Wow, what an engagement shoot! Dave and I were sooo stoked to get a phone call last Tuesday from a fun, awesome and super-gorgeous couple living in Connecticut. The call was about engagement photos and they said that they had searched high and low looking for the photographers to capture some unique and creative images of them in the place where they shared their first date… Mont Tremblant, Quebec! We were so happy to be the perfect fit for Rachel and John and to fly out to Mont Tremblant to document this time in their life.

Rachel and John had their first date after they met each other with a group of friends snowboarding one weekend. Neither one of them ever thought that this would be the weekend that they would meet their future love.

It’s so great seeing these two together, they have so many things in common and really just have a love for adventure and the outdoors.

It’s also really nice capturing the connection they have together. It’s very clear that they each hold a special place in their heart for one another.

I love doing artistic crops and shooting moments as they happen… This was such a cute moment after they had fallen down in the snow.

I love this amazing angle Dave caught… Take a minute to look at it and try to figure out how it was shot… John and Rachel are actually standing in this shot! This is an uprooted tree we found while walking in th forest, lol! Dave has such a creative eye for this sort of thing

As photographers, we’re always trying to use new ideas and concepts to spark more creativity. For this shoot, I wanted to break out of my usual shooting style a bit. As I’ve mentioned before, I absolutely love my 50 mm 1.2 lens. It’s soo buttery and amazing, you can really get used to using the same lenses for each shoot if you’re not careful. On this shoot, I used the 24 Tilt Shift for the whole session. It was a lot of fun and went well with our couples style!

I totally love this shot below! Rachel’s eyes look phenomenal and Dave’s angle is very cool too!

This was a bit of an interesting shot!  We found some abandoned buildings and peeked in for a few quirky shots! These guys were so funny, and really hammed it up for the cameras, thanks guys lol…

You can see how much fun these guys have together!! They really have an awesome time and you can tell they are also great friends too

Mont Tremblant has to be one of the most romantic spots in Canada!! Everything looked ethereal when the air was filled with big, white fluffy snowflakes.

As you can see from our sneak peek, we knew we could have a little bit of fun with our awesome couple… We love creating something different and special for our clients.

What a great place for a first date huh?? Yes, there is even a icy slide to cruise down, so much fun!

They needed to warm up a bit after the ice slide, so they sat by the fire… They couldn’t help but laugh when the wind changed and they got smoked out after their ride, hehehe!

After a bit of shooting we had a delicious dinner together in the village. We waited for the sun to go down so we could do some night shooting (my fave)!! We love the chance to create something moody and dramatic for our clients. Rachel and John really loved the engagement shoot we did with my sister Tricia and her fiance Kris this November… It seems to be a very popular engagement session and I think our clients love night shooting as much as we do

Isn’t Rachel stunning in this shot?? We promise, we do not get our clients from modeling agency’s… Although we’ve been asked, hehe! Something that both Dave and I love creating is images with amazing bokeh – that’s the photogaphy term for the giant blurred out lights in the background… next time you’re watching a romantic movie, notice how the more romantic a scene gets, the bigger the bokeh gets!

As we wrapped the shoot, we noticed so wicked lighting coming from a nearby bar in the village. It hadn’t quite opened yet and so they were happy to let us create a few images inside while it was empty. I love these two shots, the purple and blue lights look soo cool eh? Dave went for the awesome shot above and I thought it would be cool to grab this shot below in the reflection of the mirror. What a great spot for a few cool shots!

Thanks so much to Rachel and John for trusting our vision and allowing us to create something special for you! We had a great time shooting this with you and are super excited to see the finished product from the album we’ve create for your engagement shoot Congratulations guys!!!

Here’s a sneak peek of your album while it’s away at print…. The first image in the slideshow is your image wrap cover, with the front cover being on the right, spine down the middle and back cover on the left.

G’Day everyone,

On Tuesday night this week, we got a call from Rachel and John. They’re a cool couple from Connecticut asking if it were possible for us to fly to Mt Tremblant to take some snowy engagement pictures for them. Charlotte and I did a quick search of the FlyPorter website and were excited to see that it was possible to get out this weekend!

