Reflections of 2009... Studio 67, a Year in Review!

The last day of 2009 is here, it marks the last day of an exciting decade and the birth of a whole bunch of new things at Studio 67. We have had an amazing year and have many people to thank. In no particular order we'd like to give a big Happy New Year hug to: Patrick, Michael, Amina, Konrad, Jessica and Justin at Still Motion - both Brian and I attended amazing and inspiring cinema and photo workshops with these wonderful people this year - without their generous gifts of knowledge, advice and friendship we would have never come as far as we have in 2009.
To Steve Zugelter of Studio+Z Films, John and Jen Moon of Northernlight Filmworks, Ryan Koral of Epic Motion, James Pizarro of Red Bicycle Media and to many other colleagues (the entire list just too long to post here) who have answered our questions and given us criticism and comments on our work either through Vimeo, WedFACT or email, THANK YOU! Also to Matthew Craggs, a fellow cinematographer, who emailed us this year (ironically it was on Brian's birthday) just to tell us he dug what we did and was happy to see a fresh new company raising the bar in the industry. His email led to a visit over coffee and then to a friendship and business relationship that has helped us grow even more. Matthew has shot several weddings with us now and his talents of both shooting and editing have added different flavours to our work and enhanced further the products that we offer our couples - we love that!
To all the wedding professionals we have worked with this year, various photographers, wedding planners, florists, djs, bands, etc. we have loved meeting and networking with you. The value of networking is something we've really discovered in 2009.
To all of the couples who entrusted us with the true privilege of capturing the greatest day of their lives (so far) and to those who have booked with us for their 2010/11 weddings, we feel so lucky to be doing what we love.
To our family and friends (especially my niece Chantelle) who offer to help with everything from babysitting to picking up equipment and supplies - we love you and absolutely couldn't be doing this without you!
Lastly, to our 3 girls who have sacrificed many hours of precious family time with us in 2009 as we have worked most days around the clock to build the foundation of a company that will hopefully build our family a successful future... words can not describe how much we love you. When we took a leap of faith just 18 months ago and began this journey of capturing weddings we had no idea how much we'd fall in love with it. We knew from our very first wedding that this was what we were meant to do. We've been fortunate to have formed friendships with so many amazing couples who are now starting to call and tell us they are expecting - they are celebrating anniversaries - they are telling their friends about us - they are keeping in touch and following this blog, added us as friends on FaceBook - all of that means so much to us. We love that even after the wedding is over and the feature film and photos are delivered we are still in contact with these new friends. We love capturing the next stage of their lives and giving back more amazing memories for them to cherish through our Keepsake Moments fusion and portrait sessions. Life is full of so many moments that we want to stop, if only for a minute.
Our big news... yes, we are in the midst of creating an exciting new identity for Studio 67, a select few have already previewed some of the details and have given us much needed feedback - in fact it's a project that's been in motion for a few months already and it will all officially launch in just a few weeks! We are completely ecstatic!!! The changes will mean many great things not only for us, but for our wedding couples and for the families who we get to work with. We are excited about upcoming corporate shoots, destination weddings and more educational experiences and workshops all lined up for 2010. We hope you'll continue along this journey with us into the new decade. We know the ride will be amazing and we would love for you to join us!
Happy, happy New Year!!! May good health, happiness and joy be yours!
Brian and Wanda
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Mary + Matt / Engaged / Walking in a Winter Wonderland

In just 13 days Mary and Matt will be married during their magical wedding celebration in Disney World. We are so honoured to be going along to capture all the details of their big day. Mary is a wedding planner and is busy planning many weddings for others, so finding time to get together for her own engagement shoot, with our crazy schedules, was a wee bit difficult. Yesterday we finally found an hour to get together and of course we just happened to have a blizzard blowing through at the same time. Mary's first words were "Who books an engagement session on December 28th???" But, being we're sort of on a time crunch we thought since we're already here let's just see what we can get before we all completely freeze.
The photos themselves are magical to me... but not in a Disney kind of way. There is something so beautiful about snow falling, keeping warm with your soon to be husband or wife and of course there was lots of talk about the wedding. It's definitely challenging to shoot in the snow, the lens was constantly being covered by big flakes. All in all I'm very happy with the images from our session. Here are just a few photos from our 45 minutes in the snow.












