MEETING MY NEPHEW {WINNIPEG CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER IN PHOENIX}

I spent Thursday morning in a frenzied rush, cleaning the house, giving kids chores right and left (with promises for ice cream shakes if they helped me out), weeding the garden, hauling garbage to the dump, finishing laundry, and packing up me and the kids' necessities for the next three and a half weeks. We took out of our house at 1:10 pm, 10 minutes later than planned. Factor in time for going back home three minutes later because we'd forgotten the dog, and we were only about 20 minutes behind schedule.  After a three hour drive, dropping the dog off at her sitter, and then a three hour flight (don't even ask how that went!), we were finally at our destination: Phoenix!! Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go..... Phoenix is where we spend a few months out of the year, and here is where my parents and brother and his family live year-round. In April my brother and his beautiful wife had a new baby, who is only 14 months younger than his older sister, who is only 15 months younger than her older brother. If anyone is counting, this new little nephew of mine is the third in 30 months!!   And they definitely know how to make them! When I looked into these bright blue eyes.....

and saw this lop-sided little grin....

I was hooked.

This rudy blue-eyed little beauty is Aunt Carmen's new buddy. I could just eat him up!! He's the most precious thing I've seen in quite a while, and perfectly lovable and cuddly and smiley. He really is as cute as the pics. What a doll!!

 Premier children's and family photographer, Carmen Rochelle, uses natural light and a simple, colorful style to capture the extraordinary in moments of childhood. She is available for children's and family portrait sessions, and looks forward to helping you create life-long treasured memories and portrait keepsakes. See CarmenRochelle.com for details.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! {WINNIPEG CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER}

Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby girl! 

Premier children's and family photographer, Carmen Rochelle, uses natural light and a simple, colorful style to capture the extraordinary in moments of childhood. She is available for children's and family portrait sessions, and looks forward to helping you create a life-long treasured memories and portrait keepsakes. See CarmenRochelle.com for details.

PIRATES!! {WINNIPEG FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER}

 This weekend I had the opportunity to photograph my friend's family. Their little boy was a hoot! I had no idea he had such spunk and imagination, but I loved capturing it!

How to catch a pirate: 

Disguise yourself to look like one of them. 

 Take a big stick and clobber them with it!

Sneak down the river. 

Capture the bridge!

This pic reminds me of Larry Boy: "The world needs a hero! I. Am. That. HEROOO!!!"

And beautiful baby "E."

Premier children's and family photographer, Carmen Rochelle, uses natural light and a simple, colorful style to capture the extraordinary in moments of childhood. She is available for children's and family portrait sessions, and looks forward to helping you create a life-long treasured memories and portrait keepsakes. See CarmenRochelle.com for details.

BACK TO BLOGGING SESSIONS! {Winnipeg Children's Photographer}

I had a great session on Sunday with these two little cuties. They definitely made me work for some togetherness shots, but this one is my favourite, and well worth it! 

This little beauty only graced my camera with a very few direct glances. Look at those eyes!

 Such a fun-loving little girl! She had me running through the dandelions with my heeled shoes on! I could barely keep up! Okay.....I didn't keep up.

I think these little toadstool mushrooms at Kildonan Park are to die for! I love the playground reno!

Thank you, Mom and girls! It was a pleasure!


Premier children's and family photographer, Carmen Rochelle, uses natural light and a simple, colorful style to capture the extraordinary in moments of childhood. She is available for children's and family portrait sessions, and looks forward to helping you create a life-long treasured memories and portrait keepsakes. See CarmenRochelle.com for details.

WINNERS OF FAMILY PORTRAIT SESSION {WINNIPEG FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER}

Announcing the winners of the 2011 Carmen Rochelle Summer Draw: 

Bethany Stephens, and Kylie Johnson, come on down!!! Congratulations to you both! You are now one family session and one 8x10 richer!! ;)  I'm very excited to be able to see you both again and photograph your growing families. Both of you have newborns on the way, and I couldn't be more pleased to be able to capture for you the wonder of that new little life.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the summer draw. You're fantastic!!! Don't forget that your names are entered on the list for 15% off your next session and print purchase.




