kingsville is where i live, and it was the setting for a beautiful wedding that i photographed this past saturday. kingsville, is about 1/2 and hour outside windsor, ontario, and we are right on lake erie. it's a very nice little town and a great place to live. i had the opportunity to work with wedding photographer, John Lyons , for the very first time. it was a blast! John is a great guy and a wonderful wedding photographer, and i was thrilled to have the chance to work with him.  he's also like the energizer bunny, and seems to have the energy to just keep on going and going! i have also just hired John and his graphic design company to take on my branding/marketing work. this will be a fun summer! our day started at Anjolie salon in Leamington, and that was the beginning of our marathon wedding photography day! in total, we photographed in 10 locations and the day lasted 13.5 hours for us! we ended the day at the Roma Club in Leamington, where a beautiful, fairytale reception was hosted. i was so tired when i got home, but it was the wonderful kind of exhaustion that you feel when you've been scuba diving all day and sleep comes instantly! wonderful. adam and lisa are both from the kingsville area, and are highschool sweethearts. they started dating in grade 9, and at 22 years old they got married. i have a soft spot for highschool love stories, since the hubby and i started dating in grade8/9 too! you could tell by the looks that they gave each other, that they are deeply committed and in love. it was a beautiful day. there was so much love from family and friends, that Adam & Lisa just sailed through the day, happy and smiling every second. i had a really hard time picking just a few photos for this blog post, so please don't get mad at the crazy amount of photos. after saturday, i think i am even more in love with wedding photography than ever before! yeah, it was crazy & exhausting, but i love being so intimately involved with such a special moment in people's lives. i also just realized that saying that i'm a 'wedding photographer' sounds like the cheeziest career choice around! HAH! ok, here is some eye candy for you!

yesterday, i had the pleasure of photographing Karwan & Shilan. now, this couple might be dressed in formal wedding attire, which would lead you to believe that they WERE about to get married.... nope. they were married in November in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. they are kurdish, Shilan being born and raised there (she lived the last 12 years or so, in Germany) and Karwan being raised here in Windsor.  yesterday was a day to celebrate their marriage with friends and family from Windsor, and some of Shilan's family even flew in for the big party! when i was probing the groom's mom for some info about her son's love story, she shared with me a few little tidbits. i guess she and Karwan went back home for a family reunion  and it was there that he met Shilan. after coming back to Windsor, he continued getting to know Shilan through phone conversations and decided that she was the wonderful girl that he needed to marry.  he headed back to Kurdistan last fall, became engaged and then married in a traditional ceremony. when i first met with the newlyweds, i asked if they were afraid of travelling back to Iraq with all the fighting going on right now, and they said that they weren't. i guess they didn't travel through Baghdad, but flew into Turkey and then travelled to Iraq from there. i have to say , that these two were so wonderful and sweet, and they were always a pleasure to meet with and talk to. i am especially impressed with Shilan, since she has been uprooted from everything she knew and loved, to come over to Canada and become a wife in a brand new culture. talk about brave! i know that she was super shy the first time i met her, and she was even too shy to speak english because she didn't think she did a very good job of it . i am so glad that Shilan learned to trust me enough to try out her english, and i was TOTALLY impressed! there are people that have lived in Canada for 30 years that can't speak as well as she can! yesterday, we headed to central windsor, to Jackson Park for our photo session. i was a little wary of Jackson Park, but decided that i was going to MAKE IT WORK! you see..... the city of windsor has been on strike for 6 weeks or so, which means that none of the city parks have been maintained for 6 WEEKS! ummmmm... can you say WEEDS! not a flower in sight, but i knew that i could make it work by just staying to the outskirts and pretending that we were in the wilderness somewhere. after family portraits, the three of us did our thing and got some photos done! the videographer followed us for a while, but left about halfway through our time together. we had originally planned for 1.5 hours to take some portraits of the happy couple, but we cut it down to an hour when the temperatures became unbearable! they were troopers though, and i tried to find all the shade it could!

