Rob and Lauren Blog

Today we met Raina. She’s the brand new daughter of our flients, Priety and Fabian.

I’ll post a full series of these shots later, but I was looking through them and just had my heart melted by them. I needed to share some right away.

This one got me totally teary eyed.

I’ll definitely post more later. Hope these brightened your weekend!

Lauren :)

Hey all!

Just a bit of news to throw at you today.

We were interviewed by a cool local TV station called Omni in a segment about South Asian weddings. It will be airing tonight between 8:00 - 9:00 PM on Channel 11 on cable. Since we don’t have  cable here we will likely be checking it out at my parents. Anyone have any ideas of how to get a digital copy of a TV broadcast so we can have it stored?

Once again we were highly honored to see that one of our images is a finalist in the Mostly Lisa photography competition. Head on over and vote for this stunning image we took while in India.

I’ll give you a little back story on the image.

In February Rob and I were in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India. Varanasi is a very fascinating city in terms of it’s history. It’s located on the banks of the Holy Ganga River (or Ganges). Because of this, it is considered one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for all Hindus. They believe that to wash onesself in the Ganga will remove all of ones sins. Furthermore, it’s highly desirable to die in Varanasi, as it will release one from the cycle of continual life and death. We heard some fascinating stories of people waiting for 20 years to die in Varanasi. It’s really a very powerful city.

Along the river there are a series of ghats, which are steps leading down to the water. These different ghats have different purposes. Some are bathing ghats, some are cremation ghats. One cannot go to Varanasi without spending time exploring the ghats. As we were walking along them one day, narrowly avoiding water buffaloes and pick-pocketers alike, I saw this guru-ji. It wasn’t the enormous turban covering his incredibly long dreadlocks that stopped me, but his eyes. I stopped Rob and we stood a little ways away from him trying to figure out how to get a shot.

To be quite honest with you we both find it incredibly difficult to ask people for a photo. Since the beginning of our photography career we’ve always been expressly asked to take photos of people. We have no background in news photography so we’re not used to taking shots without being asked to do so. It took me a while to work up the nerve, but eventually I did.

I approached him and held up my camera to signal that I wished to take a photo of him. This clearly happened quite a bit to him, and he responded with a price of 20 rupees (50 cents).

If you’ve ever been to India you’ll very clearly understand what I did next.

I haggled.

I offered 10 rupees. It’s not that I was cheap. I mean, we’re talking about a quarter here. It’s simply the mindset you get into while in India. EVERYTHING is bargained. Your food, your lodging, your transportation. Everything. You never just accept the first price offered to you.

He refused the 10 rupees and stood firm at 20. I hesitated for a moment, simply because of the pride invovled in “getting a deal”. I didn’t want to just pay whatever he asked.

Then I stopped myself and said, this is going to be an amazing shot, and I’m looking at paying 50 cents. So Rob handed over two grimy 10 rupee notes to him.

I stepped forward to take my shots and he looked straight into my lens in way that so few people have the courage to do. So many get scared of the camera, and he just seemed to look straight through it.

I took a rapid series of shots to ensure I had the one I wanted, and we walked away.

Looking back at it, I really wished we had taken the time to take so many more shots with him. But even just stopping and asking someone for a shot was a big step for us, so we were happy at the time.

We always learn so much about ourselves and our art when we shoot, even if we wished it had all gone differently after the fact.

Hope you enjoyed the little back story! I guess it turned out to be longer than I expected :) Rob is actually going through photos from India today (the first time we’ve really looked at them since we returned) so perhaps I’ll share a few more on here.

If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out The Wedding Travelers , the blog we kept as we traveled Vietnam, Thailand and India for three months. The writing may not be that interesting, but trust me, there are some fascinating photos on there!

Love you guys, and don’t forget to go vote for us!

Lauren :)

These Fotojournal boys seem to be all over this blog right now! It helps that they are both pretty darn fun, and so are their wives :)

Anywho, a really fantastic thing about our job is that it is so easy for us to call up a couple friends and just go out, have some fun and shoot. If we were accountants or something, it wouldn’t really be too fun to call a friend and say “Hey, wanna have some fun and do your taxes?” So way back in the day we called up Kyle and Alyssa and went and had some fun. Here are the photos:

Not sure what Alyssa is pointing at, but I imagine she’s saying: Look Kyle, this is what you’re supposed to be doing with your feet.

They are such cutie pies.

I love this one.

Haha, for this one they jumped over Rob! Kind of an interesting angle.

This one is too cool. They look so sassy.

Now this is honestly the most fun I think we have ever had on a shoot. Kyle showed off his cart-surfing skills while Alyssa pushed him around. It was hilarious!

And of course, there were tons of snuggles.

