michele bowman ~ Windsor Ontario Wedding Photographer, London, Chatham Southwestern Ontario & Destination Weddings

170

'your life' sessions

08.20.10

in the beginning , i was an underwater photographer

suddenly, i became a wedding photographer

but, weddings are just the beginning.

then.....

comes life.

each moment that makes up your day, will eventually make up your life.

it's those little moments, the laughter, the hugs, and the love, that will shape who you are and who'll you become.

recently, we had a tornado warning in Kingsville, and i asked the kids to gather their most prized possession to take with them into the basement (if the time arose) and what did i gather?

i gathered up all my photo albums, hard drives and cd's of photos. that was it.

in the last little while, i have been asked if i provided lifestyle & family sessions. during wedding season i am not really available for much else (other than the weddings) but i am going to be branching out a bit in the next few months.

this fall, i am offering a limited amount of 'your life' sessions, and i'd love to hear from you if you're interested in scheduling one.

sessions range from your basic, fun photo session to full 'day in the life' sessions.

please email me ~ michele@michelebowmanweddings.com for more information & pricing.

(0) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: 'your life' sessions . TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/167

169

my life ~ being married to the man of my dreams

08.19.10

i am a wedding photographer.

i document weddings on an almost weekly basis.

i am always telling my clients that marriage is the most wonderful, exciting, and fabulous journey EVER.

i know what i'm talking about.

a few years ago (27 to be exact) , i met and started dating a 14 year old boy. he was pretty cute. he played violin, i played viola, we became best friends, fell in love, and that was that.

at the age of 20 we got married.

we've been busy ever since.

today, i am celebrating my wedding anniversary.

21 years to be exact (i am NOT OLD!!!! i just got married really young)

i am not making things up when i say that marriage is wonderful.

a journey

an adventure

our life

i wanted to write a little post about the most wonderful hubby in the whole world, and thank him publicly for being the most amazing man EVER!!

Darryl is more attentive than i could have ever asked for, he's the most loving father to our 3 beautiful children, and our life has been filled with more joy than i could have ever imagined.

Darryl, these photos are for you. to help you remember our life together these last 21 years, and to get you excited about the next 21 years!!! if we've done all these things in 21 years, can you imagine what our lives will look like when we're 60?

here is a portion of my life in photos, with an emphasis on the most amazing man EVER . please ignore the quality of this photos, since they have been scanned from prints i had, and are not digital files.

Darryl, these are for you!!

here we are at 16 years old. please ignore the bleached hair (we had a run in with Sun-In)

our wedding day, August 19th 1989

yep, i was a bride once!!! YAY!

(i got my dress from Valencienne in Toronto and i loved it so much)

we didn't have professional wedding photography, and got posed, in midday sun, for our photos. nice squinty-face.

our reception was held at the Elmwood Inn & Spa in Toronto. We danced to 'Dream Come True' by Frozen Ghost

the birth of our first son, October 1991. this is my Josh.

i can't believe that we thought we were mature enough to have kids at age 22 !! LOL!

the Bowman's teach their kids to play euchre at a very early age. wow, someone led an ace of spades!!! good lead :)

daddy going off to work. Josh loved his daddy, and always painted him pictures or built him bozer-dozers with his big lego blocks (Josh called bulldozers 'bozer-dozers)

the day we came home with our Emilie, March 1993. Josh was still a baby at 17 months old, but it was all good.

we were all tired in our house, especially since Darryl had just gone back to school full-time and we had two babies at home. not sure what we were thinking , but it was a very tiring time.

Josh's first taste at playing a string instrument. he would go on to become an extremely accomplished cellist. always music in the house, since we didn't have a TV (starving students and all that jazz)

daddy always makes a great horse. they don't play that game too much anymore, especially since Josh is taller then Darryl these days (and just as hairy) i'm not going to say anything about Josh playing with a Barbie doll ;P

our little blond poopsie!!! Cameron loved his daddy too. imagine that!

building sand castles at the cottage in Bala. love these guys!

celebrating Emilie's 6th b-day. we have now moved to Windsor Ontario

Darryl and our bleach-blond Josh. big hugs.

our new passion as a couple ...... SCUBA DIVING!!!!

this was at our open water checkout dive, the weekend we got certified!!

it's a HUGE part of our lives now, and every holiday we take revolves around diving now. best decision EVER!!

