Hello :)

thank you all so much for the love and positive responses regarding my first blog post, I was slightly overwhelmed and very humbled. The boudoir marathon was a great success with lovely ladies :) Lindsey and I had so much fun, we are looking to do another in July so stay posted for the details on my Facebook page!

I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in the annual Give A Kid A Lift Charity event down at the Ironwood again this Spring :) Its a wonderful day filled with love, live music, yummy food, refreshing drinks, and many, many laughs (totally my kind of charity)

The purpose is to help out families who have children with mobility issues; installing lifts and/or elevators in homes to make life easier and more accessible! As you can imagine, these can be a huge expense, so the good people at Canwest elevators, Garaventa Lifts, and the Easter Seals of Canada (also Patrick at the ironwood) all pitch in their time and hearts to help out. Its such a great cause, and one I'm happy to be a part of.

Can West Elevators had also hired me to do a shoot at the Porche dealership a few weeks later, to photograph their elevators (because as I told you before, I'll shoot anything)

It was fun and I hope to be able to do more commercial work in the future

The very next day I was off to Mexico to shoot a destination wedding in Cabo! This was my second trip to Mexico in the last 6 months for 'work' and I was excited to see the pacific side

I hadn't met the bride or groom beforehand, but some of my most favorite friends in the world had referred me to them (thanks Mike and Lisa!)

Jenn (the bride) and I got to know each other over email last fall, and got along right from the start; we knew we would be a good fit together.

The Riu Palace was where we all stayed and also where the ceremony took place. It is a STUNNING resort, and everything went amazingly well. The bride and groom had 70 or so guests attend the wedding, most of them coming from northern Alberta, Ontario, and Newfoundland.

They were a great bunch of people and I had a lot fun getting to know a few of them in the pool bar over the week ;)

This brings me to the purpose of this post;

Qualities you must look for in a (destination) wedding photographer!!

1-punctuality-vitally important! make sure your photographer isn't the type to miss a flight or be late to any scheduled photo event!

2-friendly, easy to get along with, and approachable-you need your photographer to be able to engage with your guests, and make them feel at ease! You'll get great candid shots if your guests feel really comfortable around your photographer

3-patience-It's a wedding. Things go wrong. Timelines get rearranged and things don't always go as planned! People can get irritable under pressure and wedding days are notoriously stressful. You need a photographer who is patient and understanding when circumstances change, and can even help put the bride (or wedding party, or family) at ease and stay calm.

4-prepared and organized-Make sure you sit down with your photographer asap to go over a timeline for the entire week. They need to know where they need to be at all times for photo events (excursions, boudoir, family portraits etc)

5-fun-to invite someone to spend a week with your closest friends and family, you want a photographer who is fun! They need to be able to enjoy themselves and contribute to this celebration of love!

....but not too fun! You also need a photographer who is a professional, and knows their limits. Having a few too many mojitos can lead to bad decisions and overall embarrassment for everyone.

6-references-make sure to either read some honest reviews online, or ask to chat with past clients to really know who you're getting!

7-experienced-depending on whatever deal you have made with your photographer, you need to know what they're capable of, and what you're expectations are, and hope they're similar. Make sure to go over their portfolios and see the work they have produced thus far. I also personally follow my brides Pinterest Boards to have an idea of what they're looking for, specifically.

8-love for the work-free trips are nice and getting paid is nice, but make sure your photographer LOVES photography! To only be 'in it' for the trip or cash, will not give you a great experience. You need someone who loves photography, can be creative, and has their heart behind it.

Not only has photography been a passion of mine most of my life, I also LOVE weddings! And I love LOVE! And I love knowing that the images I capture are going to be hanging on these families walls forEVER!! Its such a special time, and for me, bringing LOVE and photography together is a no-brainer.

9-good quality equipment-I recently upgraded to a 5D Markiii Full Frame Canon camera. It had been on my wish list for 2 years, and it meets all expectations! I also recently purchased a wide angle lens for those large group shots (and maybe for Aurora too) I bring a rebel for a back up, a PowerShot just for tooling around, and a Polaroid, purely for fun :)

10-has a contract in place-you need to be clear on what your expectations are, and what the photographers expectations are as well. Getting paid, length of time to receive photos, copywrite issues, and everything else! It needs to be clear for everyone so there are no discrepencies down the line.

