This blog is a result of a couple of nights of crafting and it just makes me smile to see how things that are so small can be used for something so great. 

A few weeks ago I posted a picture on my facebook page of the various “nests” that I had made…just as a “hey, this is fun” shot, nothing more. 

 There was an overwhelming response to them along with a great interest for people wanting to purchase them.  I was definitely caught off guard and thought that the only way that I would sell them would be if the money went somewhere of value.  I have heard people, at times, associate the “eggs” with the number of children that they have and so the thought of helping kids was perfect!

One of my close friends, Erin Perry, works closely with fmn ministries and spends a month of her summer holidays in Romania working at the Isaiah Center.  Rachel Ross is an amazing woman who has moved from the United States to Romania and they both have such a passion for these children and this ministry.

The Isaiah Center is located in Tinca, Romania and exists to provide nuturing and education for abandoned, abused, and neglected Roma (gypsy) children.  Through this facility these kids have the opportunity to develop and grow in a loving and secure atmosphere. They are provided daily with education, food, clothing, shelter, love, hygiene and medical treatment.  Furthermore, the families of these children are being worked with and helped as they are provided with parental training and life skills which impact the parents, children and their village in a positive way.  Here are just a few pictures (not taken by me, just watermarked for their safety) of the village and the children….

Please visit the website for more information or further ways to get involved.

As for the necklace pendants, they are all handmade and can be done with specific colors if you desire.  There are large, medium and small beads available.  A picture of the different options is below for your reference.  They are $15 and ALL of this amount is going straight to the Isaiah Center.  Please email orders to info@uncontainedphotography.com

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

I know that I have been terribly behind with my blogging and so it is time to start catching up! 

One of the fun projects that I was working on in 2010 was a pregnancy progression shoot with Jennifer.  This was shot from 12 weeks until baby arrived!

When we first talked about the idea I thought that it would just be neat to document how a woman’s body changes during pregnancy.   For me, this shoot turned out to be a lot more.  I had the opportunity of getting together with Jennifer every few weeks during her pregnancy, which I looked forward to.  It was interesting to talk about how she was feeling  or what was taking place during the various stages.  I also loved seeing her “glow” get brighter and her beauty magnified as this miracle was taking place. 

As I was putting the finished piece together this week I thought back to this adventure and journey.  To me, this image is captivating and absolutely beautiful.  It speaks of motherhood and the joy and beauty that is. I absolutely love it and hope that it inspires you to take time to see the beauty that is around you. 

Jenn, thank you for being willing to do this and for sharing along the way.  You are inspiring and beautiful.

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

It was so fun meeting Kelsey & Chris in Calgary for their engagement session! 

With all of the emailing that Kelsey and I have done over the past several months, it felt like we knew each other – even though this was the first time we actually met!  I’m thankful that they were willing to meet this photographer in an odd part of town to do their pictures : )

These two are so cute together and their love for each other is evident!

I’m excited to get to know them more and can’t wait for their wedding in the new year!

Here are just a few of my favorites….

Christine

Back when we got together to do their engagement session, I speculated that these two were going to look terrific on their wedding day…..and they most certainly did!

Jacqueline started her day with getting her hair done by the lovely Whitney from Razor’s Edge and then went on to the Sawridge to finish up with the rest of the ladies.  We joked about how there were several “sponsors” for their day….Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Fiber Bars..and I can’t remember the rest! 

With their wedding color being brown and pink my mind drifted to thoughts of chocolate when I was thinking of what to do for their wedding ring shots.  Out came the Kisses, Peanut Butter Cups and Smarties.  Jacqueline and Brian are both from Newfoundland and so I wanted to incorporate that into their wedding photography as well. 

Their wedding day was so relaxed and there was a lot of time to do detail shots – something that I love to do, but often don’t have time to do many.  Both the ceremony and reception took place at the Sawridge Inn in Fort McMurray.

It was a beautiful day and I was honored to be a part of it!

Here are just a few of my favorites…..

Wishing you many years of wedded bliss : )

Christine

Married!

Do you have people in your life that inspires you?  They are the ones that you are excited to spend time with – and when you leave you feel encouraged, inspired and ready to take on anything.  I’m hoping that your answer is “yes” and that you have at least one person like this in your life.

Julie Jones happens to be one of those people to me.  I love it when we get together and have enjoyed working with her SO much! 

