Rob and Lauren Blog

Hi there and welcome to our blog! We are portrait photographers from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We love shooting engagements, newborns, families, couples, individuals, travel and lifestyle. This is where you’ll find all the cool new stuff we’ve been up to lately. We put new images up here on a weekly basis, so if you haven’t yet, make sure to bookmark this site or add it to your RSS reader!

Also, feel free to check out some of our work. Here are links to our portfolios!

Wedding portfolio // Film portfolio // Couples portfolio // Moving Portraits // Travel Photography

We really hope you enjoy our art, and feel free to leave a comment! We’d love to hear from you!

Tons o’ love,

*Scroll past this post to see all the new awesomeness!*

Photography is a fascinating artform. You can approach it from so so so many ways. You can choose one format, one tool (say, a digital SLR like a Canon 5D) and work with it for years and years. You’ll become so comfortable with it that using it is second nature. We shoot with our 5Ds so much that all the button locations are memorized, like most photographers.

We decided that our approach to photography would be to always be learning, experimenting, and going outside our comfort zone. We had gotten very comfortable with digital, and it was starting to get a bit boring. Then a friend introduced us to film.

If you’ve chatted with us recently, I’m sure you can see the overflowing excitement we have with this new medium. Our eyes light up, we start talking a mile a minute, and Rob undoubtedly pulls out his 4x5 negatives to show them off. He’s even taken to carrying an overexposed frame around with him as a source of inspiration. That’s how smitten he is.

Technical details aside, that excitement alone is enough to make this new foray completely worth it. Anything that can make us so enlivened as artists is extremely valuable. Then, if you want to talk about real world benefits, well, I still have yet to see anyone produce anything that looks remotely like 4x5 colour positive film with a digital camera. It’s tangible. You can hold it, feel it, move it around. And the detail quality and tonal range are truly unmatched with anything we’ve ever used.

Our film camera collection is growing by the week. We’re experimenting with different types of film (instant, 35mm, 4x5, 4x5 instant, the list is growing and growing), and different types of cameras. Rob has started developing his own 35mm black and white film, and that in itself has been an intense learning experience. We’ve each found a format that fits with our unique styles, and are branching apart (Rob into 4x5, and me into instant film).

The reaction we’ve gotten with this new direction has been quite fascinating. Clients listen dutifully, but I suspect they aren’t really sure what about it makes us so excited. Photographers, especially those who started off shooting film, think we’re insane. We learned on digital cameras, and have never shot film in our lives. It’s almost like we’re learning the art of photography all over again from the start, and it’s invigorating!

So that’s a bit of what we’re feeling right now. Hopefully that will prep you all for a lot of stuff that will start popping up on the blog! And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few frames we’ve taken.

Colour images: Contax G1, Planar 35mm, taken on Kodak Portra film

Contax G1, Planar 35mm, Ilford Delta film

 Contax G1, Planar 35mm, Ilford HP5 film

 Polaroids taken with an SX-70 camera on Type 600 film.

These images are a starting point. We’re experimenting, learning, and making mistakes. Who knows where this will take us, but the potential is very exciting. Hope you enjoyed this little something different!

Happy Monday everyone!

Lauren :)

Two kids from Flin Flon, Manitoba.  Making it happen in Edmonton. I really can’t say enough awesome things about these two. Travelers, cat lovers, with stellar taste in music, and just way too much fun to hang out with. It was truly a privilege to get to spend their wedding day with them.

 Angie’s mom watches as the veil is put on. How can you not get a lil’ misty eyed?

 Portraits before the ceremony. Totally an awesome way to go!

 This is what we call “manly hand holding”. Grrrrrrr.

 Aren’t they just ridiculously good looking? I mean, seriously. They’re like a triple threat.

 Nailed it!

 Gotta throw one in from the gorgeous ceremony!!

And the super cute first dance.

 Haha! Rob forgot to tell us all that this was meant to be a silly face photo.

And finally, a couple scans of polaroids I took. Still trying to find a way to get the scan to reflect how incredible these look in person. But I’m getting close :)

 Lauren :)

Whew! What a day Sunday was! We were honored to host some very talented and wonderful photographers at our home, and had a blast doing it! I think our attendees are still probably recovering from the brain overload :)

One of our favourite things to do is challenge ourselves. Every time we put ourselves in an unfamiliar situation, we’re amazed at what comes out of it. So when we were choosing a spot to shoot for the Chill Session, we decided to go totally out there. We found a random elementary school and worked it out. I think we’ll be shooting at elementary schools more often, they totally rock!!

Here are some of our images, with our beautiful and wonderful couple, Michelle & BJ. And yes, they look really familiar, because we just shot their wedding the weekend before! They just couldn’t get enough of us, I guess :)

 BJ looks a little intimidated having 10 women with huge cameras staring him down!! But they rocked it so hard. I’m not even mad, I’m just impressed. ;)

 Children at play. Completely appropriate :)

 Ok, I can’t get over how insanely stunning Michelle is here. HOLY SMOKES. And if any Chill Sesh peeps have a “behind the scenes” photo of how we managed this shot, I’ll totally post it up :)

BEHIND THE SCENES!!!! Yes, we do this for real. And it works awesomely.

Thanks to Devon for this one…

And Sandra for this stellar montage. I look like such a slacker reclining on the grass. It’s epic. 

  *sigh* Cutie pies

 That’s their ride. Honest. ;)

 G-darn I love this one. A+ to Rob.

 Yeah. They’re fierce. What.

 I also wanted to share this super duper sweet message from Rhiannon, one of our participants:

Thank you, thank you, thank you sooooo much! It’s so wonderful of you both to be so open about your art - it really means a lot to me that you are willing to share it. You gave me so much information and inspiration! Like you used to be, I am really shy, which is one of the biggest reluctance’s I’ve had to throwing myself into a career with this. You’ve given me the confidence to know that it can be overcome, and I’m really excited to put all of my new tricks to work at my next session. Oh, and the Snickerdoodles rocked!

In case you’re totally confused, Snickerdoodles are the crazy awesome cookies I made for the Chill Sesh. Don’t you wish you came now? ;)

If you’re interested in the October Chill Session hit me up (love [at] robandlauren [dot] ca) and I’ll get you signed up. It’s going to be stellar!!

Lauren :)