Belle Meinerz Photography

I truly love my job. Not only because I could turn an obsession into a profession, but also because photography has brought me great friends who share the same passion. I met Ana online over a year ago, in one of those photo sharing sites, and in no time we became real life good friends! What a treat!

Ana also happens to be a talented photographer so when she asked me if I could do her Maternity photos I was sooo honored – choosing me, among so many amazing photographers in Greater Vancouver, to document such an important moment of her life… wow, I was truly flattered!

… and also a bit nervous, I have to confess … shooting another photographer is always a challenge!! but Ana & Andre made my job so easy… especially when you throw in an adorable 4 year-old in the mix!

ok, enough rambling as I am sure you’re all anxious to see the final result!!

We started our session at their place, where I was able to capture this very sweet mom-sister-daughter moment… yes, it’s another girl!

my gorgeous friend… no need to apply ANY Photoshop trick!! plain and simple maternity glow!

Then we headed outside for a bit of fun… ok, for loads of fun!!

I love LOVE looove this one:

Finally, we hit Granville Island – as per Ana’s suggestion – for some colourful and textured background yumyness!

“A” is for…

Alice!!!!

I like that the picture below really portrays the end of the session.. everyone was really tired after 4 (or 5?) hours of shooting fun, except for me and Andre!

Thank you A, A, A & L for the super fun afternoon! And thanks for your patience, I know you were all dearly waiting for these…
I can’t wait to photograph the birth of baby Alice! Baby Alice, please make your entrance into this world during daytime so I can run to the hospital with my eyes actually open!!

one light, that is! I was one of the lucky few who made it to the OneLight Workshop in Seattle this past Monday. There was a waiting list 100 names long and being one of the 12 photographers who made it… well.. sweet!

I was looking forward to this workshop, taught by lighting guru Zach Arias, a passionate photographer with a phenomenal portfolio and a simple approach to photography: minimal gear, great results. I walked away with so much knowledge that my head was spinning… an intense day (I was back to my hotel @ 2 :00 a.m.!!) with tons of great info, lots of shooting and to top it off great people – I even got to finally meet a long time flickr friend, Leya of Little Monkey Photography.

If you are a fellow photographer and are reading this… I strongly recommend this workshop. Zack is very open and humble and his perspective of the photography industry is encouraging – I can’t say enough good things about him and his workshop.

I am an “available” light photographer – sometimes only my flash is available – but I have to be honest I much rather prefer shooting in natural light. There’s something about natural light that you simply can’t replicate with other light sources. So it felt really liberating getting out of my comfort zone and truly understanding that – yes! there are options – and being able to really understand and control light – one light – is well… liberating!

enough techie talk.. let’s go to the images!

one of my absolute favorites from Monday… honeycomb grid over a strobe spotlighting our willing model, Doug:

the master in action, doing his magic…

killing just enough ambient light here to set the mood…

our beautiful model in a… hmmm… smelly alley

bunch of shooters

shooting into the sun, flash to model right, with some crazy sun flare going on… gotta love lens flare!

and the “Vogue” shot, downtown Seattle skyline as a backdrop

and finally some “behind the scenes”…

alright folks, on the next post I’ll share a few favorites from our family trip last week!
now I’ll get prepared for an exciting shooting this weekend… will share the images next week – hopefully! lots of catching up…

enjoy your sunny weekend everyone!

I should be packing right now for the long weekend but couldn’t resist posting a pic of this sweet sweet baby…. it took him a while to be sound asleep for the shots but it was oh so worth the wait, don’t you think?

When I saw this chair I simply couldn’t resist… and look at all that yummy texture against the soft baby skin! Photographer’s heaven!

I’m heading out of town for a much deserved (short) vacation and will attend a workshop on our way back but I’ll make sure to post a few more images of this amazing session when I come back.

I would like to thank mom and dad for being more than trusting and game for all my posing ideas… R & M, you’re amazing parents!

Hope everyone has a fantastic and SUNNY long weekend!