A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a mom who was looking for some nice family photos to give to her mother-in-law for Christmas. She had seen my ad in the print version of The Little Paper, had checked out my site, and got in touch to see what I was all about. She told me that one of the things that drew her to my style of photography was that I wasn't into the posed shots. And of course you know how much I just loooooooooooooooooove posed studio shots, right? *gag* *blech* So of course, all of this was music to my ears!

To make a long story short, we met up for a family photoshoot at their home at Bloor West Village, near High Park. I have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for High Park. When my family first moved to Canada, back in 1989, we settled in Toronto, and specifically, in High Park. We were only there for a little under one year before we moved to Edmonton (my family moved a lot when I was young, and no, my dad was not in the military), but Toronto certainly made an impression! The school that I attended for grade 5 was not too far from where this family lived, and it's always a treat to trek that familiar bit of territory and take a trip down Memory Lane, even though things have changed vastly since my days of living in that area.

Although our original plan was to have a few photos done at home, and a few done in High Park, we wound up doing all of the photos at their home. Mom and dad Cynthia and Peter have 5-year-old Cooper, who was totally excited to have his picture taken. In the spirit of Christmas photos, I'd brought some props with me, including Santa hats, reindeer antlers, and elf hat, and some fun animal-themed winter hats. I had a frog, a bunny, and a penguin with me. Cooper was excited to show me his own hat.

Holmes-012 His playfulness was present throughout our session. Which of course is totally awesome, because photography sessions are all about having fun and making memories. (Repeat after me: "I hate stuffy studio photos.") And speaking of memories, check this one out. I would like to point out that mom Cynthia does NOT allow this to happen in the day-to-day. She did, however, agree that it made for a fun photo. As a fellow mom, I completely agree. And as a photographer, my thought was, "BRING. IT. ON." And look at what a cool shot we ended up with!

Holmes-028 Of course, since the photos were for Cynthia's mother-in-law, we needed to have the requisite family portrait. Okay, this was posed...but notice how I totally caught them in a natural moment - HA!

Holmes-330

And speaking of gotchas, this has got to be one of my favorite moments of the session. Unleash the fun! I just felt kind of bad for Peter, because when I arrived, he had *just* finished raking the leaves. And there I went, messing things up. But wasn't it totally worth it?

Holmes-302 I had a wonderful time at this session, and I was especially pleased that all three of them loved the photos that I presented to them when I returned to their home for a post-session photo review. So much so that they requested a second viewing of their slideshow, and ordered a couple of additional products that weren't included in their package. Having sessions like these and wonderful clients to boot help make this the greatest job in the world.