Melissa Knowles :: Fraser Valley Lifestyle Photographer

A couple of weeks ago I met up with Zara and her parents for a super fun cake smash. Zara turned one in December and to celebrate, her mom wanted to capture this fun time in her life by letting her smash a matching cake from her birthday party.

Now, the very first thing you might notice is Zara’s 1st birthday outfit is how freakin’ adorable it is. It’s from Etsy. If you haven’t shopped there before, get your credit card ready and ask your husband to make sure he takes it away from you 24 hours later if it’s not back in your wallet. It’s that addicting!

On to the pretty birthday girl …. how fun are these! And yes, you’ll notice she wasn’t actually a huge fan of the cake but we had fun while it lasted!

Happy Birthday Zara!

Right after Christmas I had the pleasure of working with the Fulton family. I have to start this post by saying that I LOVE big families and I LOVE when I get to work with them. I’m very close with my family and I love the closeness that families have . It’s such an honor when I get to meet these amazing families and learn all about them!

This family was no exception. We met on a rainy day in Mission. We made sure we had some cover nearby if we needed it but the clouds opened up for us and we had a small break from the rain. Alicia booked the session with me and it was pleasure to meet her siblings, neices, grandma and parents. Her parents were so wonderful and I was so excited to learn they were celebrating their (I hope I get this right) 28th wedding anniversary this year! Amazing!

Here are some of my favorite images from our session:

Happy New Year to the Fulton Family and I hope you have a year filled with laughter, love and happiness!

Last year, at this same time, I decided to do Project 365. The goal of the project is take a picture every single day for one year. I LOVED IT. You can see it HERE. I only made it till about March, but in those three months I forced myself to pick up my camera and try new things …. It renewed me and of course, I had a lot more images of my children. I won’t lie though – I fell of the wagon in a bad way!

The nice thing about starting a new year is that you can try the things you failed at again. Failure is okay … it’s not something to bash your head against the wall about, instead learn from the mistakes you made before and do something to improve.

With that said, I’m starting Project 365 AGAIN. This time I’m going to force myself to use my iPhone to take one image a day. I think I do this already, so this is perfect for me. My goal is to shoot whatever …. but to be creative about it. Typically I use my phone to snap something quickly but I want to take a second to think about what I’m shooing and challenge myself to do it in a way I haven’t before.

Today is Day 5. I haven’t taken an image yet today, but here are the previous four I’ve done:

I know that some folks get intimidated by taking pictures, but don’t. Life is too short to not take them – before we know we could lose a loved one and we’ll have nothing to remember them by. Take pictures, lot’s of them. And when you’re ready to get some on your wall – give me a call and we’ll work together to create a customized session just for your family!

As this amazing year comes to an end I’m so excited to share with you some of my favorite images. This year has been filled with lot’s of smiles, giggles and of course, laughter.

A HUGE thank you goes out to my clients. Without them, this year would not have happened and I would have missed out on meeting some AMAZING people and some fantastic friends.

I also have to thank my friends who are also photographers for their CONSTANT support and feedback. In March of this year we went to small photography conference in Richmond, BC. We learned a lot there and we are making a get together of sorts an annual thing and in 2012, we’re headed to the Okanagan for a weekend full of learning, drinks and laughs!

(HERE is the PORTRAIT version of my favorite images – the wedding version will be coming in the next day or so!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FABULOUS FRIENDS & FAMILY!

XOXO

I can’t believe the first 12 days of December have already passed. We’re actually 2 days past the 12th and I still haven’t posted a winner for the contest. This is because I know many of you personally and it’s really hard to make a decision because of that.

Before we announce the winner, I need to say THANK YOU! Thank you to all my amazing clients and Facebook “likers” how have been following this giveaway and participating so actively! I love to see that you had so much fun with it – I know I sure did. And next … to the other vendors who participated. I LOVE YOU ALL and it’s always so much fun to work with you! T

As you may already know, my last giveaway was a 2-hour Skype mentoring session. I’m excited to offer this as it allows me share the things so many others have taught me.

Here we go. The fabulous winner is …

JULIE!

Julie, I don’t have your email or contact information so please email me at hello@melissaknowlesphotography.com and we can make arrangements for our Skype call in the New Year! (There was only ONE Julie who entered, so if you think it’s you but aren’t sure … it actually IS you!)

As approach Christmas I’m going to take some time to spend with my family and friends. This year has been amazing and busy and now it’s time for me take a breather to really be with them! I’ll be around posting periodically and trying to answer my emails as soon as I can but it may take me slightly longer than normal.

So with all of that said …. I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and I hope you too, are spending time with your loved ones!