Rachel Ludwig Photography

New blog is official!

Check it out: www.rachelludwigphotography.com/blog

I've been working on my new blog-site for a while, and was hoping to have it completely set up to be both my blog and site, but I don't have everything quite done yet and I'm too excited to wait any longer for it's debut. :) For now it's going to be my blog (to replace this one), and in the next few months it will also be my website and will replace the existing www.rachelludwigphotography.com.

You may notice my new logo and colors as well....super excited about those and I can't wait to complete all the rebranding for my marketing materials and packaging as well. A big thanks to Ashley for creating my logo. I love how this new look more closely represents my brand and the work I do.

There will be no more updates here on this blog, so be sure to bookmark www.rachelludwigphotography.com/blog for new posts and updates.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on my new blog, so feel free to pop by and say hi! See you there. :)

Tricia & Bryan

This is just a mini sneak peek to hold Tricia over until we return from vacation, as I know she is dying to see the images from their engagement session...We had such an amazing session, definitely one of the more steamy ones I've had, and the resulting images are smokin'! Not to mention that Bryan had me cracking up too. I can't wait for their wedding in August. I'll share more from their session when I return from vacation.

**** I will not have access to email or internet while we are away (June 28th - July 5th), but I will do my best to promptly respond to all emails after we return.****

And with that, I'm outta here!

 

The Di Spiritos

It feels good to be wrapping up all my work related stuff before we head out on vacation, and that I'm able to share Jenn & Jim's sneak peek. I know Jenn was really looking forward to seeing her pictures, and waiting an extra week would've been torture :)

When I arrived at Jenn & Jim's house I immediately fell in love with their neighborhood, and was glad they had selected this park just around the corner from their house. They spend a lot of time there together, and I could tell Angela loved it here, especially the swings. Jenn is also into photography, so our focus for this session was family pictures, some images of Angelo with Jenn & Jim as well as a few headshots for Jenn.

Here are a few of my favorites from their session...enjoy!

Is he not adorable??? I know I say it all the time about the kids I photograph, but I do think I get to photograph the cutest kids! He was pretty serious to start out with, but you'll see the smiles do come out in a bit :)


With an Italian background, of course Angelo is into soccer already, but he was also loving all the cottonwood fluff (and I was thankful I don't have allergies!):

Of course I always try sneak in a few of mom and dad:

Yep, here's some smiles!


And some more :) I can't help but to smile looking at this pic!

This one cracks me up...I'm loving his grin!

A hug for dad:

And one for mom too:

And a headshot of Jenn:

Melissa & Family

I promised Melissa I'd do my absolute best to get a sneak peek up for her before we left for vacation...and because I was avoiding all the things I should be doing (like laundry and packing! LOL) I edited pictures instead, it really is much more fun. :)

This is the third shoot that I've done for Melissa and her family, and I can't believe how big her kiddos are getting! That is one of the best parts about repeat clients, is seeing the little ones grow up, and because they remember me they don't think I'm crazy when I ask them to do things. And they are so cute, I couldn't resist getting them in front of my camera again.

Thanks so much for such a great shoot Melissa, enjoy your sneak peek! I'll be in touch with you when I return.

PS I have to apologize that the horizontal pictures have been looking a little funky...Typepad is doing some funny resizing with them...I can't wait until my new site is up, it'll be so much better!

Kevin might have thought I was a little off my rocker when I requested him to swing Melissa around, but the resulting picture was completely worth it, her expression is priceless!


I couldn't resist when the kids put themselves into this Charlie's Angels type pose...they are pros at this! :)

Gavin is such a ham...he has the best expressions!

I mean really....who could resist a face like this??

Or this?

Or this? Told ya they were all absolutely adorable:

And one last family shot to finish it off....nothing quite like a tickle-fest to get some serious giggles!
 

Desmond

At 11 days old Desmond was still pretty brand-new and sooooo cute! He looks like the spitting image of his dad I think. I think he was my easiest baby yet, and slept through a good portion of the shoot while we moved him around and repositioned him several times. He loved my bean bag chair/heating pad combo, and even gave me a few smiles (see below).

