LOCATIONS IN TORONTO

My style of portraiture is to shoot on-location and I always allow my clients to choose a spot that is convenient, meaningful and/or fits with their preferences for that particular session (urban, foliage, by the water, etc).

To help you choose, I've created a Google Map with the best locations I've used in & around Toronto. Click on the image below to see it.

Some of my favourite places in Toronto are:

West End: High Park, Humble Bay Arch Bridge, Marie Curtis Park, Centennial Park & Conservatory, West Deane Park, Etienne Brulé Park.

Downtown-ish: Cherry Beach, Toronto Music Garden & Harbourfront, Roundhouse Park & Steamwhistle Brewery, St. Lawrence Market, Distillery District, University of Toronto/ROM, Sherwood Park, Corktown Commons, Gardiner Underpass Park, Kensington Market, Allan Gardens.

East End: Kew Gardens & Kew Beach on Woodbine, Scarborough Bluffs, Riverdale Farm (Cabbage Town), Glen Stewart Ravine, RC Harris Water Plant, Guild Park.

You can also check out the Google seaches below for more options:

- All parks in Toronto

- All parks in Mississauga

- All parks in Oakville

PS 1:  Keep in mind some city parks require paid photography permits. Some private locations in Toronto also required paid permits such as The Evergreen Brickworks & the Distillery District.

PS 2:  Yes, shooting at smaller neighbourhood parks close to your home can also work, and the good thing is that they're usually not as busy as the more popular places! 

LOCATIONS IN OSLO

My favourite locations are:

Botanisk Hage, Aker Brygge, Huk Beach and Oscarhall in Bygdøy, Asker Museum, Eidsvoll Museum, Hovedøya, downtown Drøbak, Oscarsborg Fortress and Frognerparken.

IN-HOME SESSIONS

(SKIP this section if we're shooting outdoors)

If convenience is very important to you (for newborn sessions for instance) or if you really just want to capture your family life in a more laid back, intimate setting, we can plan an in-home session.

I really enjoy shooting in-home sessions as I believe there are certain intimate family moments that I can only capture in the comfort of our homes!

Natural light + Decluttering:

When shooting in your house, it's very important that you have lots of windows with natural light coming in. This is way more important than having a big space.

Good lighting is the main requirement for in-home portraits as I strictly work with available natural light. So darker spaces won't work so well.

It's also important that you tidy up your house as much as possible, especially all the spaces near the windows, where the light comes in.

This means removing all unnecessary objects that could cause distractions in the photos, and leaving only essential furniture and decor. It makes a huge difference!

If you have a backyard, of any size, we can also have some fun shooting outside.

Reinforcing:

Shooting in-home is all about finding the best natural light.

So it's very important that your home has naturally bright, well-lit areas. Artificial tungsten light doesn't help, it actually makes it worse, so I actually prefer to have all artificial lights off. Once I get to your house, I'll be looking for spots where the most natural light come in and that's where we'll be shooting.  

So, for best results, I kindly ask that you declutter all spaces in your home around where light comes in and where we may shoot in. By decluttering I mean hiding any distracting objects that may appear on the background and leaving only essential furniture and decor. 

For newborn sessions, I usually shoot in the parent's bedroom and in the baby's room if you have one. So it's also helpful if the bed sheets and linens are bright and with no complicated patterns. 

Finally, it'd be great is there is at least one open space with a bare wall (and good light) that we can possibly use for some clean, simple, studio-like shots.

WARDROBE

Picking a good wardrobe for you and your loved ones is key when it comes to professional portraiture. It makes such a difference! Here are some important things to consider:

- Colours:

One of the main tricks is putting together a wardrobe for everyone in the session using complementary colours. In essence, you're creating a colour palette for your photos that should coordinate with everyone.

- Patterns:

I highly suggest that you do not mix too many patterns.

So let’s say, for a maternity session, if the mom wants to wear a long dress with flowers, it'd be great if dad wore a shirt with no patterns, or vice versa. To make it even better, the dad's shirt could be of a colour contained in mom's dress.

Same goes for sessions with siblings. If one wears a complex pattern, the other(s) shouldn’t. It may seem a bit silly but it does make a big difference, as too many different patterns or colours on the image distract from what’s really important - the subjects and their expressions.

A nice idea for families is also to have only the baby/the kids wearing a pattern and everyone else wearing solid colours that are contained on the baby/kids' patterns (or vice-versa). 

• For summer sessions, I recommend bright, pastel-coloured, long dresses for women and polo shirts with cargo shorts/pants for men. I personally love pastel colours and this particular combination of long dress and cargo shorts is elegant while still being casual and always works beautifully.

• For fall sessions, I recommend darker colours. My favourites are yellow mustard, deep purple, dark red, navy blue, and orange. Adding colorful accessories such as scarves and hats also in these colours, using the complimentary trick, is a wonderful idea.