i'm starting to learn underwater photography here. i love this face.

we camp in Tobermory, and there's nothing like getting hit by a freezing cold wave while posing for a photo!! 70 F water is a shock to the senses for sure.

more music. Josh, Darryl and I in the Windsor Community Orchestra a few years ago (Josh is taller than Darryl now) there was nothing better than having two of my favourite men in the same orchestra as myself. it's how Darryl and i met all those years ago, and it had all come full circle with the inclusion of our son. we performed a Brahms symphony. it was fabulous.

my handsome man just chilling out in Roatan Honduras, where we go for our diving adventures every year. we talk about the day's diving first thing in the morning, and then dive, dive, dive all day long!!

our life is one big, exciting adventure, and i wouldn't have it any other way!! God is good.

happy anniversary my sweet man.

love you.

(8) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend

Philip Hawkins Edinburgh Wedding Photographer:

Happy anniversary! That was a great post, I really enjoyed reading it :) My wife and I were married 20 years ago and didnt use a professional photographer either (my mother-in-laws fault! lol) and our wedding photographs were horrendous! So like you I speak from experience when I urge couples to use a full-time pro. Anyway have a really great anniversary!

(08.19.10)

Lesley:

Decided to drop in today and found the most beautiful post! Michele, music may have brought you and Darryl together, but you had me at euchre! Happy anniversary to the most fabulous photographer! May I suggest making up for lost moments and getting a photo session done of the two of you? :)

(08.19.10)

Barb:

Happy 21st Anniversary Michele & Darryl! All our love Barb & Don xox

(08.19.10)

amy:

happy anniversary!! we just celebrated 11 years.. what a great post thank you for giving us a peek into your life!!

(08.19.10)

Lisa:

That is an amazing blog Michelle......21 years!

(08.19.10)

ebphoto | Photographe Bruxelles:

Happy anniversary! I find it very cool of you to share these moments. 21 years of what looks like 21 years of happiness. Thanks for sharing these very personal pictures with us.

(08.23.10)

Loni Vanstone:

Happy Anniversary Michele!! =) Awww.. those wonderful family photos are all so beautiful! Thanks for sharing with us!

(08.24.10)

John Lyons Weddings:

Get a room...
:-)

(08.29.10)

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: my life ~ being married to the man of my dreams . TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/166

146

the art of choosing a wedding photographer

04.14.10

it's been a few years since i got married and planned a wedding, and in all honesty, we didn't have a professional wedding photographer.

believe it or not, we asked a cop from our church to take our photos, because we heard he would do a great job.

ummmmmmm....... not so much.

that was a long time ago, but it's a shame that my photos kinda suck.

i still love my hubby though, so it's all good.

these days, with the digital age and the fact that there are so many photographers in most urban areas, i can imagine that it must be tough for couples to know how to choose the right photographer for them.

i feel badly for couples, because there is just so much to choose from, so many photographers that are trying to get clients, and so many websites to go through!!!

if you are recently engaged and have fallen upon my site, i just want to tell you that i can only imagine your pain.

it's like when i go to a restaurant and i'm handed a menu that is 15 pages long. how the heck am i supposed to choose what i want to eat?

too many choices!!!!!

how do you decide what you like, what you want, what's the best route to go?

so, you've Googled "windsor ontario wedding photographer " and you see that there are quite a few photographers in this area. what the heck?

you sift through the endless amount of websites and blogs, trying to narrow it down to maybe 5 or 6 photographers that you plan to meet with over coffee. great.

now, you've seen the photos, but you have about 30-60 minutes with this person, one on one, to see if you click and if they are the photographer for you.

tough decision.

recently, i read a post on another photographer's blog (Grant Perry), where he wrote something very similar to this list and i thought it was a super helpful idea. i decided to so something similar for my clients, since i want to make sure that clients hire the right person for them.

here are a few ideas for making it easier to chose who's the right fit for you (whether it be me or another photographer).

please don't mind the different font. i wrote this in Word and then cut and pasted it here.

