Rob and Lauren Blog

Man, I love shooting portraits. Today we got to go to the brand spanking new Art Gallery of Alberta, and take photos of two lovely people. Fun, laughter, and cool images: good day. 

I’d like to thank Rob for totally kicking my ass on this shoot. Both of these images are his. 

More to come! These are just a couple that I really wanted to edit right away. 

Enjoy!

 Lauren :)

Hi friends!

Man, it is COLD here in Edmonton! This Saturday it might get down to -37C with the windchill. To my American friends, you might wonder what on earth that means. Well, -40 is the point at which Celsius and Farenheit converge, so think of it that way. Either way, it’s not fun at all! So today I’m posting some images from the summer. *Sigh* 

If it’s warm where you are, enjoy it! And if it’s cold, I hope you’re keeping warm!

Lauren :) 

Everyone seems to want to see photos of us. You guys are weird ;)

Here’s another from an e-session in Greece!

And make sure to email me your address if you want to get on our holiday card list! 

Lauren :)

I strongly feel that if every single evening was exactly like the one we spent with these two snuggle-bugs, I’d be the happiest person in the world. Not only did Angie & Jordan spend their Canada Day with us, it was also their last night in Canada! The next day they were heading off for a whirlwind trip to Vietnam & Cambodia! I think this may be my favorite engagement session we’ve ever done. We don’t normally do too much shooting in natural areas, but these two convinced us, and we’re so glad they did. Simple, gorgeous, beautiful light, stunning couple, and lots of laughs. I really hope you enjoy these, they make us smile :)

 In case you’re wondering, the holes behind them are swallow’s nests. Wicked.

 Lauren :)

I have a feeling that this is going to be a bit of a routine now, introducing a couple just before their wedding by showing their engagement photos! Karen and Gary are getting married tomorrow and we’re so so stoked for it! I’ll just say one thing: 3 hours of wedding portraits, heck yes!! So check back in one Monday because I KNOW there are going to be some fun shots.

For now, check out their engagement session. Karen and Gary have been together for something like 10 years (give or take, I can’t quite remember!). At that point, I really feel like couples know how to play, and goof around with each other. That makes things fun for us :)

GAH!! I’m so in love with these two shots!!! Mine on the left, Rob’s on the right.

 YAY!!!

 Fun times! Tomorrow is going to rock.

Lauren :)

I’d like to introduce you to these two stunning people, because they are going to be on the blog on Monday! Yep, these kids are getting married this weekend. We met with them this week to chat about the big day(s) and holy smokes. It’s going to be spectacular!!!! That is a Monday morning post you definitely don’t want to miss!

 Ok, check out that image on the right. With the bird. It’s trippy right? One of my favourite images I’ve created this year, no lie.

 Man, I can’t wait until this weekend! This wedding will be the definition of epic. Just wait.

Lauren :)

Today I wanted to share another Moving Portrait with you, and chat a bit about the project, since we kind of just threw it out there without much discussion.

This is our loveable little cat, Scooter. Last time we traveled we had a photo of him on our laptop and looked at it every single day. Next time we go, this will be on our iPhone and we’ll be watching it all the time.

Scooter // Edmonton Pet Moving Portrait from Rob & Lauren on Vimeo.

So what exactly are these moving portraits, and how do we create them? If you’re a nerd-tographer like us, all we need to say is they were made with our 5DMKII, and you’ll understand. But if you’re not, then here’s a quick explanation.

Our still camera that we use to shoot our images can also produce high definition video. Essentially we have all the abilities in terms of the *look* of our images, but now with video. This isn’t something a Handicam from Best Buy can do. Trust me, we’ve been looking for this for over a year now! We’re able to create a very cinematic look to the video, and we’re absolutely loving that!

I think we’ve suprised even ourselves with how powerful these short videos are. If you saw Richard and Talya’s video, that was was especially moving for us. So many things happened during that shoot, that happen during most shoots, that stills just don’t quite capture. I’m thinking especially of their dancing, as well as when Richard gave Talya about 8 kisses in a row. Trust me, that looked weird in the stills, but unbelievably adorable in the video! The first time Rob showed me what he had put together, I actually started crying. It’s so powerful! We can’t wait to start creating these for more clients!

