s a light specifically for the red seats, and another light on the stage (to the side) to light up the dancers. The positioning of the lights is critical to highlight features of the environment, create the shape of the shadows and the overall feel of the photograph. The image changes when the direction of the light changes - for example, a “direct” light source like a flash mounted on the camera will light up the subject in front of the lens but darken down the background!

After getting some great shots, we just weren’t satisfied the we got “the” shot…so we made some adjustments. We turned off our lights and adjusted the camera exposure settings to the spot light provided. It accentuated the shadows on the stage and provided a lovely glowing effect around the subjects that the powerful studio lights had minimized. By that point, our tiny model was providing some awesome expressions that captured the joy and wonderment of a youngster entranced by dance!

We did use one little trick though…to help keep the little one focused on reaching for the ballerina’s leg, we placed a tiny piece of duct tape on the tights! Kids just can’t resist grabbing that sticky tape!!!

Although they are almost 14 years old, these images still stand up to the test of time…and they are still proudly displayed in the ballet studio at Center Stage for the next set of tiny dancers to be inspired to reach for their dreams!

Check out some other Dance stuff we’ve done in the past by clicking here. Let us know what you think! We’d love to hear from you!

Amy & Jeff

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