This is just a quick post to share a little project that my kids and I did for their Mom for Mother’s Day. Melanie and Andrew created a word cloud shaped into the word LOVE using Tagxedo with a bunch of words that they thought described their mom (spelling mistakes and all!).

I suggested that we include a portrait of the two of them using the letter O as a frame. We printed it and found a really cute wrought iron easel to hold the finished product. Priceless!

Here are a few of the Wall Panels featuring images from some of the clients of Dog Day 2012. The last of the print orders finally came in so I’m putting everything together and hope to deliver them to Pawitively Natural on Friday.

You should notice that every one of these wall panels is different. They are all custom designed and created to match the photos selected by each client. They were lots of fun to put together and I’m really excited about the final product. Each panel is 12×24 and can be displayed on a shelf or an easel, or they are ready for framing too…

Calgary Pet Portraits

I have been asked if we will be doing another one of these Dog Day events sometime soon. We will definitely be back next year, so stay tuned for more information.

But pet photography sessions are always available! If you want some pet portraits or a family portrait session that includes your pet friends then you should check out the packages available on my dedicated Calgary Pet Photography website. The site is a work in progress, but the basic information is there!

Feel free to contact Sean at 403-615-3708 if you have any questions!

I had to post this wonderful image of baby Alex with a huge smile on his face. Alex was just a little over 4 months when he came in to my studio for his second portrait session. His first photography session was a newborn session when he was only 5 days old. The change since then is amazing! He is so happy and smiley all the time and he’s almost sitting up, he’s rolling over, and he’s absorbing everything around him.

I had a number of new props and outfits that I wanted to try out, while also capturing the milestones for a 4 month old baby (mainly smiling and pushing himself up off his tummy). Unfortunately the outfits I had were a little small for Alex, but we did get some great shots and captured the milestones that I wanted to see. It was a very fun session and I can’t wait to see him again in a few months!

Baby’s First Year Program

Your Baby will change so much and so quickly in the first year. It is really important to capture those changes several times throughout the year so you can enjoy the memories forever. I highly recommend our Baby’s First Year program as the easiest and most affordable way to record each of those milestones in a timeless keepsake that you can proudly display in your home.

Newborn sessions are best done in the range of 5-10 days old, but it’s never too late they can be complete at any age. The other Baby’s First Year sessions should be done around 4, 8 and 12 months to ensure that we catch the important milestones throughout the year.

Please download the Baby’s First Year Pricing Guide for more information about the packages and pricing details for Maternity or Newborn Sessions, or for the Baby’s First Year Program.

Feel free to contact Sean at 403-615-3708 to learn more or to book a session.

Custom Frame for ECCO Waste

This is an example of a completely custom frame built to order for one of my Calgary Commercial Photography clients by Karen at Time Frames Custom Framing. I have been working with Karen for almost 2 years now and we have an arrangement where Karen provides a couple of specialty frame options that are always available to my clients. These are hand-made custom frames, but they have been standardized and there are only a couple of sizes and options available at list prices.

Specialty Frames from Timeframes Custom Picture Framing

Occasionally one of my clients wants something a little (or a lot) different than the standard frames that are always available. In that case I refer them directly to Karen and she always has great ideas on how to create the piece the client has in mind.

In this specific case the client knew the style of frame and the color of the mat that he wanted to use for an industrial photograph that I had shot previously. He met with Karen to review the options available and between them they agreed on what the final product should look like. I provided the printed photograph in the exact size required and Karen put it all together.

The photo above shows the resulting frame that Karen created. I’m extremely impressed by the result and it really looks great. As with all the other frames from Timeframes this product included a hand-made molding, a custom-cut mat, and Reflection Control UV Inhibiting Glass. It is an extremely high quality product and I’m very happy with it!

This is a great example of something that can be used at a commercial or industrial site to show off the people or products at the site. It can also be used, as this one will, as a gift to an employee that is moving on due to retirement or location transfer.

If you would like to learn more about commercial, industrial, or portrait photography in the Calgary area please contact Sean at 403-615-3708.

I have no doubt that there will be changes (there always are) but for now you can find all the latest and greatest information about soccer pictures on the WRC Socc main page:

WRC Soccer Picture Day 2012

That page will be kept up to date with all the information about the soccer pictures, including links to the image galleries as soon as they are posted.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the process?

Free Desktop Wallpaper

As a little bonus for my friends and followers every month I provide a free image for use as your desktop background wallpaper on your computer. Each beautiful photo is a picture that I have created and it always includes a calendar overlay for the month. I know that I’m always looking for a calendar and having one on my desktop is very convenient!