Thank you to everyone for your support, and patience as it took me months to write a follow up to Blog #1! I am a full time stay at home mother to my 2 young boys and life can get hectic! I will always write when I can, and share photos from recent sessions.

Here's a few of my fave photos from the last few months...

Baby Juno

Nollans Easter Shoot

Miss Aria The beautiful

Northern Lights

Mommy and Me session

sunrise from my room

I woke up almost every morning at 630am just to watch it

Parade of Wonders

comic con YYC

my youngest ❤

Ashleys Maternity Session

this gorgeous boy stole my heart on the beaches of Mexico

my oldest xo

oh hi there :)

My name is Coreen, or Reena, if you like.

I take photographs, I'm not a blogger, nor do I claim to be good at writing, but here I am! Blogging is something I never thought I would do, but I'm passionate about my photography and passionate about building my business, and if this helps, then I'm willing to give it a try...

Where to start? I have so much to say, but we have lots of time to get to know each other, right? I'll skip the details and just get to the most important stuff;

I am 38, a wife to the best human on the planet, Jeff, my *SBA, a mother to 2 gorgeous sons, Kashus Logan (5) and Atticus Parker (3). I love to garden, listen to music, work out, spend time with people that inspire me, smooch, drink coffee, cook good food, and travel when possible. I am a stay at home mother who just finished a Photography course at the local technical school, and I want to get back to work; to learn, to engage with people, to have fun, and to be a better photographer. I discovered I need a creative outlet to be a happier and more content version of myself, so I'm just gonna go for it :)

*SBA-sweet baby angel

On our wedding day, July 2016. He IS a tall drink, isn't he?

My main focus will be weddings, local and destination, and also boudoir. (but between you and me, I'll shoot anything, like anything) I'm totally a photog-whore, and I'm ok with it. I also love landscape and cityscape, food photography, and photos of the loves in my life; you'll see plenty over the course of this blog.

In 2015 when I started my course at SAIT, I specifically said to my friend and classmate Shannon, "I don't want to do boudoir" I was sure weddings and babies would be my main focus. A few months later, I was asked by a friend if I would shoot her friend (Miss D) in a boudoir setting. Funny how things work out...

I agreed, but I was exceptionally nervous about it. A few days later, I had a phone conversation with Miss D, and heard about her decision to have a double mastectomy after being tested for the BRCA1 gene. She made the only choice she knew she could, as she had watched her grandmother and mother battle breast cancer themselves.

I'm not afraid to admit that there were some tears spilled in that conversation, and I felt an overwhelming connection to her as a Woman, and a Mother, which is something I wasn't really expecting, but completely embraced.

The day of the shoot, we met, we had a drink, we chatted, and we took the time to get comfortable with each other. We talked the entire time, laughing and making jokes as she moved through different poses, changed outfits, and touched up her makeup. It was amazing to me, that a woman would trust another person, to take nude/semi nude photos of them, without ever having met them, for such an important and emotional reason-that level of trust was baffling to me, and I felt so honored to receive it.

Shortly afterwards, I had another gal contact me through Facebook and ask for a bridal boudoir shoot. She was getting married on the same day as Jeff and I, so we had a lot of wedding things to chat about, and ended up having a really great time :) Again, Like Miss D, Miss I was fun and friendly and we were able to connect.

Somewhere in there I ended up doing a Dudeoir shoot for one of our Best Friends in the world-what an experience! I hope to book more men for shoots like this; so please, contact me if you know of someone who would be up for it. This entire shoot was so much fun, for me, for him, and for his wife, as she was able to direct him through all the poses she wanted to see him in, to tease him and help him relax, and also, to remind him of why he was doing it: all for her :)

I'd say after these 3 experiences, I was hooked. I want to do boudoir all the time. Last fall, I rented a studio space and hired a make-up gal, then arranged a mini-marathon. It went really well; the girls were amazing to work with and I felt really inspired by their beauty. I knew I had to do another for Valentines Day.