And we’re intending to create these for more than just newborn sessions, so if you’re interested in having us create a Moving Portrait for you, make sure to drop us a line and we’ll give you more details!

And finally, I just want to mention that as special as these Moving Portraits are, we strongly strongly believe that still photography is, and will always be, the core of our business. The video is beautiful, but still can’t do something like this:

 Have a wonderful evening everyone!

Lauren :)

Rob is a guy full of ideas. He has lists all over the place; some on paper, most on his multiple computers in several different programs…

Needless to say he spends a lot of time thinking. Some of his ideas are admittedly pretty “out there”. Stuff about robots and such. But many of his ideas are pretty amazing, and we just jump on the opportunity to try them out. They don’t always go exactly as planned (well, they almost never go exactly as planned) but they always result in something totally new. And that’s exactly what we want.

Rob had an idea for a photo shoot, but we needed the right couple. Enter Romy and Joyce. A totally gorgeous couple who loves to have fun together. And yes, they are already married, and I already blogged some wedding photos, and I’m totally going out of order here, but I don’t care!

What made them absolutely perfect was the fact that Romy is a photographer himself. That meant not only that some of Rob’s planned shots would have special meaning for them, but also that we knew they would be up for whatever crazy ideas we dreamed up.

So here we are. Romy & Joyce’s concept shoot. We need a better name for that, but essentially what we mean is that we have a concept, and that drives how we shoot, rather than just shooting whatever comes to mind as we usually do!

This concept took quite a bit of prep work to execute. Here’s what it was.

When a couple books us, we often say that they get something special: two unique viewpoints for their big day. But what would happen if we took that idea, and went as literal as possible….

Well, you get this:

 That would be two images taken at the EXACT same time. One by Rob, one by Lauren.

 You see, Rob devised a way to trigger the two cameras at the same moment. I would set up my shot, as would he, and then he controlled when both cameras would fire. The result is two images of the exact same moment, taken with completely different viewpoints. I think what’s amazing about these images isn’t the photos themselves, although they are pretty nice. I think it’s so fascinating to see how different two people can see the same scene!!

 This is what I meant when I said these images would have meaning. Here you can see Romy holding one of the cameras, and taking a shot of Joyce. Rob is again controlling when both images are made.

  And as always, we have a lot of fun, even when doing something all artsy and whatnot!

I really hope you guys enjoyed these! We have always made it a point to keep pushing ourselves, and doing something totally new. And we loved getting that opportunity with this shoot. Thanks Romy and Joyce for really making this all happen, and braving the cold weather for all those hours!

Lauren :)

Romy and Joyce are such a fantastic couple, we’re pretty much out of our minds with excitement for their wedding next weekend! The weather was really trying to prevent us from shooting their e-session (we were rained out one day, and when we were shooting these images we were nearly frozen and actually saw some snow!). But that didn’t stop the four of us from having so much fun, and getting some amazing shots. I’m so excited for this season to start, we’re loving spending time with all our couples!

Here are some of the shots we got with them. We also did a concept shoot that I’ll be sharing in a little while, once I’ve had time to fully process them all!

 I love the light we found here! So nifty. This totally reminds me of a couple of secret agents, lol.

 Romy is a fantastic photographer in his own right, and was able to borrow a 4x5 field camera for us to play with!! What an amazing piece of equipment! We’d never seen one before, and it was soooo cool! I guess you could call this shot a meta-photo, couldn’t you?

 Hope you all have a killer weekend! Our Chill Session is tomorrow so check back in on Monday for some shots from that!

Lauren :)

Happy Monday everyone! We haven’t had a wedding the past couple of weekends, but I thought I’d share some Monday morning photos with you anyway!

It’s not easy to get us to go out and shoot in the snow for extended periods of time. We really hate the cold! Combine that with the need to manipulate small buttons on the camera and it’s just all sorts of annoying. But Jen & Wade were awesome enough to convince us to go out! We found a perfect winter day to shoot with them, and had way too much fun!