This months wallpaper image features an abstract image of the beautiful new pedestrian bridge over the Bow River in Calgary. Although officially known as the “Peace Bridge” it has been anything but peaceful. Most Calgarians fall into two camps in discussions about this bridge; they either love the bridge for it’s unique beauty or they hate it because it the project to build it cost $25 million that could have been spent in many other ways.

Personally I’m very interested in the photography opportunities that the unique bridge presents (it looks amazing at night!), but rather disturbed that it doesn’t actually go anywhere… There is no access to the bridge from the North side of Memorial Drive (on the North side of the river). Therefore anyone using the bridge has to walk (or cycle) along the existing pathway to access points at one of the other bridges to the East or West of the new bridge. It doesn’t make much sense.

But it is very beautiful!

Download

To install the image as your desktop background, simply click on the link below that corresponds to the file resolution you would like to use. When the larger image appears in your browser window right-click on the picture and select “Set as Desktop Background…”.

For some browsers (Google Chrome for sure) you may have to choose “Save As…” to copy the image to your desktop first. You can then right-click on the file on your desktop and choose “Set as Desktop Background…”.

Desktop:
800×600 | 1024×768 | 1280×720 | 1280×800 | 1400×1050 | 1440×900
1600×1200 | 1920×1080 | 1920×1200 | 2560×1440 | 2560×1600 | 3360×1050

Tablet (Apple iPad, Blackberry Playbook, Samsung Galaxy Tab):
Horizontal | Vertical

Apple iPhone 2, 3, or 3Gs:
Horizontal | Vertical

Apple iPhone 4 or 4s, and most Android Phones:
Horizontal | Vertical

NEW – Facebook:
Facebook Timeline Cover

Children’s Photography and Field Day

Come join us for an afternoon of Arts and Crafts, Field Games and Playground fun!! Plus all participants will receive a free We Did It! t-shirt and a 5×7 portrait!

Date: Sunday, April 29th
Time: 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Location: Strathcona Community Centre
(277 Strathcona Drive SW, Calgary, AB)

Register: http://www.eventbrite.ca/event/3385960499

Calgary Children’s Photographer Sean Phillips will be taking part in this fun and interactive event to help out a Calgary charitable organization called We Did It! School-Age Care Society. The charity needs a series of posed children’s portraits and candid action shots to be used on their website and promotional material.

The event will also be a great opportunity for the children to come out and enjoy a fun day in the park doing crafts and other activities. All participants (or their parents or guardians) will be asked to sign a model release so that images from the day can be used in media and on the internet for promotional use. In exchange all the children will get a free T-shirt and a 5×7 print from the day.

We Raised over $900 for Charity!

Our 2nd annual Calgary Dog Photography event – Dog Day 2012 – was this past weekend at PAWSitively Natural Dog Daycare. The event was a complete success and everyone had a great time.

Here are a few of the fun statistics from the day:

• 37 families visited the photography studio
• 52 dogs sat for pet portraits
• over 1700 images were created throughout the day
• we raised $925 for our charity partner PALS | Pet Access League Society
• $825 of the money raised is eligible for an 80% matching grant from the Community Spirit program, bringing the total raised for PALS up to a whopping $1585!

No matter how you do the math that adds up to one amazing day! And it was fun too! We saw some great people, played with many beautiful dogs (and made pictures of them) and we had some amazing food from our food sponsors (1410 World Bier Haus for the people and Bow Wow's Bakery for the dogs.

Thanks so much to everyone that participated and helped make our Pet Portrait day a total success!

All of the image galleries can be seen in the client area of the site.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day:

Dog Day is officially completely booked solid!

Thanks so much to everyone for signing up for our annual Calgary pet photography event, Pawsitively Portraits: Dog Day at Pawsitively Natural, and for helping us support our charity partner for this year. Volunteers from PALS (Pet Access League Society) will be onsite at the event all day tomorrow so please be sure to stop in to say hellow. They will be collecting donations too, so please do whatever you can to help them out. We’re asking a minimum suggested donation of $25 per participant in Dog Day, but feel free to help out with more than that!

Special thanks also go to our host and the of the event sponsors:

Pawsitively Natural Dog Daycare & Training Academy – Give your dog something to do during the day so you can take the night off!

1410 World Bier Haus – Providing the highest quality local and fresh ingredients at a very reasonable price with extraordinary service that makes them the number one choice for customers.

Bow Wow’s Bakery Ltd. – Nutritional Treats for Dogs and Cats

My sister and her family came to Calgary to visit us over the Easter long weekend so I had them into the studio along with my kids to create some nice family portraits and a few great images of the cousins together. The children loved doing the session, even the little kids, and I got some great group and individual pictures of all the kids. The girls all got dressed up in their fancy dresses and my son put on his “handsome clothes”, including a tie! It was very cute and everyone had a great time together.