So Friday morning we boarded our flight on Toronto island and were walking across the tarmac in Mont Tremblant less than an hour later. Gotta love Porter for it’s convenience, plus the service is great!

We met up with Rachel and John at the base of the village with lots of smiles and hugs. We could tell we’d just found some  new instant friends!

Needless to say, we had an AMAZING time driving around the mountain and walking in the forest with them. We had an awesome shoot, and have lots of great images to edit, however we wanted to share this engagement photo with you. This is one of our favourites from the shoot…

We created the above photograph by creating multiple exposures with John doing an amazing job of holding still throughout! We then overlapped them all in PhotoShop to create this rather striking and unique image!

We couldn’t be more impressed with their diversity and willingness to make this shot happen!

We’ll definitely post the rest of the shoot in another post, but before we leave you we thought you may enjoy seeing this panorama we made looking across the lake at the mountain. You can view a larger version of this Mont Tremblant Panorama by clicking here.

We’re off to the Wedding Co. show at the Carlu in Toronto now to visit a few friends and to get some more cool ideas for our wedding. Hope to see some of you there!

Hey everyone! We’re back from an amazing photography convention, Mystic 5, in beautiful Mystic, Connecticut. We had a great time learning from some of our favourite Master Photographers from around the globe. We’ve been traveling soo much this winter and are flying off to gorgeous Mont Tremblant again this weekend to shoot Rachel and John’s wintery engagement session! We love shooting in Mont Tremblant and we’re so excited when we had the honour to photograph Sam and Ian’s stunning wedding at the five star Hotel Quintessence this month!

The wedding was simply stunning from start to finish. When we entered the front doors of the hotel we were treated so well. It was such a gorgeous spot to host a wedding. Panoramic views of the mountain and every hotel room has a fabulous view of the water. It has to be one of the finest hotels in all of Mont Tremblant.

Dave went to the guys suite to take some photographs of them all having a great time getting ready for the ceremony. Ian has such an amazing sense of humour, I guess that comes with being British. He and his groomsmen had everyone laughing through the whole day. I love it when we photograph a wedding and the day is filled with fun and laughter. It really shows the closeness everyone has for one another.

I met up with the girls in the bridal suite. What a stunning room! I also loved all of the little details, it adds so much charm to a wedding day!

Samantha looked absolutely incredible. She was so elegant and truly reminded me of a ballerina. She was the picture of beauty on her wedding day.

As the guests were waiting for the bride to arrive, these two little church mice peeked over the pews to get a better look, too cute!

After a charming ceremony in one of the most quaint chapels we’ve photographed in, the church bells rang and Sam and Ian were pronounced husband and wife!! Congrats again guys!

The cute little flower girl, Charlotte, even took a turn ringing the church bells for Sam and Ian

We loved taking Sam and Ian out for a few chilly shots. There is something about the fresh, white snow that is so romantic. Great shot guys!

The bridal party was a lot of fun and really kept the entertainment going throughout the day. What a good looking bunch!

Isn’t Mont Tremblant so romantic when the sun goes down. You get this amazing blue glow that contrasts with the warmth of the village lights below. I could stay there all winter long.

During the speeches it was really nice to learn a bit about how Sam and Ian met. They we’re 14 and both living in Saudi Arabia. They actually dated for a bit when they were teenagers and met each other again when they were older. It was very touching during their speech when Ian mentioned that while away working in Hong kong, He really, truly missed Sam with all of his heart. He knew that Samantha was the only girl for him. It was hard to hold back the tears when he was sharing these meaningful words about Sam.

I love this shot Dave captured of the boys enjoying a stogy together. On such a brisk night, it just seems right to light up a cigar in celebration.

When it came time for some of the boys to speak, they almost had the crowd in tears with their wit. Capturing candid moments and all of the great wedding photojournalism is really what keeps us challenged to do what we do. We love those natural moments that just happen.

At the end of an enchanting evening, it was a beautiful touch when Sam’s sister sang during the first dance. I’m sure it meant a lot to them to have such a personal gift for their wedding. Sam and Ian, thanks so much for choosing us! We had a fantastic time photographing your amazing wedding in Mont Tremblant. Just thinking about it really gets us stoked for Rachel and John’s engagement shoot this weekend! Congratulations to you both!!!