 P.S. I’m getting my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday, so emails might slow down a little bit while I’m recovering!

Lauren :)

o it seems as though we’ve got an interesting pattern emerging here! Last week I shared some engagement photos right before the wedding, and the same thing is happening today! April and Sheldon are getting married this weekend! We met up with them last fall for some fun and photos, and I’m just getting around to blogging them now. Based on these photos, I’m pretty sure we’re going to have an awesome time shooting their wedding!

 And to all those begging for more photos of the past two weddings we’ve shot, don’t worry, they will come!

Lauren :)

Greetings!

Wow, we’ve been out of touch hey? We had our seminar on Sunday which was super fun, and we were so happy to get so many wonderful emails from attendees. We’re glad we were able to entertain and inspire!

This weekend our first Canadian wedding takes place in Calgary! Yay! Today I’m sharing their engagement photos with you, since I hadn’t yet blogged them. Great timing, hey? Enjoy these, and then come back on Monday for a teaser of their wedding photos! All this year we are planning to blog wedding teasers on Mondays! Make sure you have your RSS feed set up (there’s a new link, so update if it hasn’t been working lately!) so you can see all the images as soon as they are posted!

Without further ado, some photos!

Lauren :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Got a few pretty pictures to share with you today. You’ll be seeing more of these two in a just a couple weeks, and when you do, it’s going to BLOW YOUR MIND. I’m giving you fair warning. Prepare yourselves :)

 Haha, Raj was glad to finally be done all these engagement photos. He’s only got about 100 more hours to go with wedding photos!

 Happy early Valentine’s day everyone!

Lauren :)

Hey all!

Wow, it’s about time I got some new photos up here, hey? The past couple weeks have been busy here, getting ready for the holidays, delivering tons of awesome albums and prints, and working on the new Rob & Lauren look! So apologies for the lack of posting, but there is still tons of great stuff to come.

Today you get to see a really stellar engagement session we shot with the wonderful Jamie & Jon. These two are so much fun, and Jon is truly a kid at heart. Since we are as well, it results in lots of silliness. I love silliness.

 Tickle fights are ALWAYS my idea. Rob says he hates being tickled….but he secretly loves it. Just like Jamie.

 It’s so wonderful seeing all these amazing fall colours right now, since we’re totally covered in snow today. Ah, I miss the days of fall.

 Jon got some serious height!

 I think this photo proves he won. But Jamie did give a valient effort!

 Love these ones Rob secretly snapped as we were just chatting after the session.

 I think from these photos you can tell that their wedding next year is going to be full of fun and love. It should be amazing!

Lauren :)

P.S. Tomorrow is our 4 year anniversary, yay! We are planning a HD movie marathon. Any good recommendations?

I’m honestly bursting with excitement for Sonal and Raj’s wedding. I get pretty excited for all our weddings, but this one will be taking place on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, following a week long cruise. So I think you can forgive me for being a little extra excited :)

So a cruise wedding in an exotic locale is awesome enough. Then add in the fact that Sonal and Raj are drop dead gorgeous (they’d give Aishwarya and Abhishek a run for their money, I’ll say that much) and crazy fun to hang out with, and we’ve got ourselves a fabulous wedding!

We did two engagement sessions with these kids, and today I’ll be sharing the urban portion. Get ready for some amazingness.

 I’d say this shot is one of Rob’s favorites of all time. He loves it.

 Sonal can do smiley….

 And serious with equal expertise. She rocks.

I adore this one.

 And Rob is all about the sequences.

 I’ll be sharing their second session soon! For now I hope you enjoyed these shots, and are now waiting with breathless anticipation for their wedding photos! They are going to be unbelievable. Trust me.

Lauren :)

So I’m posting under duress. That’s right, the threats are starting to come in and it’s about time I got back into a good blogging rhythm! Right now I have a list of all the things I still need to blog. Wow, it’s long! But now that the weddings are done, and we’re nearly finished up with our portrait shoots, I’m going to have a lot more time to share all the wonderful stuff we did this summer!