• For maternity sessions, I also highly recommend long dresses for moms-to-be, preferably in solid colours, or with delicate lace details, and ideally with no strong, complex patterns. Remember also to coordinate dad-to-be's shirt colour with the colour of your dress. For him, I also recommend polo shirts and cargo shorts/pants.

• For babies and toddlers, it’s always super cute to have hair accessories too, like hats and headbands.
  

If we’re shooting early in the morning or on what turns out to be a windy, chilly day, please make sure you and the kids are warm enough - remember we'll be outside for some time and you don't want them to get cold and grumpy!

Feeling comfortable during our session is much more important than your wardrobe looking perfect.

So for instance, if you have a baby girl and you really want her to wear a dress, you could add some cute leggings underneath. 

Main wardrobe requests:

I kindly ask that nobody wears clothes with any big, visible brand logos and/or any text, including numbers - especially babies and kids.

Logos and large text on clothes are super distracting and can easily take the professional feel out of an image, making it seem more like a regular snapshot. 

Clothes with solid colours or patterns always look more elegant and professional.

Also, please avoid running shoes, if you can. This goes for both kids & adults. They are way too casual and just don't look so nice in portraits.

Most important wardrobe tip:

Please do wear whatever you and your loved ones feel comfortable and beautiful in.

Feeling good is more important than anything else!

MAKE-UP

For women: I suggest that you wear as much make-up as you're comfortable wearing. Very light make-up doesn't always show on camera, so feel free to overdo it just a lil' bit, especially with lipstick.

Please bring kleenex to wipe sweat and shine off your faces if needed, especially during summer shoots.

SNACKS

If we're shooting with toddlers, snacks can work great as bribing material, or also just to have a little break and have them sit and calm down for a little bit.

Now, I can always continue to shoot photos of them while they snack, which can be cute. However, if they're holding snacks with ugly plastic wraps, then it won't look so cute anymore, lol.

A great idea then is to bring cute snacks such as cookies. If possible, you can even put them inside little metal cans that look adorable and add a vintage touch to the photos. ;)

Fruits are also great snacks, especially apples! Little ones look adorable when munching on apples.

PROPS

I ask that you only bring to your session accessories that are absolute essential - big purses and strollers often interfere with the shoot, so please leave as much as you can at home or in your car.

Of course, when shooting with babies & toddlers, I understand the need to carry a lot of things. I just ask that you minimize it as much as possible.

For babies & toddlers, it's also incredibly helpful if you bring a couple of their favourite toys and anything else that you know will get their attention and make them smile from ear to ear!

When it comes to toys, if possible, I highly recommend bringing simple stuffed animals like vintage-looking teddy bears, as well as vintage-looking wooden toys. These can really add to the look of the session, as opposed to more modern colorful plastic toys which don't look as nice.

About blankets & picnic towels:

For photos of babies, kids, and/or the whole families, sitting or lying down on the grass, most of the time it does not look very nice to have a blanket/towel underneath - unless it really is a beautiful picnic-type of blanket with colours & patterns coordinating with everyone's wardrobe - which of course may be hard to find!

I understand you may not want to get the baby/kids/yourselves dirty by sitting on lying directly on the grass/floor, but trust me - it looks so much better.

If you can be okay with you and/or them being a lil' bit dirty after the session, I promise we'll get way better shots. I always leave these types of photos for the very end in case you do get a little dirty. 

SESSION LENGHT

Aside from mini-sessions which are exactly 25-minutes long, you can expect a regular shoot to last for about 1 hour. In my experience, we can capture lots of beautiful photos within this timeframe - yes, even in just 25 minutes.

My style is to shoot a lot, so clients are often surprised when they shoot a mini session and receive their gallery afterwards, with so many beautiful moments captured.

Of course, with full 1-hour sessions, we can capture much more and have a more relaxed flow. I also find that one hour is how long the energy & excitement of most people last, especially of little ones, that's why I almost never go over this time, unless we're shooting an extended family session, in which case shooting for 1.5 or even 2 hours can be helpful.

I'll let you know once I feel I have captured enough variety of great moments so we can end the session. Feel free to also let me know at anytime if you feel that you and/or your little ones are feeling a bit tired and have had enough! I promise I won't be offended. :)

LATE POLICY

Please remember that I will likely have other shoots scheduled on the same day as yours, so it's extremely important that you arrive on time for your session.

I ask that you plan to arrive at our meet-up spot at least 15 minutes before your session is scheduled to start, just in case.

Remember that finding a parking spot may take considerable time, especially if we're shooting at a popular location and on weekends.

If you do happen to be running late, please call or text me and let me know.

But please understand that there is always a chance we may only be able to shoot for the remainder of the time slot that was scheduled for you, and that we may lose the ideal light we were aiming for with our original starting time.

