Ohana means family….and family means that no one is left behind : )

I hope that you all have the opportunity to spend time today with your family and that you take a moment to reflect on how blessed you are and what an amazing gift you have been given.  Family is certainly precious and close to my heart and something that I think we often take for granted, yet shouldn’t.

Well the day has finally arrived to announce the winner of the Celebrate Family Contest that was started about 5 weeks ago.  The entries that I received were fabulous and several of them brought tears to my eyes. Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to write and share a bit of your family with me and why you love them so much!

Up for grabs was a family photoshoot, the disc of their images AND a canvas print! 

I am excited to announce that the winner of this prize is…….(insert drumroll!)……. Lindsay & Ryan, along with their daughters Jaryn and Emry! (of Sylvan Lake)

This is what Lindsay wrote:

I love absolutely love pictures….especially of my family and friends. In the past 5 years since Jaryn has been born I have been convinced by my friends to start scrapbooking. I am not great at taking pictures but creating memories for my girls and my family has now become very important to me. Ever since I was pregnant with Jaryn I have wanted to actually get professional pictures done but honestly we have never had the money to pay for a session with an actual photographer. Honestly for me, being able to raise my kids and not be out of the house working has been way more important then spending hundreds of dollars on photos with money I could be using to buy diapers and food for my family. We have always taken the girls to Superstore to get their photos done but still have not actually gotten someone who knows what they are doing when taking pictures take a picture of our family. I would love to be able to finally have a photoshoot done of my sweet little family that I love so much and be able to get pictures printed for our Family so that they can also show off how incredible my little family is. 

I’m not sure if Lindsay knows this or not, but her sister also submitted an entry for their family.  This is what she wrote:

I would love love love for her and Ryan to be able to have their beautiful family captured by you! They are such amazing parents and are raising such caring and thoughtful little girls with huge personality and the biggest hearts! I always tell her that she has set the bar pretty high for my brother and I with such great kids!

It’s not very often that Ryan and Linds take the time or the money to do something for themselves, yet they never complain about it. They are simply parents that will always put there kids first and would never even dream of doing things any other way. For them to be able to have the memories of their little family photographed professionally would mean the absolute world to them!

Congratulations to such a fabulous family!! 

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…..and if you thought the contest was over…..it isn’t!  I decided to expand it and hopefully bless two more families on this fabulous Family Day!!  The following two families will get a family session and a disc of their images.  They are…….

Leanne & Duane (and Kallen) of Edmonton! 

Leanne wrote:

I would love to win to bless Duane. He is such a hard working, loving husband and father. He works hard so that way I can stay home and raise our son. His love for both of us is so apparent. He adores Kallen and is an awesome father. Every day we he comes home, Kallen goes crawling to him as fast as he can with the biggest smile on his face.He can say mama and dada, but continues to call both of us dada. lol.  Kallen is growing up so quick and I would love to capture the love we have for each other with your talent, before his too big!

Jen (and Aiden, Jacob and Kian)of Fort McMurray!

Jen gets extra points for her creativity!  She wrote:

F -   is for forever; families stick together, fight for each other, and love each other.

A -   is for amazing; despite the many obstacles my boys face due to their special needs, they continually amaze me with their humor, intelligence and love.

M -   is for men; my goal is to raise my boys to be men of God; loving, compassionate, Christian husbands and fathers.

I -     is for interesting; there is never a dull moment when you are raising three passionate and energetic boys!

L -    is for love; during the good, the bad, and the ugly.  My overwhelming love for these boys is a gift from God.

Y -   is for Yahweh; who gives me the patience, the strength and the joy of being a mom.

Congratulations!!!  I hope that you have a fantastic Family Day!

Christine

With Family Day in the not to distant future, it is time to start celebrating and cherishing those around us!  Now I could go on and on about the importance and value of family pictures and how special my family is to me, however it is now your turn!

This year, Uncontained Photography has decided to give one special family….

 a FREE family photoshoot

canvas print and

a disc of their images! 

All of this fabulous goodness is valued at over $1100!

Simply send an email to info@uncontainedphotography.com and let us know where you live and why your family should win.  If you are able to send a picture, please do.

All emails must be received by February 13, 2011.  The winning family will be announced on Family Day : February 21, 2011.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Christine

What an honor it was to be asked to do an updated family picture for the Playfords this year!  Their family has grown since we did their last family picture and their youngest son, Logan is getting to be so big already!

I’m not sure if they know this or not – but the Playfords were the first family that I photographed in Fort McMurray after I moved here.  They hold such a special place in my heart and I love spending time with them!

It was hard to pick, but here are a few of my favorites…..

Christine

One of Grandma’s projects this summer was to get pictures done of all of their grand kids.  Now that may be somewhat of an easy task….if everyone lived relatively close – but these kids do not.

