Sisters and Snails

I should note beforehand, there is a lack of any actual snail pictures in this post. They were however an influential feature in the making of this image gallery.

A couple weeks ago, I set up this creative portrait session with Payton and her sister Felicia. I really wanted to use some interesting dresses in a pairs shoot. My partner alongside their sibling were the perfect test subjects. Both of them braved a cooler evening and went along with all my posing suggestions, both silly and serious!

As for the reason this is titled Sisters and Snails: Despite the fact you can’t see any in these images, it seems every single snail in southern Ontario was called to this park to witness a photographer at work. Posing and positioning were carefully curated to avoid stepping on the little buggers, though we did accidentally commit a couple cases of snail murder (so sorry, snails).

I really enjoyed adding some intentional movement and blur into this set of images. It was a great experiment, and I plan to mix these techniques into my equine portraits as well. The classic dresses and natural background made for a great editing canvas, with final results aiming for something akin to film stock.

Thank you Payt and Fish, it was fun to spend some time together, and I am over the moon pleased with this set! As evident by the fact that I put together over 50 final photos.

Thank you for reading everyone! Looking forward to the next one :)

Cassandra, Blueberry, & Baby

Back at blog posting with this lovely spring session. I am normally not a maternity photographer, kids photographer, newborn etc. It’s just not my thing. However, bring horses into anything and I’m probably up for it!

As such, I was happy to oblige when Cassandra inquired about a maternity session at the farm where she keeps her big chestnut mare, Blueberry. Having known each other before planning this, and taking her baby announcement photo, this was a lovely project to do together.

We played with some classic black background poses, and I especially love the emotion and connection clearly present in the photos below. Blue was a rockstar, standing still as a statue and behaving carefully around her person. Cassandra chose an amazing dress that provided a colour pop and delicate shapes.

The rest of these images are equally special, a few more are included here to highlight some sweet moments. Thank you Cass for asking me aboard, and congratulations on your brand new family member!



Paper Insects II

If you know me as a person and as a photographer, you’ll know how important my friends are to me. I’ve happily spent the past few years (especially during my degree) cheerfully volun-telling them they would be assisting in my projects. Whether behind or in front of the camera, they each bring something to the table that helps me get the results I’m looking for. Don’t worry, these are symbiotic relationships, and I help them out too.

A lot of my recent work has featured my partner, and close friends from post secondary education. I love them dearly, but I have been meaning to involve Pooja in a proper photo project for a long time.

Pooja Patel was a key component to making my high school experience as good as it was. Without her friendship and our shared friends, I’m sure I would have been much worse off. For as long as I’ve known her, she’s been a fierce friend, talented creative, and an academics whirlwind.

Pooj, I’m so proud of you! It was my pleasure to have you be part of the Paper Insects project, in the classic “Pooja Patel Blue” no less. Click on images below to view them larger!

Thanks again Pooja, for tarzan-ing all over the beach to help me get the right photo. Thanks as well to my partner Payton M for assisting. We were all fortunate enough at the end to see an adorable family of foxes on our walk back. A little nature magic that matched the vibes of this evening.

If you want to see more work, the first instalment of this project is the very first blog post on this site. Thanks everyone <3

The Month With My Mother's Name

June 

surprisingly, was a very creative month this year, and I wanted to share a good chunk of everything I made in one spot. Enter: the blog entry. I have one more larger project that’s been photographed already, but have yet to find the time it deserves for full post production. A sneaky hint, it’s related to the very first blog post on my website. Granted there have only been 3 so far, so it’s not too hard to find if you want to take a look. 

There are images from 3 projects below. Negative Tulips, Parry Sound Abstracts and Ashley and Tilly. 

These photos of tulips were actually taken in late May, after a day trip with my partner to pick them at a local flower farm. I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to do with them edit-wise, so they sat for a little while until the month changed over. I had been working on the project below, playing with swapping images into the negative colours, ended up trying it out with these, put them into B&W, a few background touch ups and ta-da! Another set of flower pictures. Not getting too deep with these, just thought they looked really cool. Feel free to psychoanalyze them all you like though.

Over the first weekend of June I headed on a slightly impromptu trip up around Parry Sound and the Muskoka area with a couple photographer friends of mine. Though my family has been cottaging up there for 20 years now, I don’t often get a chance to wander around with my camera. Frankly when it hits cottage week, it really becomes a vacation from everything. The above set of 6 photos is from a trail near town I’ve never been on before, but really enjoyed. They have a good mix of more basic editing and a little bit of fun surrealism thrown in. The upside-down lily pads are one of my favourites. Overall a nice weekend with good friends, food, and photos.