Hey everyone! We’re back from an amazing photography convention, Mystic 5, in beautiful Mystic, Connecticut. We had a great time learning from some of our favourite Master Photographers from around the globe. We’ve been traveling soo much this winter and are flying off to gorgeous Mont Tremblant again this weekend to shoot Rachel and John’s wintery engagement session! We love shooting in Mont Tremblant and we’re so excited when we had the honour to photograph Sam and Ian’s stunning wedding at the five star Hotel Quintessence this month!

The wedding was simply stunning from start to finish. When we entered the front doors of the hotel we were treated so well. It was such a gorgeous spot to host a wedding. Panoramic views of the mountain and every hotel room has a fabulous view of the water. It has to be one of the finest hotels in all of Mont Tremblant.

Dave went to the guys suite to take some photographs of them all having a great time getting ready for the ceremony. Ian has such an amazing sense of humour, I guess that comes with being British. He and his groomsmen had everyone laughing through the whole day. I love it when we photograph a wedding and the day is filled with fun and laughter. It really shows the closeness everyone has for one another.

I met up with the girls in the bridal suite. What a stunning room! I also loved all of the little details, it adds so much charm to a wedding day!

Samantha looked absolutely incredible. She was so elegant and truly reminded me of a ballerina. She was the picture of beauty on her wedding day.

As the guests were waiting for the bride to arrive, these two little church mice peeked over the pews to get a better look, too cute!

After a charming ceremony in one of the most quaint chapels we’ve photographed in, the church bells rang and Sam and Ian were pronounced husband and wife!! Congrats again guys!

The cute little flower girl, Charlotte, even took a turn ringing the church bells for Sam and Ian

We loved taking Sam and Ian out for a few chilly shots. There is something about the fresh, white snow that is so romantic. Great shot guys!

The bridal party was a lot of fun and really kept the entertainment going throughout the day. What a good looking bunch!

Isn’t Mont Tremblant so romantic when the sun goes down. You get this amazing blue glow that contrasts with the warmth of the village lights below. I could stay there all winter long.

During the speeches it was really nice to learn a bit about how Sam and Ian met. They we’re 14 and both living in Saudi Arabia. They actually dated for a bit when they were teenagers and met each other again when they were older. It was very touching during their speech when Ian mentioned that while away working in Hong kong, He really, truly missed Sam with all of his heart. He knew that Samantha was the only girl for him. It was hard to hold back the tears when he was sharing these meaningful words about Sam.

I love this shot Dave captured of the boys enjoying a stogy together. On such a brisk night, it just seems right to light up a cigar in celebration.

When it came time for some of the boys to speak, they almost had the crowd in tears with their wit. Capturing candid moments and all of the great wedding photojournalism is really what keeps us challenged to do what we do. We love those natural moments that just happen.

At the end of an enchanting evening, it was a beautiful touch when Sam’s sister sang during the first dance. I’m sure it meant a lot to them to have such a personal gift for their wedding. Sam and Ian, thanks so much for choosing us! We had a fantastic time photographing your amazing wedding in Mont Tremblant. Just thinking about it really gets us stoked for Rachel and John’s engagement shoot this weekend! Congratulations to you both!!!

Charlotte and I just got home from shooting the wedding of Julie and Paul (referred to us by another wonderful couple – Audrey & Jay) and we’re full of energy! With every wedding we shoot, Charlotte and I put in every ounce of passion, care and creativity we can muster, and sometime we arrive home in need of a foot message! We were so stoked to finally be able to photograph this awesome couple we met at Taboo resort just this summer. Julie and Paul were the type of couple who are passionate about everything they do – including having fun during their wedding photography… Today turned out to be pretty cold… I think it maxed out at -15°C! So when Julie and Paul still wanted to head down to Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, throw on some skates and scoot around the ice for an hour, Charlotte and I were impressed to say the least!!

We had a ball shooting them both, and will enjoy sharing the photos with you all soon, but for now I wanted to say a quick goodbye as we head down to Mystic, Connecticut for a wedding photographers convention. We’ll look forward to catching up with a bunch of ‘photografriends’ down there and take in some new ideas, techniques for both our photography, album design and business.