Here is a very fun e-session with did with Nicole and Steve approximately 10 years ago.

How cool is this?? Every once in a while Edmonton surprises us with some really awesome architecture.

I LOVE the way she’s looking at him.

Now this shot is epic. Nicole actually got it printed to display at the wedding. She loved that it looks like he’s smacking her on the head! But no models were harmed in the making of this shot :)

This may be one of my favorite e-session images of the year. So fun!

Super-cute

It was such a wonderful evening, and we got some really nice light.

And one last one of these cutie pies! Just wait until you see how awesome their wedding day was!!

So tomorrow Rob and I are having a spa day to celebrate the end of the season!!! We’re pretty excited about that. What do you guys do to relax after a big week/project/season?

Lauren :)

Kim and Jason are going to have the gosh-darn funnest wedding next weekend. It’s in one of our fav places in Edmonton, Fort Ed! Can’t wait! These two are so goofy. At first they were a little shy, but after one round of “Show me a goofy face!” we pretty much couldn’t get them to stop!

Looking forward to lots of tickle fights next week guys!

Yay we’re so excited!

Lauren :)

Here we go with some more fun photos. You guys are seriously spoiled with all these awesome sessions, what’s going to happen in the winter when the weddings stop! Eek! We’ll probably post a lot about Scooter :)

Anyway, with more awesome timing I’m posting these e-session photos up and tomorrow these two crazy kids are getting married! Fun! With the way these two rocked it out on these photos, I know tomorrow is going to be amazing.

When these two sauntered up at the beginning of the shoot all decked out in these dressy clothes we were pretty stoked. Dressing up just brings this other element to a shoot! Don’t get me wrong, we love shooting people just wearing their casual stuff (heck, that’s ALL we wear) but this was really fun.

This is one of my favorite photos in a long time!

These two are so much fun, now I’m all excited for tomorrow!!!

Lauren :)

Saajidah and Mehdi were runners up in our Free Wedding Photography Contest that we held last year, which meant that they won a free e-session with us. Cool! So we met up to get some fun photos of these two. They turned out to be practically supermodels! Just wait till you see these shots, these two are pros!

I told you! Awesome. Thanks so much you two for hanging out with us and being so fun. And congrats on your recent wedding, woo hoo!

Lauren :)

Ok so these guys are awesome. Their wedding is this weekend and I am almost peeing my pants with excitement! Not only is it at one of our favorite venues (Fort Ed FTW!) but these guys are so crazy and goofy and silly that the day is going to be totally full of laughs. I can’t wait!

It sure helps that they also look ridiculously good in front of the camera! We had to reschedule their first e-session due to rain, and just as we were about to start this one it wasn’t looking promising. But the clouds totally just missed us and we had so much fun playing around.

Here is the proof:

I told you they were cool. Check out the awesome shirts!

HAhaha! Ok, so Rob has this habit of taking pictures of any animals we happen to see while we’re out shooting. Just as we finish up our session and start walking back to the cars we all see this dog just doing his business on the sidewalk. We giggle and Rob takes a photo. Afterwards I look more closely at the photo and see that the For Sale sign for the house is none other than our buddy Mike Melnychuk’s, the coolest realtor in Edmonton!!! Good work Mike!!!!

Coming up on the blog we have our very first maternity session, as well as a baby session with a little guy so cute even the boys will “Awwwww”. Promise.

Lauren :)

Ok, so how’s this for awesome timing? I’m posting Jolene & Brian’s e-session right now and in about an hour we’re leaving to go shoot their wedding!!! Cool!!

You can just picture them in all these photos in a wedding dress and tux and pretend you’re watching their wedding day…um…maybe not. But still, it’s a neat little coincidence!

We went out to play with them around Whyte Ave and got some awesome, fun and colourful photos. Here they are!

I’m pretty much a spy-tographer.

Wish us luck today! It’s going to be so fun. And the extra dosage of fun for the day: Mr. James Day is shooting with us!!! This is going to be awesome.