Thanks you crazy kids for hanging out with us!

Lauren :)

Earlier this year Scooter received an e-mail from a couple other cats seeing if we would be available to shoot their owners wedding. Scooter replied and the result is the wonderful wedding of Sara & Doug. Those of you who follow this blog regularly will know that I’m (Rob) not much for words, and so we’ll get to the photos right away. But before we begin there’s just one thing you have to know: Sara and Doug are awesome.

 Making faces…

I’m pretty sure those rings are Sara’s grandmother’s.

 A little rain… no problem.

Unintended. Sometimes when I’m sorting through photos I’ll fall in love with an accidental shot.

Intended

 Sara and Doug looked so good!

Not having photographed a Jewish wedding before I thought I would include a few photos of some of the different customs. When Sara and Doug first meet at the Chuppah Sara walks around Doug seven times, Doug then walks around Sara seven times, and finally Sara and Doug walk around together seven times.

 They drink wine, which is a symbol of joy in Jewish custom.

 A blessing by the Rabbi.

 Breaking of a glass marks the conculsion of the ceremony (Mazel Tov!).

At the time I thought this fondue tasted a bit strongly of white wine, now I crave it all the time. Cafe Select downtown. Dinner was absolutely fantastic, and a beautiful place for an intimate reception.

 Sara & Doug’s Ketubah: (a gorgeous looking) Jewish marriage contract.

We totally were given a to-go box filled with these delicious cupcakes and Sara’s mom was also kind enough to give us one of the beautiful floral centerpieces.

Thanks for letting us share in your day. You both have such amazing energy and it was so much fun photograph your wedding.

Cheers,

Rob

So have you all noticed the new and completely awesome photos at the top of the page? Now that we’ve been upgraded to the newest version of Fotojournal I can change those as frequently as I want. So I have a ton of hilarious photos of Rob, myself and Scooter to go up there. Keep an eye on there to see all the coolness.

Here’s a great wedding for you to feast your eyes on. Let’s go! 

Kim getting ready in the morning. Love her eyes peeking out from under the veil.

Rob is SO GOOD at getting great expressions from grooms. I think he just has a ton of patience to wait for them to let their guard down. I always adore these kinds of shots.

And again, Rob is just awesome. Check out these detail shots of the church he took with our Tilt-Shift lens. Killer.

Lace details from the wedding dress, and her gorgeous shoes.

Just a moment in the kitchen as Kim is waiting to leave for the church. I love that the clock is there above her, it absolutely makes the shot.



Haha, so Jason has a tendency to get really really hot when he wears suits. So Kim sent him a little fan to keep him cool. I think he appreciated that.



Their ceremony just amazing, and there was so much warm light. Loved it.



We got to run around our favorite place: Fort Edmonton Park! Hooray!




This picture just sums up every wedding we’ve ever been to. As we tramp around with the bridal party, the groom inevitably gets to carry the bride’s flowers and bouquet. At least Jason looks like he’s still having fun!

Here are those fab girls.

And the studly boys.




Then it was time for fun with Kim and Jason. We found some really great spots in the park that we had never shot at before. That’s pretty much our favorite thing ever!





This horse was quite interested in what was going on!



Yet another shot of Rob’s that just blows me away. Sorry if it feels like pat-Rob-on-the-back day, but he just blew this wedding out of the park!







They did such a great job of decorating. I LOVED the red laterns!



Lots of laughs at the reception.



We may or may  not have gotten a bit silly as we were leaving…..




Hope you all enjoyed those photos! Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Lauren :)

So today is a pretty exciting day. Our friends/web dudes/clients Jon & Kyle have now officially launched the Fotojournal blog. For those who haven’t heard me gushing about it, Fotojournal is a brand new blogging platform designed specifically for photographers. We’ve been using versions of it for nearly a year now, and it has sincerely made me enjoy blogging so much more. The interface is sleek and sexy, and uploading photos is actually fun, not a huge headache like with all other blogging services!

And their new blog is the perfect example of the awesomeness that is FJ. Not only is it a killer design, but it’s running off the brand new public version of Fotojournal (which I’ve been told we get upgraded to this evening! Boo-ya!)

Anyway, I know all the photographers out there are super excited to hear about this. Fotojournal has so much buzz, and nothing has even been released yet! That’s how insanely cool it is. So make sure to head over to their blog and sign up, if you haven’t already. Due to the fact that they want to make FJ blogs the best out there, they are starting with a few select and lucky clients. So if you are awesome (and I know all our blog readers are awesome) you need a FJ blog.

In order to show the world how crazy cool these two are, we did a little photoshoot with them. These are possible some of the funnest shots of the year. I really want to start doing more stuff like this, band photography, alternative business branding, etc. It’s sweet!

Here we go with a few shots.

