Baby Oopies is a new home-based business on Saltspring Island, run by an amazingly talented mother of two who creates some pretty fantastic and unique products including some REALLY GREAT cloth diapers, clothing, toys and play food. So, she just got a awesome opportunity selling her wares at West of the Moon toy store, located in downtown Ganges. If you haven’t had the chance to visit the store, you’re missing out on some pretty fantastic toys. There are very few boutiques that can come even close to the diversity you’ll find there.

So, I made my way over to Saltspring Island last week and we set aside a few hours for a commercial shoot for her new line of products.

I was able to work with some pretty amazing models: beautiful, giggly, happy…. drooling.

Here are some of my favourites.

Nom nom….

Om nom nom.

A beautiful rose dress and crocheted bananas.

(And what are bananas without a monkey?)

One gorgeous little blonde boy who really liked his trains.

… and his pretend chips!

Some of the models were real monkeys.

…Others just loved to play with them.

Strike a pose!

(Baby Alfie was quite the little ham.)

Jonah preps for his shoot with some baby yoga.

Two little girls have a tea party (with a complete crochet tea set!!).

Look at how cute this set is! Oh, be still my heart! I wish I had stuff like this when I was a kid.

The babies loved their diapers as much as the moms did. Colourful, soft and so sweet – from little ones…

…To bigger ones.

Thanks to everyone who made the day a success! Working with a roomful of babies can be pretty loud, and sometimes a little fretful when they’re playing near the lightstands… but man is it ever a lot of fun.

My friend Lynette is a new graduate of the Aveda stylist program here in the city, and is one of their top students for good reason: she does some fantastic hair. We recently had a fantastic evening where an exchange of skills was had: our group of girlfriends all came in for hair, make-up and photos. It’s the most fun you can have as a grown up, I think.
We were rained out of our outdoor location idea, so instead I set up my 9×9 white seamless in the basement and did all the shots down there. I spent almost six hours shooting six girls and man were my legs tired… but the results were so worth it! Check these babelicious girls out. Also, for those of you curious, you can hire Lynette’s amazing hair styling skills very soon.

Model: Lauren.

Did I mention she’s a mom…?

Model: Korena

Model: Cara (also, make-up artist for all of us)

Model: Tangle

Model: Jess
First a behind the scenes look at our Hair Ninja running on set to fix her up before we keep shooting.

(Jessica Rabbit?)

… even I was able to get my hair done and sneak in for a photo.

French Twist!

Model: Tangle, second outfit.

The whole gang, and hair stylist in the middle:

Plus Lauren’s two year old, taking the place of Jess who had to run out before we managed a group shot!

Thanks guys – you rocked this!

The Bamaras

Last time I saw Isaac was last year when he and his best bud hung out around the time he turned one.

And before that, he was one of my favourite little newborns – but seems like eons ago! I’m always thrilled to see a family again, but even more so when they’ve got another beautiful blessing!

This time the focus of the session was brand new baby sister: Corah.

First off: Isaac! No longer a baby – this little guy is two big years old.

One gorgeous mama, nursing her new love.

And the star herself: Corah!

Daddy’s girl

I know Amber from a local group and ever since I saw pictures of her gorgeous girls I’ve been desperate to take their photos. We all went out to Goldstream on a chilly day (with some unfortunately smelly fish) and had a nature walk.

All the girls

Deyja
 

Hailey

Carissa

Sibling love (why can’t mine act like this?!)

Beautiful girls

And the loving parents who made them.

I cannot say enough about this company and their albums: wow, wow, wow! Renaissance is known for being the top album company in the world, and they aren’t lyin’. They’re pricier than your average book, and they take longer in the binding process (4-5 weeks)… but they’re worth it the world over! It even comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Carolyn, a bride from the summer, had the honour of being my first bride to order one since I added them to my line. Her custom order included brushed metal cover with a custom etched graphic. She wanted something really original, so I contracted a local artist (that I will continue to work with in the future should any other bride wish original art for their album as well!) to draw up something funky and modern for her theme, “Robots in love”.
The original was painted in watercolours on a very special paper, scanned in and given to the company for their etching. All I can say is… wow! The original brush-strokes are still in-tact on the brushed metal. It looks so “real” I thought the paint was going to smudge off when I touched it.

Bride also ordered two parent albums: mini duplicates that make ideal gifts for your family. Hers were done with black silk covers. Yes, that’s right: SILK!
Here are some product shots that I took of her albums — enjoy!

Leather presentation boxes, both for storage and for looks.

Pages: thick, durable and flawless.

Strong binding

Here’s a detail shot on the black silk Shantung covers for her parent albums, with gold foil lettering.

The main and parent albums have idental page quality, seams, binding, and colour richness. It’s an absolute duplicate: no image quality loss. In this example the main album is 10×8 and the parent albums are 7×5 – no squinting to look at your pictures, but it’s small enough for your parents to carry them in their purses to show off to their friends and coworkers.

And the best part… the cover! Here’s the full artwork by the amazing Akili! Beautiful custom artwork (including a mounted original for the bride to hang on her wall).

This was originally painted with watercolours, on watercolour paper so it still had that nice impressionist quality.

You wouldn’t think that a laser etching on metal would preserve that… but you’d be wrong:

How incredible is that? You can still see the brush strokes. It looks like it was painted in watercolours right onto the metal. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think I could chip it off. It even has texture. Just amazing.

I’m a convert. Hell, I think I’m going to go take my wedding photos that we never did anything with and design my own heirloom album!

Todd Family

Heather Todd and her two absolutely fantastic boys.

True story: her oldest, at the prime age for hijinks, was such an amazing listener that at the end I gave him a high five and mom told me that he’d been without his hearing aid through the entire session… and I’d had no idea! He was so great, and such a genius lip-reader, that I didn’t have even the slightest clue he couldn’t hear everything I was saying to him. He even came up with rockin’ posing ideas. I walked away completely impressed. She has some of the happiest boys I’ve ever seen.

I’m quite behind on my client blogging: this is already up in a gallery, so it isn’t exactly a sneak peek anymore. Oops. :-X

Congratulations Desiree! She won the grand prize at the Baby Fair 2009, which among other fantastic prizes, included a free session and print credit from Heather Armstrong Photography! We got together on a very chilly afternoon to get some alternative family and baby pictures, centering around her stunning little girl. She was all smiles!

Cans for Comments

Local photographers Chris + Lynn have started a trend among their friends and fans; one that I think we’re all happy to join… cans for comments.

Last year was a huge success: the word spread quickly and thousands of bloggers jumped on board. As a result, hundreds of thousands of items were donated to food banks all over the world.

And this year everyone’s doing it again.

Until December 10th, every comment you leave on this blog will represent a donation of a non-perishable food item to the food bank. All it takes is a click on the “leave a comment” button on any entry, old or new, to donate. So leave a comment and spread the word!

After a long haitus due to illness and surgery, I’m finally getting back into the working groove. Here’s the second half of baby Lexi’s sneak peek.

Mr. James is a close friend of our family, and a generally incredibly awesome person. This Tuesday he’s on his way across the country for a new set of lungs, so before he went we ran up to Summit Park for some “golden hour” photographs at sunset.

Come home safe, James.