Lauren :)

Woo, late posting today! We ran around all day going to a couple of wedding rehearsals, and that takes up a lot of time! We have two weddings this weekend, and it’s going to be crazy fun!

But for now, here are those e-session photos I promised.

To make a long story short: Emina and Wisam are awesome and so much fun to hang out with. I think secretly Wisam thinks he’s a model. He’s pretty good at it! Here are some photos to prove how cool they are:

While we were waiting for them to arrive we got a little bit silly….

Rob has wonderful technique.

And, as we’re starting to notice, likes to go to the most outrageous spots to get a good photo.

Think good thoughts for us and our weddings this weekend! I’ll be figuring out the bonus points for those hilarious captions right away. Thanks for those guys, they made me lafs!

Lauren :)

Wow, more super fun e-sessions coming at you!

We hung out with Shelly and Colin downtown to take some really fun photos. We just walked around the block, looking for fun light and great colours, and just had a great time. It sure helps that these two are super hot, and know how to work the camera like pros. They may have let it slip that they were practicing by watching America’s Next Top Model, lol! But it sure shows. I totally recommend all our clients do that. It definitely helps you relax and think about your posing while shooting, plus it’s fun!

Anyway, off to see the photos!

I REALLY love this one!

We shot in the late evening and were able to get some really great light.

And as soon as we saw this awesome blue wall we just jumped right in!

Yes! I love this one too! So dynamic and sweet at the same time.

I told you these guys could pose it up.

Haha, Asian styles!

We always have fun. ALWAYS :)

LOL! Funniest behind-the-scenes EVER!

Shelly and Colin. You are awesome. I totally can’t wait for your awesome wedding, it seems so far away, but it’s going to rush up on us!!!

Lauren :)

P.S. 10 Bonus points to Talya for having the 100th comment! YAY!!!!

I told you this e-session was going to be awesome. And just you wait. This thing is “off the chain” as they say.

The coolest thing is that Jon is actually half of the brilliant team who made this very blog!!! So this post is really cool, that he gets to be featured on the blog he worked so hard on!! Good work Jon!

Another amazingly cool thing is that both Jon and Sarah have black belts in Tae Kwon Do! As soon as we hear stuff like that we get so excited with all the crazy stuff we can do!!! So believe me, you’re going to see a lot of jumping here :)

We did their shoot at the ever-awesome University of Alberta. Sure we go there a lot, but it’s always different and new locations, which is so fun!

I just saw this cool wall and suggested they climb it. There was NO hesitation, and up they went! You might remember this behind the scenes shot. This was came out of it! Cool!

Definitely flammable….

Then it was up to the rooftop to get some really cool stuff!

This shot is up on our wall. I love it! So fun!

Just showing their crazy skillz on the roof, nothing unusual.

What a great little scene!

Wow. Just wow. Look at that dramatic kiss!

Haha, and then back to the silliness!

And of course, some snuggling.

Blam!

I absolutely cannot wait for the wedding of these two. We’ve been really lucky to get to hang out with them both in working on the blog, and just for fun, and we are going to have a blast spending their wedding day with them! I mean, when the bride and groom can do crazy jumps like that, you know it’s going to be an awesome day!

Hope you enjoyed these ones!

Lauren :)

Here comes more awesome e-session goodness! Aren’t these things so fun?! Tons of fun, laughter, silliness, and some really cool locations in Edmonton. Shazaam!

Kaelyn and Skye are ridiculously cool. They also were pretty calm even though I never stopped talking about how cool Skye’s hair is. I mean, come on. It’s insane!

When chatting about where to do their engagement photos, Kaelyn and Skye suggested the area around the Legislature building, as it held some fond memories for them. It was a fun little challenge for us to use such a frequently photographed spot, and find some fun little locations. Had to start off with the Leg. in the background.

And then we found these really amazing trees that were just full of white blossoms.

Skye really gets into his laughs.

Aren’t these two just too cute together? What a romantic little spot.

Then it was time to go play in a parking lot nearby. Here we’re just being a bit goofy!

