Purses! Diaper Bags! Backpacks!

We are giving away these awesome photo bags with purchase!

Yup, it's true. You can't buy 'em. You can only get them for free when you spend a set amount at the studio.

Meet Kate, a true cutie patootie!

Everyone knows by now that I had a bad break-in last week, which, among other things, bumped a few sessions. I apologize for my tardiness in updating my blog. I can't seem to get the hang of putting up sneak peeks of my sessions, but I'm vowing to be better next year!

Instead of photographing Kate and her family in the sumptuous weather of last weekend, all warmth and sunshine, we had to sneak out to Spanish Banks in the rain and hope for the break in the deluge. I was using a 5D instead of my trusty ID, and it was a bit challening, but I'm surely glad we went ahead because of the awesome shots we got. Kate and her family are charms--just when we were out cavorting, the sky stopped all its broken-hearted weeping and dried its eyes. As soon as we were finished, ugh. It started weeping and wailing all over again.

Here is the winsome and captivating Kate and her Mom and Mommy.

More Babies!

Some more of our recent little ones!

Enjoy!

Recent Kiddos--Oh, and One Pup!

A great time was had by all on Saturday!

Folks, your kids are beyond adorable, and it was such an honour and pleasure to work with you--even as briefly as 15 minutes--to create these memorable photographs. I kept losing my heart to child after child, so really, if you ever need a babysitter...

Such cutie patooties you all got to go home with!

Fine Art Portraits: Mini Session

Just a couple spots left for the upcoming Fine Art Mini Session on September 22!

From 9-1, by appointment only, we'll be snapping photographs of your sweet kiddos in our studio in east Vancouver! This introduction to our work is guaranteed to please you...just an easy 15 minute slot and the rest of the day is yours. We have room for twelve families only.

We have the coolest new props for the just-born! We like to photograph our new arrivals in the first two weeks of life, preferably in the first week. They will never be this sleepy again, and we looooovvve sleeping babies.

Also we have awesome "poofs" for little girls just in, along with soft pink angel wings. Too cute, and too fun for the kids.

And a reminder: Host your own Mini Session in the privacy of your own home! Invite friends and family for a morning of photographs--we bring the studio to you! Inquire at info@janephoto.ca to find out how to apply to be a host. Earn your portraits absolutely free!

Trash the Dress hits the Province newspaper!

Cheryl Chan
The Province

Sunday, September 10, 2007

...Vancouver photographer Jane Eaton Hamilton said she helped two Chicago brides trash their Vera Wangs at a fun-filled spree at the PNE a couple years ago. "They got oil on their dresses," she said. "I'm not sure if they managed to get the spots out or not."

The mystique of "The Dress" is strong. Little girls grow up dreaming of it. Never will a woman spend so much time, effort, care and money--from a few hundred dollars for a simple, second-hand piece to tens of thousands of dollars for a dazzling designer confection--on a dress she'll only wear once before saving it in a box, an heirloom and a relic, depending on who you ask.

Hamilton admits Trash the Dress can be a hard sell. The most common question of brides (and their aghast moms) is: What are we trashing here? Is it a piece of fabric or a symbol of marriage? Is it an act of bridal rage?

Bride to be Cheryl Chudyk, 23, is getting married next year and is on the hunt for the perfect wedding dress. Not the "Queen E Park type," she plans to trash her dress afterward and has begun scoping backdrops for the shoot. She's considered a dip in Burrard Inlet to mimic the Little Mermaid statue in Stanley Park, but "after that, there's not much there." She wants to pose for photos on East Hastings, a Friday night haunt from years of volunteering at a neighbourhood soup kitchen. Her parents think she's crazy. Her fiance vetoed the idea as "too over the edge."

Not Chudyk is looking into Finn Slough, a shanty town-like area in Richmond of waterfront shacks overlooking marshes. She plans to get into the water. Trash the dress? "It's okay if it happens," because she won't need the dress anymore. "Sure, you had a wedding, but now it's a marriage," she said.

Wallowing in the mud with her husband will be a bold step into a very happy future: "Get rid of the deadweight and have some fun right out of the gate."

chchan@png.canwest.com

A Lovely Late Summer Wedding

photo credit: Meghann Hamilton

These lovely gents got married at Jericho Beach Park yesterday, and I just wanted to give them a shout out and a great big congrats while they're waiting for their photos! These guys hail from Australia and won their wedding in a joint Canada/Australia tourism contest. Today they're away on the included honeymoon, travelling to Victoria and Banff, among many other places.