My most commonly requested product over the years has been the ever-classic horse and rider portrait session. The images above are some of the other finals that I have yet to share from Ashley and Tilly’s evening in mid June. I love a good golden hour session, but this one was extra special. Set the Stride stable has become my “home turf” over the past few years while Ashley has brought the business up from the ground. It has always held an excellent standard of care, and a very friendly, hilariously fun atmosphere. I’ve been very lucky to have many great opportunities come out of my time at this barn. I have to add a sincere thank you to Ashley and her team for always supporting me, and going the extra step for the STS family. I hope the best for everybody in the years to come. <3

Holiday Horses

With another festive season come and gone, this little ol’ blog post is here to show off some of my favourite work from December 2021.

This year I put together a donation initiative - holiday equine portraits offered at a group rate with proceeds being donated to 2 separate foundations. It (wonderfully) became more popular than I thought, and ended up stretching across 2 stables full of horses and their people. Everyone had the opportunity to wear the big festive wreath, knitted hat, or other themed decor (and when I say everyone, I mainly mean the horses). It was lots of fun, a little chilly, and overall a wonderful experience I hope to keep bringing back yearly. Though not all are present - this is a selection of some of the beautiful participants!

Thank you again everyone who participated in this, and all who worked with me in 2021. I have a healthy mix of excitement, creativity, and a dash of nerves for the coming year.

Maximalism As A Means to an End

Ok, these took me some time.
I spend, arguably, too much time scrolling through TikTok (the only person arguing with me is me, but still). But apparently, the app is good for something other than reducing me to a common toddler who’s been given an iPad for the first time. Enter Sara!

Sara Camposarcone has gained a following on TikTok and Instagram for her self titled “sustainable maximalist” style and outfit choices. There is many a commenter who express their joy over her colourful and eye-catching pairings, a large portion of which are found second hand.

In a stroke of luck, after she came up on my homepage, I realized Sara local to my area. I sent her an email letting her know I thought she was super cool, and that I would love to shoot and create something together. Lucky for me, she said yes!

This shoot was very much out of my normal wheel house, especially after we lost our lovely sunset lighting behind a giant cloud. I knew I wanted to do something fun in post production, that reflected Sara’s aesthetic, and these are the ones I feel the best about. It was frustrating, and I struggled as a perfectionist, but I’m very happy with the end results. I still may come back to a few of the other photos eventually. I am especially fond of the cubism inspired background in image 1, as well as the orange outline designs in image 3, and the Warhol inspired collage. That one was super fun to make.

Thank you Sara for working with me, it was wonderful to make some photos, and a new friend! Thanks as well to Payton M for your help.

You can find Sara’s socials at @saracampz on TikTok, @sarcamposarcone on Instagram, and check out her shop here for some cool rings and accessories!

Paper Insects

Welcome to the first blog post! These may not be too frequent, but I wanted another place to share some extras from my projects, memories, and process work when I wish.

These images are part of what I hope will be an ongoing project, in which I use 2D paper butterflies and other bugs (sourced from my local dollar store) to create fantastical images of my friends. This first set, dubbed Paper Monarch, features Payton among the peonies at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Ontario.

You can click on each image to view it larger on its own :)

I’m really happy with this series. This was a beautiful location and the weather was perfect. I had these “butterflies” in my possession for ages, and though it took some time to form I’m happy to have gotten this idea outside of my brain and finally used them to make something creative. The photoshop work afterwards was meant to be fun, and sort of collaged in style. I wasn’t too worried about making them look perfectly realistic. I added extra small butterflies aside from just the wings, which I think are fun to look around for.

Inspiration for these photos came from many sources, including: maximalism, impressionist florals (hi Monet), Barbie Mariposa, the Cottingley Fairy scandal, art nouveau fairies (some from my own childhood books), and of course the paper butterflies themselves, alongside shadow box displays of their living (but dead) counterparts. The idea of putting butterfly wings on people is not new, nor my own, I just wanted to put my personal thought and aesthetic into it.

My personal favourite images from this series are #1, #2, and #4.

I think it’s also important to note, not only in this work but in a large portion of my creative endeavours, that my friends are incredibly important to me, and make the most impressive photos possible. In this case, thank you specifically to Payton M <3 Who also does amazing artwork, which can be seen on Instagram here