Cuteness!

Haha, I love being silly with photos.

Case in point.

This photo is just so cute and hot all together!

These guys are the awesome.

Yep, they are.

Remember what I said about laughing? It’s my favorite.

Lines are so fun to play with. These ones are pretty sweet.

Camera pros.

What a great little spot eh?

Snuggle!

Lol, we were having fun doing this until Skye went a bit crazy and spun her so fast they toppled over! Be careful when you try this at home, folks.

So we gave up on the spinning and went back to the standard snuggling.

Look Mom! We’re gorgeous!

Some behind the scenes. Rob just loves to find the most crazy place to stand as he’s shooting.

And here’s me getting some of those shots on the stairs.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Lauren :)

P.S. 5 bonus points to the first person who can tell me what those white blossoms are.

The current tally is:
Leslie – 11 points
JennLink – 6 points (she gets 5 points for saying we PWND a wedding)
Everyone else – 1 point (I’m assuming you all answered the survey!

Andrea and Rich were one of the runners up in our Free Wedding Photography Contest last year. We met up with them to do their free e-session. It was so much fun to hang out with them, enjoy some amazing weather and light, and just enjoy ourselves. We can’t even tell you how much we love e-sessions. They are so relaxing compared to the stress of a wedding day! Here are some of the awesome photos.

What did I tell you about that light? How awesome is this?

Just a little bit of cuddling and snuggling in the trees. Like any other day!

I LOVE photos of people laughing.

These two have so much fun together.

They also know how to work the camera!

Nice and tilty shifty.

Look at how she looks at him. There is no truer look than that. Pure love.

Yes! What a great spot to shoot. For the record, we were at the park near Snow Valley. It’s such a fun little place to shoot!

Since we wouldn’t be shooting their wedding, Andrea asked if we would be able to take a cool ring shot for her. We were more than happy to do it, and I think we got something pretty awesome out of it!

Haha, these guys were so silly!

And also ridiculously cute.

And a little behind the scenes for you!

Hope you enjoyed those! More awesome photos for you guys tomorrow (I just tallied it up and we have SO MUCH left to blog, it’s going to be all sorts of fun for a long time yet!).

Cheers,
Lauren :)

I’m not much for words today (actually I found out I lost my voice overnight, I’m still recovering from a silly cold!) so I thought today we’d get straight to the photos. Gerryl and Juan were the lucky winners of our free wedding contest and what follows is there awesome engagement session.

How cool are Gerryl and Juan? Cool enough to get us a box of Mike and Ikes!

I’m sure Lauren would like me to point out that I ate the majority of those Mike and Ikes (I think she had like four!). I do share, I just really love candy!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Cheers,
 Rob

Here we go. We’re getting into our wedding season in Edmonton. There’s a lot to catch up on, but as you can see we’ve been blogging EVERY SINGLE DAY so there’s tons of fun coming your way really soon.

Way back in the day we met up with Angeline and Dean at the University of Alberta to take some wicked fun engagement photos.

Ok, so Angeline works for Starbucks doing awesome stuff. That means that both of these guys are totally addicted to the ‘Bucks. Dean pretty much couldn’t put his down! But it worked out well for us. Rob learned of a new type of drink that he really likes. It’s a Double Tall, SFV, NF, ICED, Latte. That’s how Angeline wrote it down for us, haha! More shorthand than weddings!

Anyway, we had to incorporate the coffee into a shot.

I’m gonna throw two names at you, and just wait for your head to explode. Helen Hunt and Richard Gere. BAM!

Such cool stuff going on at the U of A.

These guys were such naturals, it was a blast.

We LOVE finding little pockets of colour to shoot our sessions with. This spot was killer.

Yummy blue.

Oh, and why not throw some huge ass coloured dots into the mix! All sorts of fun!

Yeah. That’s awesome.

I LOVE how snuggly they are here.

Angeline is such a goof.

They brought it like there was no tomorrow.

On the menu for tomorrow, their super fun wedding!!! See you then!

Lauren :)