Premier children's and family photographer, Carmen Rochelle, uses natural light and a simple, colorful style to capture the extraordinary in moments of childhood. She is available for children's and family portrait sessions, and looks forward to helping you create a life-long treasured memories and portrait keepsakes. See CarmenRochelle.com for details.

SIMPLE BEAUTY {WINNIPEG CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER}

Premier children's and family photographer, Carmen Rochelle, uses natural light and a simple, colorful style to capture the extraordinary in moments of childhood. She is available for children's and family portrait sessions, and looks forward to helping you create a life-long treasured memories and portrait keepsakes. See CarmenRochelle.com for details.

FOUR MORE DAYS!! {WINNIPEG SUMMER DRAWING}

There are only four more days left to enter your name in the Summer Drawing for a free session and 8x10!! To enter, just e-mail me with your name, kids' names and birthdays, and location. You'll have your name put in the drawing, and also put on a list for 15% off your next session and print purchase.

Happy winning!

FUN IN THE SUN {WINNIPEG CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER}

Hello, everyone! Well, I certainly hope you all are enjoying the week as much as me and my kids have been! This week included a trip to the beach, a few trips to the park, a trip to the splash park, and a lot of backyard fun. Especially fun for me, because of my new camera. Now, I don't usually post pics of my own kids on this blog, but for the past few days, they're all I've been able to shoot, so "snapshot" pics of my own kids will have to suffice. I often fantasize about what it would be like to get real pics of my own kids...you know, the kind where they're dressed up, clean, and actually looking at the camera. You would think that being a children's photographer, it would be paradise to be in the same house with four children of varying ages. But the truth is that it's indescribably difficult for me to catch good photos of them because they are so used to that  big black box being stuck to the front of my head. And so, alas, I must also hire another photographer to do our family portraits.

These are a few of the better photos I've captured this week in our more exciting moments. :)

(And these are also not all my kids....we had some friends along). 

I'm loving the colorful images this camera renders, especially great for children's photos, I have to say!!

SMALL CHANGES, BABY STEPS {WINNIPEG CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER}

Yesterday I unboxed my first full-frame DSLR - my Nikon D700. To say it was much anticipated is an understatement. The Canada Post strike meant that the camera had to wait to be mailed for about a week, and after that it meant that the post office was backlogged and it was going to take an extra week for it to leave its first post office and make it to Winnipeg. Finally it got here yesterday.

So after I rescued picked up the camera from the post office, took my baby girl with all four kids in tow to her doc's appointment for her new cast (which they didn't actually replace), we grabbed a Little Caesar's Pizza and headed off to the splash park. As the older kids were getting wet, and my baby was chewing on pizza and using the stroller as a jungle gym, I finally unwrapped my treasure.

It's everything I hoped it would be...the depth of field is so much more dreamy, the skin tones are so much more even, the sharpness is absolutely life-like, and the ease and accessibility that I loved on the D90 are even better on the D700. It's perfect.

As a children's photographer of kids on the move,  one major thing I look for in a camera is the auto-focus, and ability to quickly find the kids' eyes and then to snap a frame before they move  - which they inevitably do within about .3 seconds. This camera seems a bit slower than my D90 to release the shutter once it finds focus. My D90 was immediate. I think the delay is probably actually me, and it's going to take a bit of practice, which is why I have a few practice sessions scheduled and coming up....stay tuned for photos!!

I'd post a practice shot of one of my kids, but it's a VERY rare occasion when I get good shots of my kids. They're so used to my camera that they either ignore me completely, or give some very strange face and pose that makes you wonder if they've dislocated a joint....or maybe their lips. So here is a pic of something that has grown very dear to me through the years, as it has supported my mothering role day in and day out for most of the past decade:

I've also taken the plunge and joined TWITTER!! You can follow me by clicking on the side of the page!