We sure had some fun out in the field. Yes, those are computer monitors they are throwing. And yes, it was fun to watch them crash.

Now this is just a small sampling of all the fun stuff we did with them. There are some more pictures that are pee-your-pants funny, but those will only be released on the FJ site, and I don’t know exactly when. So you’ll have to stay tuned there to see more!

Now go and get yourself some sexy blog awesomeness with Fotojournal!

Lauren :)

For some reason I’ve feeling particularly generous on this lovely Friday afternoon. Perhaps it’s the delicious jasmine green tea that I’ve been sipping, or the sweet sweet sounds of Andrew Bird, that have put me into this mood. However it happened, I decided to post up a huge number photos from this wedding. For most of my posts I have to really try to keep it small, and that means a lot of my favorite shots never go on the blog. Well today I just said “To heck with numbers” and just picked as many shots as I wanted.

The result, probably one of the funnest Friday wedding blog posts ever!

Let’s get down to it, shall we?

Steve getting some help from dad with his tie.

Tasty treats in Nicole’s room!

Nicole getting tied up by her sisters.

Doesn’t Steve’s dad look so dapper??? Love it!

Love love this shot. Check the mirror on the right hand side.

My precious :)

Nicole’s necklace was so perfect. Simple and beautiful.

She was looking pretty darn good.

Then we ran on out into the grounds of the Hotel MacDonald to do some shots. We did fun portraits before the ceremony and after the ceremony. That pretty much equals our perfect kind of wedding ;)

Gotta get the building in the background.

Isn’t the light here just so ethereal? Gorgeous.

Nicole’s bouquet was simple and stunning.

Then it was time for some fun with the bridal party. Steve and his brothers.

And Nicole and her sisters.

And of course when we see a location as cool as this one we have to do a couple quick shots of just the bride and groom!

This one of the whole group is so cool!

Possibly my favorite bride portrait of the year, no lies.

Then off to St. Joseph’s Basilica for the ceremony. I don’t think it gets any better than this candid shot of Nicole and her father waiting to walk down the aisle. Amazing light, and this tangible sense of anticipation.

We shoot at St. Joe’s quite often and so Rob likes to try and get some unique angles.

Right after the ceremony! What an adorable little girl!

Then we stole Nicole and Steve for some quick alone time portraits. These two are so much fun, even though it was pretty much freezing cold we got some really fantastic stuff.

Haha! I love this! The right hand photo is currently Nicole’s Facebook profile picture. Yes, she is just that cool.

We just couldn’t get Rob to put down the flowers (he really liked them I think) so he had to hold them and shoot at the same time ;)

Then back to the Hotel Mac for the reception! Don’t those cupcakes look so good, even as they are mashed into each others faces?

Super-dee-duper cute first dance.

Then the dance broke out and it was crazy! Here’s Steve showing his moves.

Yes, that’s also Steve. And yes, he really did the splits. And no, he didn’t collapse in pain immediately afterwards. He totally stood up and kept dancing! A+!

We snuck off with the rings to do this really cool shot.

Nicole’s choice footwear for the dance.

How’s the cupcake treating you, Leslie?

How insanely cool is this dance shot? Answer: insanely.

One thing Nicole mentioned to us before her wedding is that she has a Nana who is pretty darn cool. When the dance broke out her Nana was able to live up to that hype. She tore up the floor and danced to every song! And that includes “Get Low”. Here she is having a dance with Steve.

While a group surrounds them in a circle! Too awesome.

And a final shot of the whole group: Steve, Nicole, Leslie and Mark (who’s wedding we shot 3 weeks before), and us. Wow, Rob and I look pretty terrible at the end of the night!

I hope that brightened your Friday! Have a great weekend everyone, and leave some comment love!

Lauren :)

Switching gears here and mixing it up. These two gorgeous kids were our wedding clients last year and this year they are maternity clients! Woo!

It’s so fun to watch our couples start their lives together, and I can’t even begin to express how excited I am for these two to have a new little one. When we were waiting for Priety to change for the shoot Fabian started to show us all the baby stuff they had, and he was so unbelievably proud, and the baby wasn’t even here yet! They should be due any day now, and we can’t wait to meet the little one. It is going to be the most loved baby in the whole world. Honest. And probably the hottest too, just look at these guys!

Love the light here, just playing off the silk.

Their cutie pants puppy who wanted to see what was going on!

We took them out to a big old field to do some cool stuff. I’d been waiting to do this sort of a shot for while! Love it.

Isn’t Priety ridiculously gorgeous? Wow.

These two are so excited it’s infectious.

I told him to give me a “Fabian smile”. This is exactly what a Fabian smile is.

Hope you two are doing really really well and that the baby comes soon!

Lauren :)