Edmonton Family Photographer | Where Should We Have Our Family Portraits Taken?

Clients often contact me with the same question- where to have our family photos taken in Edmonton?

My answer depends on the family who will be in the photos. It is totally dependent on your style!

If you enjoy the classic style of traditional family photos, any park would make a great back drop! My favourite Edmonton family photo locations include: Emily Murphy, Hawrelak, and Rundle Park. In St. Albert, I love shooting behind St. Albert Place. The walking trail is beautiful and there is an awesome red bridge for some fun shots!

If you like things a little more exciting, we can try out new places! I am really interested in your point of view, so if you can picture it, I can capture it! My favourite family shoot from last year took place on Whyte Ave. We did some shots in an old fashioned red phone booth, in some funky doorways and against worn brick in the alley. The locations were totally unexpected, but this ultra fun family look great on the huge canvas hanging on their wall.

Families with toddlers should keep in mind that they will definitely want to meet me somewhere with lots of space to run and play. My favourite place for this is Rundle Park. There are amazing trails, a nice lake with ducks, geese and big rocks for posing. The best part is, there's a playground just out of site of where I shoot- always great for a bribe!

In the winter, brave families often schedule a day and hope that it's warm enough to head outside! It works most of the time! Of course, if it's not going to be warm enough for a full shoot outside, I have done the first half in the client's home, and then we bundle up and head out into the snow for the second half for some rosy cheek photos!

The most important thing to keep in mind when selecting a family photo location is definitely your family! What do you find fun and like to do together? Are you all baseball fans? Let's head to a diamond! Kayakers? The river! Dog lovers? Bring Poochie with you! He deserves a place on your mantle too!

Make your photo session as you unique as you are! Capture what makes your family special and you will have photos you will cherish forever!

Above: The Bladen boys pose on the rocks on the beach near their house in Musgravetown, Newfoundland. The family spends a great deal of time on the beach and it seemed a very logical place to shoot their photos!

Below: Danielle, Gregory and Lauren had their photo session on the kids Grandfather's fishing stage. It's been in the family for generations, and where Gregory spends a great deal of time with his Grandfather. An excellent choice of location- strong family ties to the location make the photos even more special.

Below: Owen's Grandpa has been the superintendant of the golf course for many years. The whole family has been around the course since Owen's moms was a little girl! What better a place to let a little boy run around for some candid shots than in the sand trap!
Top of Page: Yanni and Logan pose for a traditional portrait in Edmonton's Rundle Park. I love this shot. It looks like a Christmas Card!

To book your own Edmonton or St. John's family portrait session, contact amydonovan@shaw.ca

View other Edmonton family portraits and Edmonton weddings at www.islandmistphotography.com

God Grant Me The Serenity

I distinctly remember people in my childhood repeating the phrase "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change."

I don't remember who said it. Or what they couldn't change. But I know why I said it this morning. And who I said it about.

(If you haven't read my previous two blog posts, please do. It will give you all of the background information that you need to understand what I am talking about in this one. Of course, I have received enough emails from blog followers sharing similar stories, that most of you might be able to just follow along. )

All of last night, I found it impossible to sleep. I saw every hour on the clock. I blame the toddler who I heard shuffling towards my bed in feety pyjamas at 1am. This child likes to sleep diagonally. This leaves very little room for Mommy since Daddy sleeps like he is encased in concrete.

So this morning, when I heard the alarm clock, I couldn't wait for Jamie to turn it off. But it kept going. It's funny about alarm clocks. The longer they alarm, the louder they seem. It's purely psychological I am sure, but it is darn annoying. So I had to get up to turn it off.

I got back in bed, happy that Bridget hadn't been disturbed and I could get back to sleep, since Jamie was in the bathroom getting ready for work.

I had just fallen back to sleep when the alarm clock started going again. I had only hit the sleep button. Well now I am mad at Jamie for not turning it off in the first place. And at me, for not being smart enough to work an alarm clock.

I get up, unplug it to avoid another mistake and get back in bed.

I had just fallen back to sleep when I am being shaken awake.

"Aim, where are the frozen dinners?" asks Jamie. I open one eye, look him in the face. He isn't kidding. He really did just ask me that. We don't have a deep freeze. We only have the tiny freezer on top of the fridge.

"In the freezer," I say, doing my very best not to hiss.

"I can't find them," he says. Did you eat them?

He is now wondering if I at 13 frozen dinners- Yesterday.

"Move the bread," I say. No sorry, that's a lie. I growled.

He disappears.

With all of the whispering about bread and frozen dinners, Bridget is now awake and racing down the hall to follow her father downstairs.

As I navigate the stairs with sleep in my eyes, I am thinking, "God grant me the serenity. Surely, they don't do it on purpose. "

Still very tired, I get juice and cereal for Bridget, and then I park myself on the couch. Everyone is getting ready to leave for school and work. So they are going through the list of things they need to remember. Hat, gloves, key, agenda,

"Wait Aim, I can't find my hat!" Daniels says. "Where did you put it?"

I didn't put it anywhere. It's a red toque; it has a hole from too much wear and tear, and says UFC in huge letters. I would much rather a cold head than wear it. I suggest the closet, his book bag, his bedroom. None of which are good suggestions.

He finally settles on a black toque with the ever trendy General Electric symbol on it as his only option. Clearly he didn't 'see the red toque on his dresser when he went to check his room. Or it magically appeared when I looked after he was gone.

While Daniel waited in the car, I got to listen to Jamie. Who couldn't find his keys (in his pocket) or his IPod. I hate IPods-just because there is a constant dialog in my house about them. Where they are, who has whose, who forgot who's at whose house, who borrowed which sibling's headset, and the all too frequent, who broke whose. It's ridiculous. I don't even listen to music, though I should, to block out talk of IPods.

So as I am sitting on the couch, furious that I am out of bed because Jamie couldn't think to move the bread to find his microwavable lunches, I hear it. His grown man self said, "Hey Aim, did you see my Ipod?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" he asks; amazed that I wasn't offering up suggestions as to possible hiding places for tiny music playing devices.

"Yes."

"Well I can't find it." Of course he can't find it. He hasn't moved from where he was standing when he first realized he wanted to look for it.

I know exactly where the darn thing is. It's plugged into my laptop. My laptop, that is right in front of him- on the couch, where he left it, after plugging in his Ipod to charge it, right before he went to bed.

I realize I am not getting peace and quiet until this mystery is solved.

"When did you last have it?" I query.

"Last night, before I went to bed," he says.

"Where did you have it?" I press.

He answers me seriously, "I plugged it into your computer."

"Did you check the computer?" I ask. This is incredible.

"It's not there," he informs me.

Do you remember that I said I was sitting on the couch? Yes. I was sitting on the couch, next to the computer. And sitting on top of the black computer, is a lime green Ipod. In plain site of where he is standing.

'Oh?' I ask, unplugging it and tossing it at him.

He swears it wasn't there when he looked.

The only explanation I can offer was that the Ipod must have been in the freezer, looking for the frozen dinners at the exact moment he was looking at the computer. At the rate he is going lately with finding things, he is going to lose his bed in the old age home after I drop him off next week.