i think that my title has a nice ring to it, don't you? ok, so i'm being silly. sue me! i just had to come in here and report on a couple of things with regards to my business growth and development. i told my cyberspace, blog fans (all 3 of you) that i would share the continuing drama of starting a photography business from the ground up, so here we go! as of today, i am now up to about 15 weddings (i think it's 15) that i'll be 2nd shooting this year, and 2 of my own wedding clients! yahoooo!!! i know that 2nd shooting doesn't sound glamorous, but i didn't ever want to do a bride any diservice by pretending to be an awesome, experienced photographer when i wasn't.  it's not as though i don't believe in my abilities to take a great photo (or at least an extremely good , verging on awesome photo), because i have been learning the art and technical side of photography for a few years now. i know how to work my camera (which is more than many photographers can say, trust me), i LOVE working with people and i am creative. the reason i felt the need to 2nd shoot, is because i wanted to make sure i understood the dynamics of a wedding day, crazy bridezillas and all! i didn't think that it was fair to offer my services without the understanding of how to properly schedule a wedding day and make sure that the photos are done well , even with crazy time restraints. this has been my main reason for getting into the 2nd shooting arena. now, i truly believe that i am more than capable of dealing with a wedding on my own.  so, this year i am working for other photographers and next year i will be IN THE BIG LEAGUES & ON MY OWN! i will be on my own with TONS of experience too! how could i ask for brides to pay me for my services if i wasn't experienced? i am all about making sure that i go over an above everything that a bride and groom would need or expect. so, 15 weddings booked so far, and i'm willing to do another 5 or so to make it an even 20! i did have a photographer form Costa Rica offer me a job 2nd shooting for her here in Windsor this coming October, but the bride and groom splurged and paid for her to bring her assistant. i was bummed when that fell through, but flattered that an experienced photographer wanted to hire me and had never even met me. it was all based on my portfolio. i have also been receiving phone calls from people wanting portrait work done, and even though i'm hoping to eventually steer away from portrait sessions, i am welcoming the business because i just love photographing people and i have the time right now. i have also been receiving some inquiries about doing some weddings next year, which is super exciting! i LOVE this job, and i still can't believe that it's actually work, so i'm thankful for every inquiry and every possibility.  by the time next year rolls around, i will be quite the seasoned photog! i am in the process of looking into getting some branding & marketing work done. i know that most new photographers spend all their money on all the fancy new gear and gadgets, but i firmly believe that i need to look like the professional i am, which means getting a united front. i want all of my 'stuff' to represent who i am as a photographer, and it has to have a cohesive look to it.  my website, my photos, my marketing material, should all scream 'MICHELE BOWMAN PHOTOGRAPHY' and eventually become recognizable! yep, i dream BIG! so, i now have two proposals from 2 different graphic designers for all the work, and 1 quote from a designer to just come up with a logo. i guess i will need to make a decision this weekend, weigh out all of my options, and then try to figure out how i'm going to pay for all of this! YIKES! heck, i'd love a new lens too, but i think that this is a better use of the money i don't have ! HAHA!!! what else...... oh, i'm photographing a wedding tomorrow, which is awesome! it is my OWN wedding, which means i am the lead photographer and not a 2nd shooter. i am a bit nervous about it, because everything falls on me, but i am so thrilled that i will be able to set up the shots like i want and start making my style come alive in my photographs! i don't really know if this couple is adventurous, but i'll do my best to get them to have some FUN!!! i will blog the photos as soon as i get them uploaded! OK? wait.... one more thing! i am considering doing a bridal show this fall, to launch my new brand and my 2010 brochure! i am still on the fence a bit , with regards to whether it's something i'm keen on, but it might be a good way to get my name out into the commmunity. i also LOVE to meet new people, so that would be the fun part! i think that's it now. how about a photo!!!! it's ME!!! Becker took  this headshot of me when i was at his workshop in april.

this past saturday, i had the opportunity to start wedding season as a 2nd shooter for a local, Windsor photographer. Arica Ingratta (of Manifesto Photography )is a young photographer from my church, and she has graciously hired me to shoot some local weddings with her this year.  we began our day at Parkwood Gospel temple here in Windsor, and i got to witness the union of that church's youth pastor and his new bride. i have to say that i was impressed with the service as a whole, because it has to have been the most God centered wedding ceremony i have ever witnessed. the young couple were surrounded by friends and family, and prayed over several times during the service itself. what a great way to start your married life, being prayed over by the ones you love the most. after the ceremony, we headed to the Windsor Art Gallery and took some photographs indoors, before heading to Jackson Park for our outdoor shots. while we were at the Art Gallery, we saw another wedding party getting photographed (i guess the art gallery is the city's hotspot for wedding photography) , and there was a wedding party of 30 people!!! ok, that's HILARIOUS!