I've had a few outdoor baby shots in mind for a while, and after Deanne's Maternity Session, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Here are a few favorites from their session:

I did mention the smiles, right? And check out that dimple....positively adorable :)
 

He started frowning, and I figured it was time to give him a bit of a break....phew! It was good timing, because he proceeded to fill his diaper and more...and we were able to completely avoid getting the blankets and backdrops covered (trust me, this is rare and why my stuff gets a good washing after every session!). Even when frowning he's pretty darn cute though:

The adorable big sister Ava:

The gorgeous foliage in their backyard worked perfectly for these basket shots:

The heavily bribed sibling shot. I'm all about bribery, and it almost always works! :)


Beautiful mama...doesn't she look amazing and less than two weeks after he was born?

And with dad...I am a sucker for a shot with dad's big strong hands and a baby's tiny head:

The Leyenhorsts

The name may ring a bell, as I did pictures for Al's brother and his family last fall. I've known Leanne since Grade 8, and we've had some pretty fun and crazy times together, especially during our highschool years. Seeing as this is a PG friendly blog, I won't regale you with stories of late night card-games of Speed while we belted out Bon Jovi, our various adventures in George (an old Ford Tempo I drove in highschool), some crazy road trips and so much more. Needless to say it was good times, and there are days that I wish we could go back in time just for a few days of responsibility free teenage living. :)

Over fifteen years later, it's amazing to see where we are now. To see Leanne as an amazing mother to five kids still makes me think how fast the years have flown by. I loved having a chance to get to know her kids a bit and to see her family interact during their PhotoSession...it almost made me think how neat it would be for me to have such a big busy and rambunctious family (and then I gave my head a shake and realized there's no way that I could be as good of a mom to five as she is, not to mention making it through two more pregnancies!).

Leanne was really excited and nervous about these shoot, and as a result I was nervous about her liking the resulting images. But when she called me up crying after seeing the slideshow, I knew she was happy with them. And hey, with kids this cute, you can't go wrong!

Here are a few of my favorites...let me introduce the clan:

This is the oldest, Levi. He just turned 9. He's such a kind and considerate big brother and he loves hockey and sports:

This is Sam, 2nd oldest, she's 7 and a quietly independent little girl who was a little nervous about pictures, but photographed beautifully:

And the middle child, Luke, who is five and going to Kindergarten in the fall. Gotta love the cheesy grin! My son Ethan and him get along famously when they see each other:

And then we have Kaycie. So darn cute with her hands on her hips and refusing to show her teeth (you have to check her out in the family shots, she has the best facial expressions! :) She's big into Polly Pockets and looking forward to going to Preschool next year:

And then Alexa, or Bubbles as she's known to her family, and pretty much everyone else. She's a mama's girl and wasn't too keen on being detached from her mom, but we managed long enough to get a few shots of her too:

Ande then we have all seven of them:

We decided to let the kids burn off some energy with a race, and we staggered the start so the younger ones had a chance to get ahead. Bubbles wasn't walking yet at this point, so she missed out. I think we're going to have to do an updated shot of this next year!

I love feet shots, I think they make such great artwork for your walls:

And one of the happy couple, who celebrated their 10th anniversary just two months before us (it was a busy year for weddings in 2008!):

And one final family shot:

Lynette & Greg

I promised Lynette I wouldn't post any pictures until she and Greg were back from her honeymoon in Mexico...but it's been so hard to wait! I know they are officially back, so I can finally post some of my favorite images from their day (and I know Lynette is dying to see them). I knew Friday the 13th was going to be a lucky day for them, when after a week of rainy and overcast weather, they had a beautiful day with only the smallest spattering of rain, and great lighting for pictures! And seeing as I'm particularly partial to June 13th as it also happened to be my 10th wedding anniversary, it came as no surprise. :)

You may remember these two from their fun and fabulous engagement session from earlier this year, and I knew that we were in for a fabulous day capturing their wedding. It was great to have my friend Karin along as a second shooter.

Lynette's dress was stunning! I just loved all the details, and the beautiful cut suited her perfectly. It had a vintage and classic feel, but yet fresh and modern too.


And yes, her mom really did use a crochet hook to help put her dress on! Totally makes the vintage feel even more authentic.

This was from when they first saw each other....so so sweet and very emotional!

Such a good looking couple!