Seeing that we’re away for the week, we thought it’d be fun to share a slide show we put together of some of our favourite engagement pictures from 2009…. Of course we couldn’t fit in all our couples, but needless to say there were hundreds of other shots we would have loved to put in there.

Stay tuned to the blog for more fun winter weddings and try to stay warm out there!!!

Which is your favourite pics from the slideshow? (just reference the timestamp)

Happy New Year everyone!!

We have soo much exciting stuff happening this month so stay tuned to the blog for all of the updates and details of what we’re doing and where we’re off to next! We’re excited to be photographing Julie and Paul’s wedding tomorrow and then we’ll be in gorgeous Mystic Connecticut taking part in an awesome photography workshop with some of the best photographers in the business! Oh- and don’t forget all of our sweet destination weddings we have lined up… Yey for winter!!

As we all know, November can be a little unpredictable in terms of weather, so it was with great delight that we woke to clear blue skies and mild temperatures the morning of Nina and Igor’s wedding. It’s amazing to think that only a month ago it was possible to head outdoors with just a wedding dress on!

Regular readers of our blog may remember Nina and Igor’s engagement pictures we shot at The Beaches in Toronto. We had such a ball shooting Nina and Igor because they’re so easy going and willing to try out whatever ideas Charlotte and I threw at them. I think it helps that they’re both talented wedding photographers too! Check out their work here.

We began the day at both of their homes in Streetsville, shooting the preparations, the details of the day as well as some pretty bad ass shots of the guys. Check it out…

How funny is Igor’s proposal book?! Cool right… In case you can’t figure it out, it says “Wheel U Merry Me?”

Their ceremony took place around my old stomping ground, Meadowvale at the Merciful Redeemer Parish. It’s a gorgeous, modern Catholic church, with lots of window light and a stunning high ceiling.

It’s always so cool to be at wedding ceremonies to witness the look on the groom’s face as his bride walks towards him, and believe me, Igor was no exception. You can see the look in his eye shows a deep love for his wife to be.

The priest was hilarious – cracking jokes throughout the ceremony, which made for some great moments of laughter.

After the ceremony we all jumped in the limo and headed down to the University of Toronto for a little photo fun. The guys did a little warm up to be sure they didn’t overexert themselves!

There are some super sweet locations scattered through U of T, Nina and Igor even hooked us up with some we’d never used… like this awesome hallway. Nice right?

Love this shot above. A nice quiet little moment together.

If you’ve looked around the web at wedding photography at U of T, you’ve more than likely seen this door. It’s very cool eh.

As you can see below, Charlotte loves taking advantage of the gorgeous architecture with this shot!

After we’d finished up the shoot, we headed over to The Old Mill. We did some cool twilight shots of the gorgeous couple in front of the building. Nina also works in Marketing at Coke, so she broke out a couple of bottles for this shot. We decided to light it a little more dramatically for this shot!

On the way inside, Charlotte had Nina stand against the cool wall paper to create this beautiful portrait.

Their reception took place in Guild Hall, which is one of the nicest rooms at the Old Mill… it faces the back of the building and has huge windows that open onto the patio.

Thanks for an awesome shoot guys. We loved being part of your wedding day

Dave & Charlotte

As much as we love how magical snow looks in our engagement photos, we were quite happily surprised to have a clear December day to do some awesome shots with our wicked cool clients Marco & Julie! We were stoked that they chose us to photograph their fabulous wedding at the Liberty Grand here in Toronto this coming July!One of the reasons why we were so excited to be photographing their day is because these guys have already seen us in action last August at Christina & David’s wedding! Christina & David were referred to us through our friends at Pink Twig, one of Toronto’s best florists … Don’t you just love how that happens?! We do, because almost all of our couples were referred to us one way or another!

Since these guys love Toronto as much as we do, we decided to hit up a couple cool locations around the city. The first stop was Toronto’s famous Distillery District. This is such a great location for engagement photos I absolutely love the way the rich reds, coppers and oranges look on the pick up in this photo above! This was shot across the lane from Pikto, a professional photo lab we use quite a bit.

This is another shot I ADORE! Not only does Julie’s hair style look killer in this shot, but I love the way the brick buildings compliment the shades and depth of colour in her hair…

Here are a couple of candid pictures we caught when Dave cracked a joke! We love capturing the natural laughs between our couples. Too Cute!!!