1~ Relationship

the absolute, absolute, absolute most important aspect to you getting the results you desire from your wedding photography, is that you fall in love with your wedding photographer! you just need to click as personalities and as people.

also, a wedding photographer worth hiring doesn't just take pictures.

a fabulous wedding photographer should be an artist uses their camera to capture the art of your wedding day, not just any photographer or a good friend with a Rebel XTI. each and every wedding is filled with such emotion and so many passion filled moments, and your photographer is there to capture each moment as art. the art of the story and the art of the moment is what makes your wedding photos truly wonderful and unique. they are about you.

a photographer's images should, with one glance, create an emotion for the viewer . can you envision yourself in the photos that you're looking through?

anyone can take a picture, but you need to chose a photographer that you know will be able to capture your story, in a way that speaks to you

2~ Passion

so, you've booked a meeting at Starbucks with 10 different photographers. now what?

when you're sitting across the table from photographer #5, how do they make you feel on the inside? are you getting excited about your wedding day as they talk about how they might be involved? when they talk about their art and their product, do they get all excited for you, your dreams and your plans, or do you feel that they are they just selling something? what adjective comes to your mind to describe them if you were asked 5 minutes after you left the appointment?

if you leave the meeting and can turn to your fiance and say 'wow, that photographer has passion for their art!", then put them on your short-list and consider that a good meeting.

a great wedding photographer shouldn't be in this line of work , just to make a few bucks, but they need to be truly passionate about telling your story through their images, they need to truly care about you as people, and they need to be passionate about their art. PASSION!!!

3~ Fun?

sure, wedding days are full of timelines and schedules, smiles and hugs, but they are also supposed to be FUN!!!

when you sit down to meet with a potential wedding photographer, do you think that you might be able to have fun with this person all day long?

i guess it comes down to the relationship thing again, and whether or not you can just be yourselves and have fun with the person that will be working closely with you for up to 12 hours or so.

if you don't know what the heck i'm talking about and if you don't plan on having any fun on your big day, then you can just ignore everything i just wrote about the subject.

just kidding.....

you KNOW you want to have FUN! who wouldn't?

that's all i have to say, for now anyways.

oh, and a blog post is never complete without a photo

another one from Rob & Leslie's Willestead Manor wedding, here in WIndsor

(2) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend

Nick Everitt:

Great article, really good advice for couples looking for their wedding photographer and I love the image that you have included, thats an awesome first dance shot!

(04.21.10)

Philip Hawkins:

Good advice. I give similar advice over here in Scotland from time to time as selecting the right wedding photographer can be a daunting process to many couples. Excellent image choice, too...timeless!

(04.26.10)

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: the art of choosing a wedding photographer . TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/143

142

just a few spots left ! {windsor ontario wedding photographer}

03.12.10

hi all :)

when i embarked on the roller coaster journey of being a wedding photographer, i sat down an evaluated a few core beliefs and plans for my business.

the first thing i decided, was that i wanted to be able to give my clients the best possible experience !

how does a photographer give their clients a great experience ?

well, there are two things that i came up with.

first off, i would need to provide photos that capture the emotion and feeling of each and every client and their wedding day.

recently, while reading entries on a photography forum, a wedding photographer named David Murray posted a response to a discussion about wedding photojournalism.

"It is not so much that I want to focus on just the good things during the course of the day as much as I want to find and touch upon the things that we can all recognize as being part of a sublime testament to our shared human experience. Some times these moments are happy, sometimes they are quite or somber, sometimes funny, and sometimes they are filled with joy. But the common thread is that in an aesthetic way, they dig right to the root of what is best in all of us. That is what I strive for when I pick up a camera "

everything David says in this post, is exactly how i feel about what i do.

the second thing that i wanted to do for my clients, is provide them with great customer service. i want to be able to present my work to each and every couple, within a few weeks of their wedding, not months and months afterwards. there is no reason why anyone should be getting their wedding album a year or two AFTER their wedding!

to be able to be the best photographer, wife and mother that i can possibly be, i am only taking on about 20 wedding commissions per year.

i have almost reached that number, and i will not be going over it.

it is because each and every client is so important to me, that i'm limiting my number of commissions to 20.

the wedding season in Windsor is pretty darn short, and my summer is pretty much booked full (except for 1 or 2 weekends), and my fall has a couple of more weekends that i'm currently available.

if you are planning a wedding in 2010, and you're still looking for a wedding photographer, please contact me for more details about my availability.

i am currently taking bookings for 2011 and i'd love to hear from you as well.

my wedding season starts in 2 weeks, with Rob & Leslie's wedding at Willistead Manor, and i'm really excited about it. my biggest fear for the day, would be that we get some freakishly weird blizzard or something. Rob & Leslie are from Arizona, so i don't think that they would be too excited about sharing their wedding day with slushy snow.

here's a photo of Rob & Leslie, from their snowy engagement session i did for them this past Christmas

windsor ontario engagement photography.jpg

(2) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend

Brandon- Portland Wedding Photographer:

Congrats on filling up your season! That's always a great feeling. Very nice shot too.

