My baby is going to start school this fall. She will be going to school full-time. Yep, that’s right: all day, every day.

My baby.

My first born will be starting her final year at her school before she graduates to middle school.

Ummm…

WTH?!

You may say I am at the beginning of a small (or not so small) panic attack. You may be right.

My babies!!!

Sigh.

I am so not ready for them to be all out of the house and at school all day. Every day. Leading their little independent lives. That don’t require my services.

Of course, I’m thrilled to see them grow into such wonderful, sweet, smart, kiddos…I just didn’t want the growing to happen quite this fast.

No one warned me it would happen so fast.

Okay. That’s a lie.

EVERYONE warned me it would happen this fast.

If you have a baby at home…I’m warning you, too.

It goes by so quickly.

And, I’ll be back in the fall to photograph you and your little baby-ones.

Promise.

So, call me!

Cuz’ I’ll be at home.

All alone.

Drinking heavily.

Okay.

Maybe not drinking,

but definitely I’ll be sad.

So…call me.

K?

In the meantime,

I’m going on a little hiatus.

Just to soak up every. last. second. of this summer with my girls.

I’ll probably post some photos here still…because I’ll probably be taking a lot of photos.

(Do ya’ think?).

So, talk to you soon.

Have a wonderful summer.

And…

enjoy your babies.

It goes by

so

fast.

Hey, Colie!

Who’s got the best bed-head ever?

That’s right, my little friend, it’s you…you’ve got the best bed-head ever.

She actually has the same hair as me…but the bed-head somehow looks just so much cuter on her.

 {Understatement of the Week}

In addition to the studio work (which I still have to share here on the blog!), I’ve done some lifestyle photography, as well. Honestly, I think that Lifestyle may still be my favourite because I know for a fact that these are the memories you will all (Moms, Dads, and Babies…) cherish the very most down the line. You’ll look back at these images and remember “that old couch”, “that old kitchen table”, “those funny lamps” and remember that time, that place, with such incredible fondness. I know this because, looking back at my family photos, these are the ones I love the most. I love seeing our old furniture, our old rugs, the colours we used to paint our walls, what our televisons used to look like! All of it. It’s all part of capturing the story…the most important story you can ever tell.

This photo is from a newborn lifestyle shoot I did with a wonderful little family a little while ago. We also did some studio shots of baby and we had an on-location (at a local park) maternity shoot before hand! There are so many gorgeous images from all those sessions but, for some reason, this one stays with me.

I think I can just feel the love between these two:

baby so secure and comfy in his very favourite spot (Mommy’s arms), and Mommy holding, loving, and caring for her greatest gift and joy.

And, that’s what I love about Lifestyle Photography – moments like these, captured forever…

and clients like these who trust me, and open up their homes and lives to me, so I can be there to document it.

sigh.

I love photography.

We have always worked hard to help people to build strong relationships with their dogs while achieving their training goals. Over the years we have had puppy parties, celebrations of achievement, dog walks, special guests and several very tasty pot luck suppers. We now offer a wide range of services to meet the needs of puppies, adult dogs and all dogs with serious behaviour problems. We also offer free lectures on a monthly basis, and annual events such as Dogsfest to celebrate our relationships with our canine family members.

So many services they offer to the dog lovers of their community and with such caring, positive, attitudes behind it all! I highly recommend you check them out if you have a dog and are living in the Guelph area!

And, now, here are some of the gorgeous faces I met that afternoon…I’ve been dying to blog them all and I’m so glad to finally have a moment to share them with you!

 
If your training facility, or boarding facility, or doggie daycare, or veterinarian’s office, or pet store, or…any place where dogs and people love to be, really, needs some beautiful doggie pictures and you would like to hold your own Mini Photo Session Day…please give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to help you out and meet your pretty pups!

Thanks to Dogs in the Park for having me.
I had a really wonderful time.

For more “Best Faces” of 2012 be sure to head over to the I Heart Faces website by clicking on the button below.

Thanks for looking!

-Ann.

Have you made any resolutions, or goals, for 2013? I am participating in a couple of things you might like, yourself. First is the Project Life 365 challenge in which you take one photo, every day, to represent the theme of the day. The themes seem to be pretty generalized, so it is easy to interpret and not overly structured…so I think that will make it do-able for me. Also, I will be using my iPhone camera and the Instagram app for all these photos, so I will have no excuses for not getting the photos taken and processed (as much as I love my 7D, it just does not fit in my back pocket…so for a “have to get it done” daily project…it’s out. Sorry, baby). Once I’m done, I think I’m going to reward my efforts by putting all my photos for the year onto one big photo display. That will be pretty cool. I’ll be sure to show you the final result at the end of the 2013, if I’m good and manage to complete this challenge! I’ll post weekly updates on how I’m doing here, as well, and if you want to follow my daily photos on Instagram you can find me at “The_Kearnseys”. Please let me know if you are going to participate, and what your Instagram account name is (if you have one), in the comments below and I’ll follow you, too! It should be fun.

My other official challenge is the 100 Days Challenge. Okay, this one sounds pretty intimidating, so you really have to look at it just one day at a time. 100 Days of anything (except coffee) tends to scare the bejeezus out of me, but if I remind myself that all I really have to do is move, intentionally (so, like, shopping for shoes or walking to the fridge and back probably doesn’t count), for 30 minutes a day. Every day. I mean, we all should be doing that, anyway, right? The challenge even goes really easy on you and says you can even break that down into 2, 15 minute, blocks of activity…or 3, 10 minute, blocks. C’mon! We can do that, right? Right?! I even started a day early and worked out with the xbox (Your Shape, 2012) on December 31st, so when this is all done, if I’m good and manage to complete this challenge, I’ll have 101 days of movement! Oh, and yesterday I took my baby Penny on a nice trail walk and then ran on the treadmill for another 20 minutes so…so far…so good! Woo-hoo. If you think you’ll participate in this one with me, too, please let me know and I’ll be there to cheer you on!

I would also like to…drink more water…eat more vegan meals…get together with friends more often…and blog more regularly. :-/ Well…I’m gonna’ try. This is a good start, I think. Right?

And, “since every blog post is better with pictures”…here are a couple of cute kitties I photographed at a baby session I had just before Christmas. Yes, if you hire me for a baby session, and you have pets at your house, I’m going to go photograph them, too. I cannot help myself, and this is not on my list of New Year’s Resolutions to change.

Have a great day

(and an amazing 2013!!)

-Ann.