Beautiful Newborn Oliver

Last weekend we had the pleasure of meeting Baby Oliver, and of photographing him with his Mommy & Daddy. Rasha & Wil are two of the nicest, most relaxed and easy-going people I've ever met - they were such a joy to spend time with :) We had many things in common, from our taste in headboards and art (we even have a couple of paintings from the same artist!) to our agreement that Baby Oliver is pretty much perfect :) See for yourself..

this next image is one of my favourite shots EVER - love it!

I also really enjoyed all the cool owl details in his sweet nursery..

Baby Oliver is happiest when he's being snuggled :)

Love those tiny toes :)

Rasha & Wil - thank you so much for sharing your home and your family with us! We had such a great time snuggling with Oliver and playing with the cats, and can't wait to show you the rest of your adorable images :)

xo

Jessica + Norman

{if you're expecting a tiny new addition to your own family and would love gorgeous maternity and newborn portraits of your own - email us now for more information! We also do gift certificates and registry - inquire for details!}

Some of my Favourite Images from our Trip to Japan

As many of you already know, back in October I finally got around to living one of my biggest - and longest put-off - dreams: going to Japan :) We spent an amazing three weeks travelling and photographing this fascinating culture and the lovely people who live in it. 

We went to Tokyo, Mt. Fuji (although not UP Mt. Fuji), Kyoto, Hiroshima, Miyajima, and spent an amazing week living and working on a farm in the mountains in Gifu. We spoke broken Japanese, broken English, and some barely-remembered high school French. We ate things with names like "octopus balls" (and enjoyed them!). We learned how to make sushi from a woman who was deemed an expert due to her 30+ years as a Japanese housewife. We braved multiple onsen (hot springs) and were not shunned for our tattoos. We saw a few real Geisha and many young women dressed up as Geisha for the day. We stood in a cage to feed wild monkeys who live outside of the cage. We were enthusiastically greeted by teams of employees at every restaurant, shop, and museum. We heard automated greetings and/or warnings from escalators, elevators, and subway entrances. We learned the difference between saki and shochu (the hard way). We stood shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of people crammed into the narrow streets of a tiny village while men paraded with huge fiery torches.

It was AMAZING. 

I have the distinct feeling that I'm still unaware of how much this trip changed my life, which is a pretty awesome feeling :) 

Being photographers, we of course took many photographs while we were there. We also made 80 short digital videos, and shot 4 rolls of super 8 movie film. Needless to say, there's a lot of really amazing material to work through now that we're back. The best of these images will be included in future art shows and exhibitions (stay tuned for details), and I'm going to work on piecing together the video and film footage to create a short piece in motion. And (as with past travel images) I will be selecting a handful to use in the creation of my photo-based multi media art pieces, which I am SO looking forward to making :) I've already started one, which you can see below..

I can't wait to show you more of these images from our awesome trip, and tell the stories that go with them! I'm currently knee-deep in application and submission forms, so stay in touch to get the latest news on where we'll be :)

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Thanks to everyone for your much-appreciated on-going support! You guys are the best!

xo
Jessica + Norman

Sweet Baby Asher at 6 months :)

In case you missed it, here was Asher's debut about 5 months ago (time flies when you're a baby!).. since then, he's become a huge fan of smiling, balloons, and "flying" :) We had such a great time capturing all these things and more!

Seriously - how perfect is he??

 He was such a great sport, and even let us take him outside in the snow even though it was getting close to nap time..

Nathalie & Rich - thanks so much for another fantastically fun day of documenting your family :) We don't want Asher to grow up too quickly, but can't wait for his next photo shoot!

xo
Jessica + Norman

Newborn Baby Sam at 6 weeks old :)

I've known Kim for years - she was actually one of my very first commercial clients way back when we both started our businesses. Since then, she's made a lot of beautiful jewellery and I've taken about a million photographs. We've both moved into our own studio spaces. I had the honour of photographing their day when Kim and Paul got married in October of 2008. And now, the sweetest thing I've ever photographed for Kim - her first baby boy: Sam. At 6 weeks he was the oldest "newborn" I've shot so far, and he had the hair and the strength to prove it! We spent a lovely and eventful afternoon capturing these proud new parents and their amazing little guy :)

I think this first shot is one of my favourite family photos ever..!