I did mentioned it rained, right? For probably less than 10 minutes, and just perfect timing to get a few umbrella shots which I loved.


Total happy shot, I can't help but smile just looking at it! :)

And of course we had to pull out the Polaroid film. I'm so sad that they are discontinuing the film...I need to stock up!

The tough guys! Three brothers :)

And the beautiful ladies:

And because we like jumping :)

Lynette's Dad...you might want to skip this one! :)

Leftover bubbles from my son's 6th birthday party put to good use:

And one last one...I was so excited when I found this little arbor/gazebo/trellis thing. One of my last portrait shots of the day, and also one of my faves:
 

Deanne

I think I gave a few shrieks of glee when I arrived at Deanne and Cole's house and saw their gorgeous backyard, I knew it would be perfect for their maternity session (and I was busy gathering ideas for their newborn session, which I'll be sharing here soon). Everything is so lush and green, and the rustic bench was just perfect! Fortunately we had nice weather too, and for those of you who live in Abbotsford know that in the last few weeks the weather has been rather unpredictable and definitely not spring/summer-like at all.

It took a bit for Ava to warm up to me, but you certainly can't tell in this shot, can you? She's an adorable and spunky 3-year old.

 
I enlisted Ava's help to take some pictures with my 'camera', aka as my memory card case :)
 
Told you the yard was gorgeous, and so is Deanne! This was just two weeks shy of her due date and baby Desmond's arrival:

We headed out to a location nearby, and I just love the long grass! And isn't that maternity shirt fabulous?
 
More coming from Desmond's baby session soon!

Paragon Hair Concepts

I did a shoot for my awesome hair salon, Paragon Hair Concepts, a few weeks ago, and it was such a great experience! Barb has been cutting my hair for a very long time...12 or 13 years now I think, and I wouldn't trust anyone else. Not only does she do my hair, but also my mom's, my younger sisters', and a few of my old coworkers' too. 

Barb was looking to update the images they have showcased in the salon, and I can't wait to see which ones they choose! I got to work with some fabulous models with the coolest hair and makeup...check them out for yourselves, and let me know your faves! Isn't that green hair so cool? And the blue lipstick? And a 50's style pin-up girl? Talk about a photographer's dream! :)

A big thanks to Barb, her stylists and their models for such a great shoot. Each stylist cut, styled and/or colored the hair of their model, plus had a vision for their session. Jenine did all the very cool makeup (except for Jasmine, the first model shown here, who did her own makeup).

Ingrid was Jasmine's stylist, and I love the combination of the soft pretty curls with the glamorous makeup:

Leanne styled this handsome young man's hair (and somehow saying that makes me feel *really* old, even if it really means that I forgot his name! I'm going to blame that on the Pregnancy-makes-you-forget- everything-Syndrome):

And this is Val, who was styled by Sonya...whose green hair is so funky-fabulous. And those eyelashes are killer.


Barb was the stylist of this gorgeous model Amanda...and as soon as I saw that funky blue lipstick, I knew exactly where to take her:


Katelyn styled her sister Allison's hair with these uber-cool braids and twists...such a stylish and fun look:


Angie had a total 50's pin-up girl Judy vision for this model, and I love how perfectly the hair, makeup and outfit all worked together.

April, Scott, Acadia and Rowen

I know I've been absent from posting...but I've been busy with photoshoots and will be sharing lots of images over the next few weeks! Plus, I have a new logo that will be debuting soon, along with a new blog-site with a bunch of great new features, including an online proofing/shopping cart. I can't wait to share it with you all once completed,

These were from a few weeks ago when I headed out to Cultus Lake to take some pictures of April and her family. I've known April for quite a few years through my old job and was super excited when she contacted me for family pictures. We had great weather (a rarity around here lately it seems) and I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful location.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Who could resist these two cuties? Note guest appearance by Teddy :)

And the parents aren't too bad either :) I just love this image!

Some of my favorite family images...I love how you can see the kid's personalities shine through.

April had the best shoes....a totally fabulous grown up version of Dorothy's (from the Wizard of Oz) shoes. Wouldn't you agree? And Acadia is showing off her lovely Hannah Montana shoes. :)

Scott helped to restore this old truck, and it was such a great addition to their family pics. Rowan was a very typical boy and couldn't resist 'driving'.