In January, I rented an apartment DT for the weekend, got in touch with Lindsey, the make up master, bought a shit ton of prosecco, and we got to work; 5 gals over 2 days.

Now Lindsey and I are actually related by marriage, and had always gotten along. We hadn't spent too much time together over the last few years, but I knew she had great energy and was super friendly. What I didn't realize, was how well her and I would get along, and how the energy we created between us, would really set the mood for the sessions all weekend. I love you Lindsey! xo

From the moment our first client, Miss H, arrived on Saturday morning, to our last session on Sunday afternoon, Lindsey and I were BUZZING off the energy that we received from the girls. We couldn't help but notice how we are all so different and yet we were able to find a commonality and get along so well (especially in a potentially awkward situation)

We were both so excited to be working, together, with women, and helping women to feel frigging amazing and confident, capturing it, and having a laugh. #blessed

Here's the thing; When women can get together in an environment where they have no choice but to let their walls down and be vulnerable, they can also manifest this innate sense of sisterhood, even when they are strangers. Regardless of age, religion, background, or heritage, women can instill confidence, and be supportive, and share love, and just CONNECT. Its magical shit, and it doesn't happen often enough. In the last year I've met some really beautiful people (inside and out) and I just love feeling that connection, with women and men as well, it really is something to be talked about.

Most girls have their insecurities about something physical, whether its your chest or your nose, or your thighs or whatever. We all, can look in a mirror and see 50 things we don't like or wish we could change about our bodies. Every single girl that came into the apartment that weekend talked about the parts they didn't want to show off or which parts they wanted to conceal the most. Every girl came out in a piece of lingerie that they've had in their bedroom drawer for 2-8 years and never felt sexy enough to wear for their husbands.

Throughout the entire day, myself and Lindsey, looked at every girl and told her all the beautiful things we could see in them. It came from an authentic place, of wanting them to see themselves as we do, and all the beauty they had, inside and out. We wanted to build them up, to see them shine, and create more of that magic.

Every. Single. One, was so beautiful, in 1000 ways, and it broke my heart to hear what they hated about their bodies. But, as a girl, I totally get it. I used to hate so many things about my body when I was younger, but when I hit 30, then later when I became a mom, I loved my body in a whole new way.

Are there things I'd change? Heck yes!

Do I let it keep me up at night? Fuck no.

I love this body of mine-from my tree trunk legs to my linebacker shoulders-LOVE, all love.

By the end of each session, every single girl, had become much more comfortable (mimosas) and then started saying things like "I want to get a shot of my sweet ass" or "I want to show off my chest"

When I was dropping off their photos the following week, I was able to take a moment and discuss the whole experience for them, and they all said the same things;

They felt like a million bucks when they left

They had fun spending time with new ladies, talking shit and having a laugh

They felt sexier than they had in a long time (years, for some)

They were so happy with the way the photos came out, and especially the specific ones to capture their best attributes

They felt empowered and 'like their old selves'

They want to do it again, like now :)

Lindsey and I talked about it all weekend, that magic. That wonderful energy that women can bring to their life when they feel supported and part of a girl-tribe. Its so easy to get caught up in the day to day and to forget that we need to feel good about ourselves in order to share our love and light with others. We need to feel good to be good and to do good in this life. Being able to take a day for ourselves to get our nails done, maybe our make up, and maybe get a photo shoot done in a completely open and supportive environment, is priceless, and essential.

So, this is it; instead of focusing on all the things you don't like about your body, I want every women to name 5 things about their bodies that they LOVE. Then, find 5 more. Tell me your story, tell me your 10 things. Lets start focusing on loving all of ourselves so that we can share that love with our families and our friends. And tell your friends what you think is beautiful about them. I don't mean shit like "your cupcakes are amaze" I mean like "your shoulders are sick" and "I wish I had an ass like that" because you know, sometimes we forget. Sometimes we need to be reminded, by the people we are closest to, and sometimes by strangers.

So, just 5 things

then 5 more

Tell me, and when you've made the list, think about contacting me for a boudoir shoot, and I'll capture those 10 things, and maybe more...?

Reens xo

#justfivethings

#thenfivemore

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