 Love this smile! We did a whole series of Sam on his tummy on the white duvet to match with a collection of awesome images taken of Paul when he was a tiny baby :)

 What I love best about this pose (below) is how Sam is only a cape away from being Superman! (the classic Bay blanket is pretty great too)

Kim & Paul - thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of this fantastic new step in your journey together :) With so much feisty character packed into such a small guy, I can't wait to see what he's like in the coming months!

xo
Jessica + Norman

{if you're expecting a tiny new addition to your own family and would love gorgeous maternity and newborn portraits of your own - email us now for more information! We also do gift certificates and registry - inquire for details!}

Amanda + Nick's Cozy Winter Engagement Session

Not too long ago, we spent a lovely afternoon photographing Amanda & Nick's engagement session. Luck was on our side and we actually had some very picturesque snow (rare for this winter so far!) which added to the cozy-winter-snuggles feel of the shoot that day :) 

I absolutely love this first image..

For those of you who don't already know this - (surprise!) - Amanda & Nick are moving to Hawaii at the end of the month. What could be more perfect for their snowy engagement shoot than a grass skirt and some tropically colourful accessories?

 These two were so much fun, and were up for every crazy idea we threw at them (including twirling while letting us shoot a short filming test on the Super 8!).. I'm really looking forward to their wedding in March, which I'm sure will be an amazing celebration :) 

The craziest part of the day (twirling aside) was when Nick and I realized we went to the same high school.. what a small world :)

Amanda & Nick - best of luck with the packing and moving, and we'll see you again very soon!

xo
Jessica + Norman

{if you are recently engaged and looking for just the right people to photograph your wedding, email us now and we'll set up a time to chat!

Katie & Darryl's finished albums :)

Katie & Darryl had a perfect, beautiful wedding day at Waterstone Estates - they were both so sweet and full of smiles that it was a joy to photograph them :) Since then, they've been busy: a new house, a new job, and most recently a new baby! Designing their albums was a pleasure for me as it brought back memories from a great day.. I love knowing that they will feel the same when they look through these images and share them with their families on Christmas day :)

Here are a few of my favourite spreads from the bride and groom's album..

 I love this last page..

I took a couple of quick pictures of the finished albums before wrapping them up for Katie so you can see how the pages lay totally flat, which gives a really nice finished look :)

This great image wraps around the cover of their album..

The big one is the main bride & groom album, with two smaller matching ones for Katie & Darryl's parents :)

As a bonus we also got to meet wee Baby Harper, who treated us to lots of smiles and giggles :) We hope we'll be seeing more of her soon!

Thanks again to Katie & Darryl for being such a pleasure to work with, and we were so happy to be able to be a part of your families' Christmas this year :)

xo

Jessica + Norman

Sneak Peek of our Awesome Japan trip (October 2012)

As some of you already know, this October we went to Japan - a trip I had been dreaming about for over a decade, and which my lovely husband not only agreed to but actually set in motion. I had been putting it off for ages, at first because of how expensive I assumed it would be, and later because secretly I was afraid that there was no way Japan could live up to the expectations I had steadily been building up. I will admit - I had the entire country and culture on a pedestal. In my mind, it was a fantasy land where the distant (and very romantic) past happily coexisted with a sort of science fiction future, where everything was not only steeped in meaning but also aesthetically stunning. Long before I ever went to Spain, France, Ireland or Mexico it was the only trip I ever wanted to take - and yet it was the trip I continued to not take. 

So last January when Norman and I were discussing possible places to visit,  I mentioned always having wanted to go to Japan. In that way that people who are not you have of making very obvious and simple observations about things that you have made very complicated in your own head, he said "so let's go". And that was it.

We ended up going for just over 3 weeks in October. We took one DSLR, one point-and-shoot, and one Super 8 camera. There are now over 2300 images, 80 short videos, and four rolls of Super 8 film, along with a journal that is so far three books long. Needless to say - it's going to take a while to edit through all this and process and absorb the whole experience, but so many people have asked to see pictures from our trip that I thought I would share a few snippets :) I will also share the two major things I learned as we were in Japan - 1. it doesn't have to be nearly as expensive as I thought it would be, and 2. it is even more awesome than I could have imagined :)

Here are a handful of my favourite images.. some are from the farm we stayed on in Gifu, and others are from Kyoto and Hiroshima (I promise - stories to follow at a later date!) - enjoy!

This last image is a piece I put together by collaging different elements of images from Tokyo, Kyoto, Miyajima, and the airport in Taipei (seriously!) - it's my plan to do a collection of collaged pieces as I've done with my France images (if you missed those at the Queen West Art Crawl this fall, stay tuned for information about upcoming shows..)

Have a great weekend!

xo 

Jessica