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Playtime with Iman / Newborn Portraiture / Stoney Creek

In August 2008 we captured Fatima and Admir's very special Canadian Wedding Celebration; they were legally married almost a year earlier in Bosnia and this was their opportunity to share their marriage celebration with all their family and friends here. A couple of months ago I was super excited to spend a few hours with them to shoot some beautiful belly shots during Fatima's last month of pregnancy. It was my absolute delight to return to their home just a few weeks later to finally meet their little princess - beautiful Iman. She is a dolly; sweet and adorable and everything newborns are. Here are a few photos from our session. Congrats Fatima and Admir on your new baby girl, you are such great parents as I knew you would be!














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Our Christmas in 3:35 / Happy New Year Everyone!

Well here we are on Christmas Day and what a whirlwind 24 hours it has been. It's tradition for my family to visit my mom's relatives on Christmas Eve. I can't ever remember a Christmas when we didn't get together and I have some pretty funny memories of being smaller than our children are now and spending a few hours visiting around the Christmas tree. Lots of laughs was a guarantee. Every few years there seems to be an addition to our large family and it's fun to see how much the kids grow from year to year. Each Christmas morning we have a big family breakfast with my parents, scratch a couple of lotto tickets, followed by a day of opening gifts, snacking, visiting and smelling the turkey and trimmings cook to perfection. Then of course there is the sit down dinner followed by some good old fashioned card playing - yes we play for money - at 75 cents per game it's pretty competitive! Brian brought along our 7D this year and captured many of the little moments that make Christmas what it is for our family... watching our 6 year old prepare everything for Santa's arrival was super cute, and hearing her say she thought she heard him on the roof in the middle of the night was also funny. When children believe in the magic that is Christmas it makes everything that much more special. My favourite gift was the new camera Cali made me from a box... her imagination and creativity impress me... she told me the pictures I take with it are in my mind... I love that!
This year we were very lucky to give our girls a trip to Disney World as their "big" gift. We are filming a wedding there on January 11th and are fortunate to have a couple of days there as a family as well. Cali has been saving change for over 4 years in order to have enough money to go meet the princesses... in the video you see her jump for joy after reading her 'invitation' to Disney. We want to thank Mary and Matt for entrusting us with the honour of capturing their big day and especially for inviting our girls to their wedding.
We hope you all had a very special Christmas full of your own traditions... and we hope you have a safe, Happy and Healthy 2010. Although we aren't the Griswalds, this song makes me laugh when I think of them and their Christmas... here's our 24 hours of Christmas in 3:35. Enjoy!

Christmas 2009 / Studio 67 from Studio67 on Vimeo.

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Playtime with Yazzy ! / Baby Portraiture / Hamilton

Meet Yazmeen, an absolute doll! At 3 months her personality is really starting to shine and she babbles and blows bubbles none stop. Her mom had a very special dress on hand, it was sewn over a hundred years ago and has been passed down through the generations to baby Yazmeen. The smocking on it is so beautiful. I also noticed a very old teddybear that had been loved abundantly in his day sitting on the shelf in Yazmeen's room. Isn't it great when parents pass down keepsake items from their childhood to their own children? I love that!
There is something so tender and special about watching a father hold and cuddle his baby girl and I love all the special moments that I was able to capture during my recent visit to their home. Here are a few of my favourite shots - the one in the Santa hat is my very favourite because I feel that Baby's First Christmas is always extra special for the family.
Happy Holidays Yazzy - to you and your family and your 3 kitties too! I'll see you again in February when you're 6 months and maybe even sitting up all by yourself! xo




















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Playtime with Sebastian / Family Portraiture

Over the past couple of months I have been fortunate to shoot 3 family sessions each weekend and have been focused on editing in order to get the finished images back to each family before the holidays. I've also been designing and ordering holiday cards for families as well as specialty prints and mounts. In doing all of this I just haven't been able to find the time to blog - several people have emailed to ask "when is new stuff going up on the blog???" - I apologize. Here are a few images from a super fun session I had with Sebastian and his family a couple of weeks ago. Yes, Sebastian is adorable, he's 17 months old and a very busy, happy boy! The thing I love the most about being invited into family homes to photograph portraits is that you really get to see the up close and personal side of people which makes photographing them even better. In between little breaks for snacks and clothing changes I love capturing so many little details around the house such as special ornaments, shoes, mittens, etc. I know the importance of having these to look back on in years to come.
Sebastian has his very own Christmas tree in his room and all the ornaments match the room's decor. He loved showing me his stuffed animals and running all around, just being himself - to me the best portraits are those that capture the true personality - these are definitely HIM.



















I will do my very best to blog a few more posts before we head off for our 3 week journey in January. We are super excited about two upcoming destination weddings as well as Michelle and Mark's wedding and two receptions all happening back here at home and a Cinematography workshop in Austin - all this is happening between Jan 5 - 25, so there will be lots to share in the coming weeks.
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