More to come from this session, and a bunch to share from the summer sessions!  I haven’t been blogging much this summer, so I thought I would catch up a bit

Heather Rivlin Toronto newborn and baby photographer

I love me some baby toes…little piggies are my favorite

Session Sneak Peek to follow in the days to come

Toronto Newborn Photographer - Heather Rivlin

This family first came to me almost 6 years ago when they were expecting their first child.  We did a maternity session for mom who has to be one of the easiest women to photograph EVER, and who can’t possibly take a bad picture. I often joke that I think she should model, or maybe she did in a previous life.  She is very comfortable on camera, and has passed that trait on to her three beautiful daughters.

Little Z was photographed 5 times in her first year, and soon after a maternity session followed again for mom who was carrying twins.  Needless to say, she was smaller carrying two than I was carrying ONE, and despite this, I still like her a whole bunch

The newborn session is archived here on the blog, and yielded some of my favourite newborn images ever.  You can catch a flashback here:

Toronto Child Photographer - Heather Rivlin

Mom and Dad have been very patient awaiting these images.  Their session was at the end of May, and I’ve been promising them a session sneak peek since then.  With a move, my office packed up, my computer out of sight, and my image editor on holiday, it has been a little delayed, but I am hoping it will be well worth it for them.

Child photographer in Toronto

In a text message this morning, dad asked me when I would be blogging these, because he has been anticipating, and I told him it would be later today.  His response: “The anticipation is killing me…I’ll try not to send you “did you post it yet?” texts every 5 minutes”.  So funny.  I then proceeded to send him and his lovely wife some images to their phones so that they can have something to ogle over while they wait – and cause I am just nice like that

Once some images were received to the phone, I was assured “I am not longer shaking” which made me laugh out loud.  Nothing better than an ultra excited dad, super uber excited to see all of his girls

Heather Rivlin Photography Toronto

That image above, by the way, was the “stinky feet” shot.  We can’t be proper ALL the time

I then felt compelled to tell dad that I have double the normal amount of images from their session because I loved so many, to which he replied: “You got da skillz, I got da girls” and I almost spewed water out my nose when I read it on my phone.  My reply: “you are DA Man”.

Toronto Professional Child and Family Photographer

Toronto Child Photographer – Heather Rivlin

Sometimes I just prefer no smile at all….so soulful:

Toronto Child Photography

I look forward to sharing 53 more images next week!  Thanks again for making this a memorable and fun session guys – you’re DA best!

There is  no session fee to participate, and all participating families will receive a CD with the digital files from the participating photographers for your personal use for enlargements, photo cards, gifts, etc (the studio will not be creating these items for you, just providing the images to you.  All design work will be arranged outside of the studio by you).

If you are interested, or know someone else who would be, please email me at info@heatherrivlin.com, or share this blog posting with them so that they may get in touch!

We are accepting TWO families only, so please let me know!

newborn baby photographer in Toronto seeking newborn models for upcoming workshop

As a TFS parent myself, I wanted to extend to all TFS families the opportunity to take advantage of  a studio special just for you.

For the month of June, I am offering a 2010 special…what does 20-10 mean?  It means 20% off canvasses, and 10% off prints when you book a session in the month of June 2010!

If you’ve already been photographed at the studio, and you refer a friend, your referral earns you the usual $100 referral voucher good towards your own print purchases!  If you’ve never worked with me before and refer a friend through this post, I’ll provide you with a $100 voucher just the same for when we DO photograph you!**

**TFS family must book a session in order for the referrer to receive a referral voucher**

Let me know if you’d like to reserve some time to shoot a session or review the images with me

What does this mean for photography?

When you book a session fee, you are booking my time as a SERVICE. Session fees, therefore, have a 5% GST tax added on because this is a SERVICE. There is nothing tangible in a session fee, no product to hold in your hand, nothing physical was exchanged.

Under the new tax legislation, consumers will now be paying HST on the services that are rendered, raising that 5% tax to 13% (adding the 8% that used to be reserved for tangible products only).

As a photographer, when I sell you a tangible product like prints, canvasses, books, etc., I have to charge you both GST (5%), and PST (8%) on your print order, for a total tax of 13%. When I charge your session fee, I charge only 5% (GST) because a session is a service and not a product that you hold in your hand.

As of July 1st, 2010, all session fees will now be subject to BOTH taxes, increasing the taxable amount by 8%. All business who provide a professional service will be required to request this additional tax amount, and further remit this amount to the government on your behalf. It is not additional income for your photographer, it is a tax which we must remit to the powers that be.

How can we make the most of a poor situation? Book your session fees before July 1st, 2010 and pay only the 5% tax. You can prepay as many sessions as you would like, as far as one year in advance (restricted to one year because session fees may change beyond this timeframe).

If you are looking to provide a Gift Certificate for a friend or loved one, purchasing it before July 1st will save you the additional tax that will be unavoidable after July 1st.

So, let’s make lemonade from these lemons, shall we?

For more information on the new HST tax, visit

If you’ve had a session in the last while that you’d like images from to give to grandmas, aunts, sisters or moms, give me a call or send me a quick email, and I will get those orders in for you ASAP!

Having just had a portrait session myself, my gift to me this year is going to be large canvasses of our family and kids captured while on a recent vacation to California in March. We had so much fun, and it was great to see the love that our family feels captured on camera. I’ll share a few of those next

In the interim, if you have images for YOU that you would like to order, please remember to do so ASAP. I need to have canvas orders by the end of this week, and I need to have print orders by April 26th in order to ensure Mother’s Day readiness!