She is the beautiful artist that is behind Julie Jones Studio who continues to create original pieces of fine silver jewelry.  Residing in Fort McMurray, Alberta – this is fabulous home grown talent that I know so many of you love to support. How blessed we are to have her in our community!

I absolutely love Julie’s use of textures – her attention to detail – the fact that she is truly uncontained and makes jewelry that is outside of the box – not to mention the fact that she truly is an artist within such a gorgeous medium.   I was like a kid in a candy shop when I photograph these pieces of art for her! 

For those of you who are attending Keyano’s Gala Odyssey in a few weeks, you will want to keep an eye on the above necklace, as it is one of the auction items for that evening.  Oh to the woman who gets to wear this piece!  How lucky you are!   I have a ring and a couple of pairs of earrings and absolutely love them!

I could go on and on – but I will let her work speak for itself.

So thankful to have met you : )

Christine

When I think back to this shoot with Erin, I can’t help smiling – oh we had a lot of fun that day!

Erin and her wonderful husband are celebrating their 2 year anniversary this weekend!  These two hold a special place in my heart as they graciously opened their home to me when I first moved to Fort McMurray.  What a wonderful couple they are! (for more reasons than opening their home to me of course!)

There was a lot of planning and preperation that went into this session and it all made for a beautiful day and amazing images!  One of my highlights was just seeing Erin in her wedding dress as I didn’t know them at the time of their wedding.  She looked breathtaking!!

When talking about this session she mentioned how if she could do her wedding over again – and not get married in the fall – she would want to do a lot of pink and purples….and thus, our inspiration for this adventure!  There were pink finger and toe nails, pink hair accessories and bubbles, fabulous purple shoes, sunglasses, balloons and flowers and we can’t forget about the ice cream!  Erin loves ice cream and so we wanted to make sure it was included….besides, who doesn’t want to stop for an ice cream break in the middle of a fun shoot!

I could go on and on – but I will stop and just show you some of my favorite images : )

Girl, you are absolutely gorgeous and you DEFINITELY Rocked Your Dress!

Christine

It seems that the whole concept of “trashing” your wedding dress is quite controversial.  I have had several people stop and stare as we are shooting – some in awe and agreement, while others are in disgust and thinking that this session is somehow desecrating all that is sacred within a marriage.  So I wanted to take a moment and explain what this type of shoot is and what it means to me and how they are done with Uncontained Photography.

Short and simple – they are a beautiful, creative,  fashion-feeling expression of oneself.  For that reason alone – they are one of my absolute favorite types of sessions!

Think back to your wedding day – remember how it was such a fabulously wonderfully crazy time?  You potentially started the day tired and with heightened emotions.  You spent hours getting ready – from your hair, makeup, jewelry, shoes, etc.  You slipped into that beautiful wedding gown that you spent so much time searching for – and felt like a princess!  The day was a whirlwind and seemed to go by way too fast. There was only a limited amount of time for your professional pictures, lots to cover and only so much that could be done during that time. 

Compare that to a session after your wedding day. The atmosphere is relaxed and rested. There really are no time limits or people getting on your case about this or that.  You get to be pampered and feel extra beautiful.  You don’t have to worry as much if the hem of your dress hits the ground as you walk.  Your time of shooting is most likely going to be longer than you had on your wedding day.  You are able to look the way you want and express yourself more than you potentially could have on that day- yet still feel absolutely beautiful and glamorous in your dress.

To trash or not to trash it…..the answer really is up to you.  The difference between rockin’ and trashin’ the dress is that the dress is ruined at the end of a trashin’ shoot and often finds its way into a dumpster or garbage can.  That is a result of going further with the concepts and taking it to a point where the dress pays the price.  However, if it is just hanging up in your closet – or sitting in a heap on your floor – why not?   I will not push you to trash it and you will get beautiful images in the end – regardless of how far it goes!

These sessions are a progression and often include several different locations, “looks”, props and lots of planning!  They are several hours in length and to be honest, people say they hurt the next day from the various posing – however they also say that they wouldn’t trade it for the world!  It is so much fun and such an amazing experience!

Every session seems to be a journey – and potentially is why I love them so much!  The “bride” is definitely the focus and this is a great way to tell her story while creating beautiful images in the process.

For those of you who don’t like your wedding pictures – are wanting to do something special and unique for your husband or to celebrate an anniversary – or are just longing to celebrate your beauty…..this is a session you should consider!

Christine