(03.24.10)

Newport Wedding Photographer | Mark Andrew:

Beautiful image. I like your take on commissions. David is an awesome photographer and probably one of the best wedding photojournalists out there.

(03.25.10)

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: just a few spots left ! {windsor ontario wedding photographer} . TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/139

139

27 years ago....

03.04.10

March 4th, 1983

the beginning of the life as i know it.

you see, March 4th 1983 is the day that Darryl asked me to be his girlfriend.

it was 2 weeks after my 14th birthday, and it was a friday.

i wish that i still had the original note, but after all of our moving around and the age of the paper, i guess it got lost or thrown out. i still remember the gist though.

Darryl was too shy to ask me out in person, so on that fateful friday morning, before classes started, i was handed a little piece of paper. i was also told not to read it until after he left the room. talk about shy!

it went something like this

"Michele, I like you a lot, and I'd like to ask you to be my girlfriend. I had to ask you today, because I couldn't live through the weekend. Love always, Darryl"

Yep.

Short and to the point.

Darryl and i met in Jr.High in Toronto. I was in grade 8 and he was in grade 9.

for me, it was love at first sight, but it took Darryl a little bit longer to realize that i was the girl for him. i was willing to wait.

Darryl played violin and i played viola, and it was actually the music that brought us together. he happened to be the best violinist in the school, and i was the best violist. it was a match made in heaven.

two music nerds, staring at each other from across the orchestra.

man, i had such a crush on that guy! it was crazy!!!

so, 27 years later, we are still together and we are celebrating our 21 anniversary this coming August.

we have 3 teenagers and a lifetime of memories.

through all the trials and all the journeys, i can still say that i'm crazy about this guy.

we still play in an orchestra, and we still stare across the room at each other and i still get that loving wink from the man of my dreams.

of course, we're older, we have a few gray hairs (well, him more than me of course) and we're far from those being those kids with a crush.

we are two 41 year olds with a crush!

even after all these years we adore each other, lust after each other, and can't get enough of each other.

not much has changed in the last 27 years.

when i talk to my clients about love and marriage, i know what i'm talking about!

here are a few embarrassing photos of us together, from ages 14 to 19.

this was taken on a school music trip, about 2 months after we started dating. it was a LONG bus ride to Washington DC, and we fell asleep. i'm so thankful that i have great friends to take embarrassing photos of me at my best!

yep, i had a puppet muppet! i still love Animal!

i think i am in grade 10 in this photo. as you can see, we had some issues with using Sun In during the summer, and we were still sporting the awesome YELLOW hair! LOL!

this was taken a few months after we got engaged. i was 19 yrs old here.

man, i LOVED that sweatshirt and wore it until it was in tatters!

this was the Christmas, after we were engaged. i was still 19 years old here. Darryl was 20.

it was the December before we got married.

these are our kids!

it's hard to believe that 27 years later, we would have these awesome kids!

(0) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: 27 years ago.... . TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/136

136

andy & laurie {windsor ontario engagement photographer}

02.17.10

on Valentine's Day, i had the pleasure of photographing Laurie & Andy's engagement session.

it was a cold day, but Laurie & Andy were troopers, and walked through snow and ice so that i could get the shot!

Andy and Laurie are getting married in May at the Pointe West Golf and Country Club, which is in Amherstburg. Because their wedding is in Amherstburg, i decided that it would be fun to shoot their engagement session in the cute downtown streets if the quaint town. We had fun in the snow, and then ended our session in a little diner on the main street by the river.

here's a sneak peek

windsor ontario engagement photographer.jpg

(0) Comments Leave comment Send to a friend

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: andy & laurie {windsor ontario engagement photographer} . TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/133

Results tagged “michele bowman wedding photographer” from michele bowman ~ Windsor Ontario Wedding Photographer, London, Chatham Southwestern Ontario & Destination Weddings