Craig and Jason are so, so, so in love, and they had us all misty-eyed at their ceremony. They wanted photos taken at Kits Pool, too, where I'm afraid with the labour strike things are not looking so good. The seagulls have moved on in and taken up residence. It was kind of pretty, actually, as long as you didn't contemplate swimming in the yellow water. The photo of the two grooms was taken by my daughter and lovely assistant, Meghann Hamilton, who gets a shout out for being so ready to pinch-hit when my scheduled assistant had to cancel out.

Ground Zero

A businessman pauses to look at the rebuilding.

A viewing hole in the netting around the site.

A man peers through the netting surrounding the site.

People pause to reflect on the rebuilding.

We're back now from NYC, Kingston and Toronto; we had a ball.

It was good to be in New York. As a young NYU psychology student, I lived on W. 85th, park block, and the street is unchanged except that the sapling trees once zealousy watched over by a photographer named George, who used to blow a shrill whistle anytime my dog, a whippet named Clint, peed anywhere near them, are towering now. I was surprised to find Johnny's, a used book seller and neighbourhood institution, still still exactly mid-block on Columbus. Same awning, even.

On a sobering note, it was particularly painful to visit Ground Zero, the site of the destroyed World Trade Centre. One reflects on good, on evil, on hope and dreams shattered, on terrorism, on the scope of the overwhelming destruction. One thinks about the vast numbers of people lost on 9/11, and in such pain, and wonders in what ways some of them might have changed the world had they lived. Would a mother's influence on her young daughter have prompted her to go to medical school? Would a dad have encouraged a son to go play another ballgame after losing? Our footprint in the world is always larger than we realize, our influence subtle but full of impact. Losing all of these people, these moms and dads and brothers and sisters, is the loss not only of them as sisters, as aunties, as husbands, as sons, but of so much potential. I think of the babies soon to be born and consider how their lives were irrevocably altered.

I want to say to everyone: Have your family photographs made, because you never know when it will be too late.

My then-husband, Gary, and I used to work in the Towers. He was up on the 50-somethingth floor of Tower 2 working in international finance, while I toiled selling luggage in the basement. It's nearly impossible to connect the scar in the earth and the machinery crawling across it with that hub of industry and finance.

The small espiscopal St. Paul's Chapel is open again across the street. This was the sanctuary for the workers--where they came to find food and water and solace--where they came to have their feet rubbed. There are displays mounted of some of the memorabilia generated.

Run off our feet!

Oh my goodness, we've been run off our feet lately!

Our last session before going away was David and Brad's scrumptious wedding on Vancouver's Pride! It's a little strange to be working on Pride instead of revelling, but these two hubbies carried us right along in the bob and sway of their infectious joie de vivre. They looked fabulous in sharp linen suits, their wedding decor was to die for (think red accents, and oh such great good gay taste), they laughed constantly, and they had 100 of the sweetest southern guests I've ever met.

On that note, I just got one of my beautiful Graphi Studios books back from Italy. Totally yummy custom-design. The couple ordered leatherette, and there was no way on earth I could tell it wasn't leather when I unwrapped it. I even contacted Italy to insist that it was--but I was wrong.

I just wanted to post to let everyone know the studio is now closed for two weeks while we jet off to NYC and Ontario. Not a big trip for us, but hopefully a fun one.

Sorry the studio got so backed up there in July and the first bit of August, too, before we cut it off... I know there were several of you hoping to get in and see us that I just couldn't accommodate.

I wish I could say it will be better for September, but it's not looking all that free at this point. If you need an autumn session, drop an email. I'll have my calendar with me in NY and I can try to find you a slot. Anyone needing holiday images needs to get in before the end of October to have cards by December 1, remember!

Also, keep in mind that we'll be having another Fine Art Mini Session September 22 from 9-1 by appointment only. It's already half booked, so let me know on that one as well asap. Fyi, we're info@janephoto.ca.

Cool New Blend

Here is a blend of two little fellows I made portraits of in May. Isn't it beautiful? I just love this. Avaiable as a 16x16 or 20x20.

Below is a birth annoucement I've been working on in a movie format. Love this, too, though it couldn't be more different than the one above.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Early last week, I photographed a sad and poignant session for the important organization where I volunteer. I know I've mentioned Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep on the blog before, but I think it's worth mentioning again, especially because the word about us has not spread very widely in these parts.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep provides local volunteer photographers who will come to the hospital to do infant bereavement photography for families who are losing, or have lost, their babies. Most photographers offer not only the shoot gratis, but a slideshow set to music on DVD and a second DVD of high-resolution images. Last week I photographed a baby born early to a wonderfully warm and brave couple. Above is one of the beautiful photographs commemorating their young son.