It was great getting together with these 6!  To see the younger ones look up to their older cousins and to see the older ones take care of their younger cousins.  We had a lot of fun with balloons, bubbles (my favorite!) and a summer day wouldn’t be complete without watermelon!

Here are just a few of my favorite from that day….

Christine

 Now….from oldest to youngest……

love the frog pose!

This has got to be one of the coolest families in Edmonton! 

I love getting together with them and we always have so much fun!  When doing their family picture this year, they mentioned that they wanted to not do “the norm”. Perfect!  Uncontained!  I’m in!  My thoughts were to do something “urban” – and they carried it out to the hip hop look that you see.  I loved it!  This was the first time that a family shoot came with a box of props : )  You will notice that various people are wearing the glasses, hats, etc.

This whole shoot could have been posted as my favorites as they inspire me and I love working with them - however I narrowed it down.  Take a look……

Ellis family – I can’t wait to see you all soon!

Christine

When people include elements into their session that reflects things that they love to do – it is my absolute favorite!  There is something unique and uncontained about creating a picture that reflects not just what the person looks like, but who they are…..and if you know me or the company, you will know that that is my desire and what I strive for.

After photographing their wedding earlier this year, I had the opportunity to go out to their new lake property and take pictures of their family in one of their favorite settings.  I think that these kids (hmmm…and potentially parents!) would live out at the lake if given the choice!  

We had fun playing in the water, looking at minnows and other things in the water, getting our feet wet…..and then getting dumped on by a sudden rainshower!  I think that one of my favorite parts were getting the quads out and working with them.  What a wonderful and unique family portrait that created!  It not only captures what they look like, but also shows and includes something that the entire family loves to do!  Infact, they went on a quad trip right after the shoot was over  : )

Here are just a few of my favorites….

Christine

Look at the above picture of this couple….and now imagine them in a suit and wedding dress!  Oh their wedding day is going to be beautiful!   Jacqueline has this classic/elegant type of beauty about her that is just captivating.

These two are getting married in just a few weeks here in Fort McMurray. It is hard to believe that their wedding day is just about here as we met several months ago.  I can’t wait!

Jacqueline & Brian have two super cute boys who were a part of their engagement session..turning it into an engagement/family session I suppose!  It was a hot afternoon when we got together – however they all did really great! 

Counting down the days!  In the meantime…here are just a few of my favorites  : )

Christine

I want you to meet Kaine.  He is a really cool kid with two great parents!  After spending a bit of time with him there are two things that stand out.  1. He likes to play with toy handcuffs  2. He has a special relationship with his dad.

This special bond is evident when you are with them and as I was editing it was visible in picture after picture.  The way he looks up to him….plays with his wedding ring….and wants to be just like him.

We got together on Father’s Day for this shoot…. it was a beautiful day and this family came in from a day at the lake to do pictures.   Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many dads who would be okay with doing family pictures on Father’s Day!  In looking back though, it seems absolutely fitting that it was on that day. 

I had a terrible time picking out my favorites from this session!  Here are just a few from the fun time that we had!

Christine

Isn’t she beautiful?  I think that she has the most amazing cheekbones…not to mention gorgeous blue eyes! 

I had the opportunity to photograph this fantastic family of 3 before it becomes a family of 4!  There is a whole series of shots taken in the tall grass which are my absolute favorite and I could have posted them all…however I refrained.  One thing that I need to mention about this shoot – and the tall grass pictures in particular is that there were bugs…and LOTS of them! Angela did an exceptional job posing in what we determined to be the home of the bugs and looking fantastic!  I am sure that there is modelling experience in her background somewhere : ) 

One of the things that was discussed when we met before the shoot was this tire of Kody’s and how it would be great to get some pictures of Jane with/in it during the shoot.  They had the awesome idea of doing baby pictures with Jane inside this tire shortly after she was born.  Talk about a sweet newborn shoot concept!  I love it!  Kody did an amazing job rigging up a support for this tire out of twigs, etc. so that we could use it for the shoot.  Including personal elements such as this makes my job even more fun and also makes the pictures more meaningful.

What an exciting time it is for this family!

Christine

How fun it was to photograph the Brown family!  It was extra special as this photoshoot was given as a gift from the girls to their dad for his birthday!  What a great idea!

I knew when I first saw everyone in purple that this was going to be a great session!  This family did an awesome job and worked hard at coordinating clothing…which just helps to make their images look even better. Take a great looking family…..dress them in a fabulous color….and tada!  (we will forget about all of the bugs that were out that night!)

The hardest thing about this shoot was picking out my favorite images to share on here!  There were so many!  Here are just a few of them….

Happy Birthday!

Christine

and we can’t forget about this little cutie!….