Haha, here are a couple of sweet shots too!! We got Julie and Marco to play around for a bit and pose… Work it… work it!!

I love the Distillery so much for the cute little details you seem to find everywhere you turn! I love the wood work and design on this amazing wall.

As the sun went down we scooted over to the R.O.M. to grab this sexy shot in the rain. Julie and Marco loved my sister Tricia’s engagement shoot near the R.O.M. We thought it’d was cool to get a new angle on the museum to really capture all of the gorgeous architecture!

Here’s an example of the DVD slide show we offer our clients! Nothing better than having a custom slide show of their engagement pictures so they can sit back, relax and enjoy their images together. We’re so excited to be designing a custom engagement album for Marco and Julie as well!! We know we can create something amazing for them with all of the awesome pictures from their shoot. Thanks so much to Marco and Julie!! You guys were great and so open to our ideas… It really makes a huge difference when you’re up for anything!! Thanks guys!!!

Welcome back to the blog everyone! Hope you’re all recovering well from excessive consumption of turkey, stuffing and all the other goodies that come with this time of year! Charlotte and I are thoroughly enjoying some down time with her parents place up in Southampton on Lake Huron. It’s been pretty mild temps up here, with heavy snowfall for the last couple of days. We’ve been talking Fritzi and Greta out for carries (rather than walks!) every day which is great fun. We’re both dressed in winter gear head to toe, which makes it REALLY feel like Winter time. I really do love this time of year… there’s nothing quite like fresh snow on the ground.

Yesterday during a milder part of the day, we asked Larry (Charlotte’s Dad) to take a few shots of us while we were walking. I’m loving the snow in these shots… Pretty keen to do some engagement sessions during the Winter now that I’ve seen how cool it looks!!!

We’ll be back to blogging in a couple of days, but just wanted to say a quick hi and wish you all the very best for 2010. We’re very exciting about the coming year.

Warm wishes from Dave & Charlotte

Right now we’re in beautiful, snowy Southampton enjoying some Christmas Eve festivities with the family. So far, we’ve had a yummy dinner and a girls against boys gingerbread house decorating competition. The boys went all out creating a Christmas Zombie Hideaway complete with sparklers from the rooftop and fire burning from the inside.

The girls design, an Elf Hospital, was a striking work of art, made with precision and grace. As you can guess the boys design upstaged the girls, as an unexpected use of pyrotechnics was involved. Next year, I’m sure we’ll have a more regimented set of rules.

We hope you’re all enjoying the Holiday Season and having a chance to spend time with friends and family. Merry Christmas and we’d love for you to take a moment to view our holiday greeting to you all!!

~Charlotte, Dave and family!

Wow! What a great month we’ve had. Right now I’m relaxing by a roaring fire at our beautiful resort on Mont Tremblant writing this post. We’re shooting a gorgeous wedding at the resort this weekend and the scenery here is absolutely breath taking! Speaking of stunning weddings, we were SO stoked when one of our couples were featured in Dolce Magazine this month. Dolce is a luxury lifestyle magazine with publications across Canada and the USA. We were pretty excited when they interviewed some of our fave clients, Sonny & Rachael about their own personal “Love Story.”

Sonny & Rachael had one of the sweetest love stories we had ever heard. Sonny, a doctor in the Oakville Hospital E.R., met Rachael, a nurse at the Hospital, one day when she dropped her napkin while enjoying her lunch. There he was, down on one knee, looking up at her with her napkin in his hand It wasn’t too long after that he was down on one knee again, this time asking Rachael to be his wife! Aww… Isn’t that so romantic. No wonder magazine wanted to feature these two for A Dolce Love Story.

We had the best time shooting the wedding of Sonny & Rachael this July. They were a pleasure to photograph and are truly kind, generous and amazing people. For any brides to be, this article was a great read and lists many of the awesome wedding vendors they used for their special day! It was also a lovely way for Racheal & Sonny to reflect on their love for each other.  Check out newsstands now to pick up your copy of Dolce Magazine… We’re honoured to have a feature  photographer interview this month as well! To check out more pictures from Rachael & Sonny’s gorgeous Sikh wedding click here!