little Brigitte and her parents

Beautiful little girl! Brigitte’s mom called me on the 3rd of September asking about my portraits. She was new in town and had heard about me and checked out my website. I invited her in for a tour of the studio and to talk about what her vision was for the portrait. At that session I found out that she had a 1½ year old that she wanted portraits of, as well as the family of 3. We decided on a date (October 25th, after I came back from my African adventure).

Little Brigitte arrives with her parents that day – and she is extremely shy – at least it seemed that way. She looked at me suspiciously but she was wiling to do what mom and dad wanted her to. We started off in my window light room – and we tried to get her to sit or stand in a certain place, but, you can’t tell a 1½ year old what to do! You just go with the flow. She had a few of her favorite toys, her special doll and her books with her. Eventually we got some absolutely amazing images of her – doing what she wanted to do! Why do we even try to tell young children what to do – I’ve discovered that we just let them lead the way! That is the best way to capture their personality and spirit in a timeless photograph!

Here are some of my favorite images from that session…

When we finished photographing Brigitte, the family went outside and photographed the family. Brigitte was fascinated by the leaves!

I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this image!

More favorites…

I love it when my clients write in my Comment book! This is what Anna wrote… “You really captured the busyness of our daughter. We love the family shot – thank you for helping us put a memory on our wall!” – Markus & Anna

No – thank you Markus, Anna and Brigitte – it’s clients like you that make me love my job!

Africa Trip – Part 2

Well, it has been one month since we arrived at Spurwing Island. It seems like forever ago! I have been extremely busy with clients – Photographing, Premiere Showings, Consultations and Production – and I haven’t had a chance to go through more of my African images!

Today I’m heading to Brandon to spend some time with my best friend Inge and her husband Michael. Inge was the person that convinced me to go on the African Safari and we’re going to be reminiscing about our trip! Catherine – the 4th member of our party, will be joining us on Monday evening for dinner. I can’t wait to talk about our trip!

Following are more photos taken on our first day Safari. Can you tell I love elephants? ;-D

Does this elephant know we’re watching??

On our way back to Spurwing Island after our first Game Drive – this is Catherine on the boat back.

One of the children living at the Game Warden’s compound in Matusadona National Game Park.

This is the Game Warden’s daughter – a bit shy at first – but she warmed to us!

The very elusive Lilac Breasted Roller in flight!

Elephant Trek…

A lone zebra – watching us – the lighting was unbelievable!

Another shot of an elephant – their trunks are so beautiful – graceful!

An elephant uses his feet to disturb the ground – looking for food? They eat trees, shrubs, grasses…

Did I mention how wonderful the light is?

A rare hippo on land – mostly they stay in the waters…

A great shot of a Water Buck standing in front of a termite mound.

While at Spurwing Island we woke up at 5:00 am to prepare for our first Game Drive of the day. This is the view that greeted us from our tent. Bliss…

Off to Brandon! I’ll post more another time.

Image Competition – I still got it! :-)

Since coming back from Africa on the 19th of October – I have been going ‘full tilt’ with catching up on orders and photographing new clients and all that happens at this time of year! Christmas Rush!

I have wanted to post more African images – but I haven’t even gone through all 8850+ images as yet!

But on Monday, October 20th, I attended the Awards Banquet of the Professional Photographers of Canada-Manitoba. I drove in to Winnipeg, still quite jet-lagged. It was great seeing old friends.

The banquet dinner was excellent and one of my jobs as Honours Chair was to present three very deserving photographers with their Honour of Fellowship Ribbons and Certificate.

For the first time since 2004 I entered images into the competition (in the past few years I either was judging the competition or was Jury Chair and then you can’t enter). So I was a bit hesitant about sending in my 4 images as we are getting some wonderful new photographers that are doing some great stuff!

I was thrilled to receive 2 Accepted Images and 1 Merit Image. Two of the judges chose two of my images as their “Judges Choice” and I also received 2 Major Awards! I was blown away!

Needless to say – I’m still grinning from ear to ear!

But that wasn’t all. The President of Professional Photographers of Canada, Chris Stambaugh, as well as Nelson Simard, PPOC National Accreditation Chair, and very good friend, were both there to present one more Certificate. I was stunned and honoured to receive the “Honourary Life Member” Certificate and designation. It was completely unexpected and so special to have Nelson present it to me and to have Chris representing the National Association!

I can now proudly add HLM to my credentials!

Marlene Fast, MPA, SPA, F.Ph., HLM

Jack, Mallory and Macy!

I have photographed Jack before. He came in with his cousin, Carlie about a year ago. He was a busy little boy, and we captured a wonderful portrait of the two of them under a table! This was my favorite image from that session and I have it displayed on my wall!

Since then, Jack was blessed with two sisters! Mallory and Macy arrived four months ago and it was time for family portraits.

I have never met two more mellow little girls – they were so content just being close to mom and dad and big brother.

Jack was, once again, curious and all over the place – that’s what 2 year old children do – they need to explore this wonderful world! These are two of my favorite images from today’s session! Precious! I adore these images!