Exuberance is Beauty

I've made a new wonderful blend. It's 16"x20" and can be printed either as a canvas or a print. Can you picture your own daughter's image here?

This is Julianne, and she's wearing one of our new and so fun poofs. This poof is pink with an orange ruffle, and it is simply the most delicious bit of clothing I've seen in a while. Julianne wasn't even in the mood for photographs, ham that she usually is. But the second she laid eyes on that skirt, away she went! It was all I could do to keep up with her. Come and have your little girls photographed wearing a poof! Studio or on-location--either would be great. Here Julianne is leaping off a garden bench. Let's get these great shots while the sun is still shining.

PORTRAIT PARTY JULY 21!

Check out these uber cool babios, eh?



Good news, folks. After a billion requests, we've finally got a new website address for everyone sick to tears of keying in all the ridiculous letters in my name! And we've probably even settled on a new business name (although we'll probably take some time to morph).

It's new, it's simple, it's easy as pie now to either enter our url--

www.janephoto.ca

--or to write to us--

jane@janephoto.ca
info@janephoto.ca

So get those fingers to typing it in and spreading it 'round!

There's a new portrait party the morning of July 21st!

We're just starting to get the word out now, and we're already half booked. If you want to see the photos from the last shoot, visit my site under Portraits/Menu/Proofing Online/Studio Portrait Party June 16. They'll be up for a sweet short week.

We're also still taking applications for folks who want to host a party at their house (though the waitlist is started)--or in our studio. Fill the day with just your friends and family, and when you're not in having your photographs made, you can be chatting and visiting with all your loved ones. Better still, you can earn valuable print credits! Hosts earn 15% in prints for parties in their own homes, and 10% in prints for parties held in the studio!

Digital painting done as gallery wrap

This painting just arrived as a 24"x30" gallery wrapped canvas, ready to hang. Isn't it beautiful? It was painted for us by Paintings by Stacey, and we couldn't be more pleased. Didn't Stacey do an awesome job? Just for the moment, before it goes off to its real home, it has a happy spot on our mantel where we can get our visual fill. The only thing I might not like? It's not big enough! I'd love to see this as a 40"x60"!

We've been working like fools around these parts of late. I just wish there were enough time to keep up!

We had to be out in Langley on the weekend shooting, so we made a point of dropping by Brad Jalbert's Select Roses Open House. Brad and Joy and I go way back to our fledgling days gardening--even before I started The Adequate Gardener column, back in the early days of On Our Hands and Knees gardening group. All our best performing roses come from Brad's, it's safe to say.

Joy and I got a first peek at a rose Brad has been hybridizing for us, called Wacky Sheila in memory of our mothers. It's pink and frilly and I know if they were here, tears would course down their faces to see it. All our gardening friends and relatives will be getting one next year when it hits the market!

I wanted to announce that we've decided to have some of our Portrait Party hosts host their parties in-studio! This is a big step for us, since originally we planned to have all the parties in people's homes. But for those who lack the space, this is a great alternative!

Happy Father's Day to all our dads out there!

People ask me what I mostly photograph, and I really photograph love.

I did a family shoot last weekend out In Richmond with a great family of four--mom, dad and two of the spriteliest kiddos, an 8 year old girl, and a 6 year old boy. As I made my way through their images this week, preparatory to creating a slideshow for them, I kept smiling, and I know I grinned over and over because of their transparent love for each other. Love and happiness are infectious--it's hard for humans to see other humans having fun without smiling ourselves. And that's what happened to me. They infected me with their adoration and high spirits. Wouldn't it be cool if this virus spread?

Speaking of being infected with love, the studio hosted our second Studio Portrait Party yesterday with ten families. We had a terrific, expressive group of families, with a whole lot of infants, and while it will take me a couple of weeks to finish up with the photographs, I can already tell everyone that there are many, many great shots. Joy, Meg, Greg and I are very pleased and proud of the results.

I will attach a few here, with a special sounding out to the dads in attendance who are celebrating what is, for many of them, their very first Father's Day. Congratulations to you all. Thanks again to everyone who helped make the day such rollicking good fun, and so fulfilling, for us all.













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