FULL BELLY = HAPPY HUMANS

We want everyone to be happy, so please make sure you and/or the kids don't come hungry to the shoot. A full belly always equals more smiles!

WATCH THE NOSES

I know, weird, but after losing many great photos of little ones due to runny noses, I decided to add this little request to the page. :)

If your kids happen to have a runny nose during the time of our session, I kindly ask you to keep an eye on it during the shoot and clean it as often as needed.

When I'm shooting, I'm paying attention to so many things at once and it can be easy for me to miss it. Plus I may feel a bit uncomfortable asking you to clean your own baby's nose. :P

Well, can't it just be photoshopped, you may ask?

Not always actually, and even when it's possible, it takes an incredible amount of time. It's really tough to photoshop anything on skin, and very often, when I try to clean up dry snot on the skin around kids' noses, it ends up looking weird.

As I said, I have lost some great close-up portraits of children because of their little runny noses.

I'm not about only capturing "picture-perfect" shots, I love capturing grumpy faces and funny expressions for instance - but in my opinion, runny noses just never look very cute! Especially when it's being stubborn and showing up on every single photo of your session.

So yes - thank you so much for keeping an eye on their little noses and helping me out on this one. ;)

WATCH THE POCKETS

Another one that I kindly ask for your help in keeping an eye on!

It's very common for boyfriends/husbands/dads to fill their pants pockets with keys and cellphones right before the session. Unfortunately sometimes I only notice this when I'm editing the photos and by then of course it's too late.

Full pockets can look super awkward on pants, so I ask for you help in asking the men in your life to empty their pockets before we begin to shoot. :)

DON'T WORRY SO MUCH

My style of photography is all about capturing real moments in real settings.

I do have a few planned shots that I know always look good, so we will, at times, do the typical shots of everyone posing, looking and smiling at the camera.

Although my goal is to capture more natural interactions, I do believe that these types of photos, typically called "grandma's fridge portraits" :D are essential and so I always do my best to make sure we have at least some variations of them.

So yes, I will be giving you some direction, which can be helpful especially in the beginning of the session - but most of my directions will have the intention of trying to capture natural expressions and the real, in-between moments.

I may ask you to do things such as walk, or even run towards the camera, go have a look over there, play hide & seek, maybe even climb a tree!

I will likely also ask for you to look at each other and hold the pose. It may feel silly at the time but this is a trick, as natural smiles always come out when we stare at each other's faces for a few seconds!

The main idea is to capture happiness, and for that to happen, you and your loved ones must feel comfortable, carefree, and happy. :)

Reinforcing:

Aside from a few typical posed family shots that we will do here and there, my style of portraiture is not focused on always and only capturing my subjects looking directly into the camera.

This goes for adults and for children as well, which means there is really no need for you to constantly remind your kids to look at me (I say this only because it happens a lot!).

From my experience, when parents keep asking little ones to look and smile at the camera repeatedly, they tend to get annoyed and do exactly the opposite. 

When I photograph kids, I prefer playing and chatting with them so I can try to make them forget they are being photographed. That's how they get comfortable and I'm able to capture real moments and expressions.

This means that often I am trying to capture photos where they're not looking directly at me, but maybe looking at you or at something else.

In short, please, don't worry about always looking directly at me, or constantly telling your little ones to look at me and smile. I will ask you and them to do so myself, on the instances that I do want to capture everyone looking at me.

After your session, I will take the time to edit your best images. I promise to provide you with beautiful portraits - but just know good work takes time.

DELIVERY TIMEFRAME

It's important that you understand your photos will not be ready soon after we shoot as I do take the time to carefully edit each and every one of my sessions.

- Average delivery time during busy season is 4 weeks, but sometimes it can take me a bit longer.

- All sessions shot during the Fall will always be delivered well in time for the Holidays. I am aware that many clients want the photos to create Holiday gifts and cards.

I'm a one woman's show (I don't outsource my editing like some photographers do) PLUS I'm quite a perfectionist (five planets in Virgo!) PLUS my style is to shoot and deliver *hundreds* of portraits per session.

Retouching is an important part of my workflow and one of the main ways in which I get to express my style and creativity. As you can see on my website, I have a unique style of editing my photos, which is inspired on the vintage, classic look of Fuji film.

When clients keep emailing me after a session to ask when their photos will be ready, replying such emails takes time away from me actually editing.

DELIVERY METHOD

Now, once they are ready, the digital files of your images will be given to you for download via a beautiful private online gallery.

You won't have to choose only a few favourites photos to purchase (as some photographers ask, and as I personally have done in the past).

I will share with you all of the good photos of your session, and you will be able to download your entire gallery of images (very often, well over 100 photos).

Thank you for your patience as you wait for your portrait gallery.

I am always as excited to share them with you as you are to receive them. ♥️