Ontario Holgas

Anyone who knows me well knows that the Holga is my camera. I absolutely love to shoot with it, especially in my personal work. Every road trip or vacation that I take, my Holga comes along. I recently got eight rolls of film developed that I had shot on this camera. Some of the film was from the summer so I was excited to see what would come from it! Here are some of my favourites from various trips in the past seven months across Ontario.

Near Grand Bend

Near Grand Bend


Near Terra Cotta


The Badlands


Ferris Provincial Park


Southampton

Pati + Marcus are Getting Married

Pati + Marcus are an awesome couple who are a lot of fun. They love to travel, they love the city, they love the Caribbean and they love being photographed. Exactly my kind of people! They got engaged on New Years Day and are currently planning their May 2009 wedding. On Saturday I met up with them for an engagement portrait session. We made a marathon of it by first starting at the Distillery District in Toronto for some urban backdrops. We then headed to my studio which is located nearby and then finished off the session at one of the best Caribbean restaurants in Toronto, The Real Jerk. I have way too many favourite images from their session - I swear that I have tried my best to narrow them down!

Marcus is Trinidadian to we had to include the Trini flag somehow!

The Hoover Dam

While recently in Las Vegas we took a little trip over to see the Hoover Dam. It was incredible to see and I had no idea how massive it was. The sun was starting to drop which made it perfect for photography.

Valley of Fire, Nevada

Obviously I love photographing people. I could go on talking about how much I love it. About how satisfying it is when you know that you have captured that one frame that truly emanates the moment that just occurred between the people in the photograph. I truly love it.

In my free time, however, I love photographing places. Particularly barren ones. This past weekend while I was in Las Vegas, we rented a car and headed out of the city to discover some new lands. We came across the Valley of Fire and I fell in love with the landscapes there. It was so beautiful.

And one last one of us.

I'm ba-ack!

I have returned from my weekend away in the wild and fabulous Las Vegas. Stay tuned for some images from the trip! In the meantime, here I am at the Valley of Fire.

VACATION ALERT! Viva Las Vegas!

I wanted to let you all know that I will be out of town until Wednesday, February 20th. I will not have access to my phone and email during this time and will respond to any messages when I return. I appreciate your patience!

I hope that you all enjoy the long weekend and stayed tuned for some images from my weekend away in Las Vegas!!

Cheers,
Jessica

Something NU, er, new

On Saturday I had a portrait session in the studio that was a first for me. With all of these boudoir portrait sessions lately, it was only a matter of time before I got a client who wanted to bear it all for the camera! These images are posted with her permission and to protect the innocent, you must click "SEE MORE" below to see these racy images. Do not say that I did not warn you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you a day filled with love.

Claire + Roy

Claire + Roy have got to be one of the most adorable couples ever! I had so much fun during their engagement portrait session on Saturday! We met at the Harbourfront Centre for some ice skating fun and then wandered around that area, stopping at every nook to do some portraits. The weather was awful and rainy but I put my camera in a plastic bag and we made the most of it. My feeling is that it could always be worst. I cannot wait to photograph their wedding in August!

Save Us From Our House

As some of you know, for the past while I have been working with a production company on a television show called Save Us From Our House. It is a dubbed a "relationship-renovation reality show" and for it, I photograph the families in my studio. The photography shoot is filmed and it then appears at the beginning and end of every episode. It is a pretty hilarious job and I get to meet some great families through it! Here are some of my favourite images from the last episodes that we shot. We will resume filming in March so stayed tuned for season four. In the meantime, you can check out season three of Save Us From Our House every Thursday at 9:30pm on the W Network.

Happy Monday!

Mondays are always hard, especially in the winter! To make up for the cold weather and snow piling up, we have been getting some spectacular sunsets. Here is the view from my studio last week. Toronto has never looked better!

This Weekend in Toronto

Yes, it is cold, snowy and seriously windy today in Toronto. City TV is dubbing it a "Godzilla"-like storm and it is supposed to be the worst storm of the season. But we are Canadians and we can handle a little snow, right?! This weekend is a great time to celebrate the season as it is the last one of WinterCity 2008. Last weekend we ventured in the cold down to Nathan Philip's Square to take in the Nights of Fire exhibit and to hear some tunes by locals Tokyo Police Club. I am so glad that we did! The fire exhibit put on by France's Cie Carabosse is awesome! The entire square is surrounded by fire and they have different structures lit with fire throughout. The fires will be lit again tonight and tomorrow from 6pm until 9pm so please check it out if you get a chance - it is definitely worth battling the snow for! Tomorrow night another great Canadian band, the Weakerthans, also hit the stage.