To see more images from my session with Sarah and Brian, check out their slideshow
June was such a wet, rainy month in Calgary. I had planned a Friday evening Engagement session with Sarah and Brian, and it rained all week…promising more rain for Friday evening. All week we were on the fence about rescheduling, but I am so glad we didn’t! In the end, we got a beautiful, fresh early summer evening with an amazing sunset by the river.
I had so much fun capturing these playful, urban shot with Sarah and Brian. It was especially fun to wait for the sun to set (which is pretty late in the middle of June!) so we could capture the twinkle of the nighttime city lights.
Sarah and Brian were so relaxed in front of the camera. At times, I felt like I was just tagging along for a romantic date night they had planned downtown :)
Sarah and Brian, I can’t wait for your wedding in March!
On June 3, I got up bright and early to meet Todd & Arlee at the zoo. Todd and Arlee had to get up even earlier though, as they came from Red Deer for the day.
I had such a great time with Todd and Arlee, and I felt a little like a kid again walking through the zoo together. Todd and Arlee are such a relaxed and fun couple, and I could tell right away how completely comfortable, happy and in love they are together.
Todd and Arlee lived almost down the street from each other for many years, before life finally brought them together. Arlee said to me a couple of times: “I waited a long time to find him.”
The highlight of the session for me was in the butterfly enclosure. A very kind man managed to pass a butterfly to Arlee and we captured some amazing shots of her ring with the butterfly…It was one of those moments I had planned in my head before the session, but never thought we would be able to pull off!
Arlee and Todd are getting married July 2013 and I am so excited and honoured to be a part of their wedding day!
Posted June 15, 2012 at 3:38pm in engagement portraits Calgary wedding photography inglewood zoo butterfly park football
I met Jessica & Carl on Monday night in a beautiful little park in Okotoks. The weather is finally starting to feel like spring, and we got very lucky with beautiful sky as the backdrop while the sun set.
I love shooting at sunset when there is broken cloud in the sky as it makes for such a dynamic sky.
I love shooting Jessica & Carl, who were goofy and relaxed throughout the session. my favourite moment of the session was when Carl decided to hang upside down from the chin -up bars and Jessica went in for a Spiderman kiss! They were so easy to work with…every time I turned around, they were already striking a new, incredibly cute pose together :)
April & May are the perfect time for sunset portraits as the weather is starting to warm up and the sun is setting at just the right time in the evening. If you would love some relaxed portraits at sunset with the one you love, contact me to book your session! Session packages start as low as $100.
Happy Anniversary to me!
I had such a busy month of March, I almost forgot this week marks my second full year since leaving my corporate job to focus full-time on photography. At the time, I remember it was very exciting, but also very terrifying! It was such a huge change in my life and it takes a tremendous amount of faith in yourself to take such a big risk.
Photography had been a huge part of my life for years already. I had been shooting weddings and lots of sporting events on weekends for several years. Entrepreneurship is in my blood and I dreamed of being my own boss, setting my own hours and focusing on the work I love! Every day has not been easy, but I have learned so much about myself and grown in so many ways. Here are a few things I have learned along the way:
- 7am is my favourite time of day. My husband leaves for work and I settle in for at least 2 solid hours at my desk crossing things off my to-do list. Usually the phone doesn’t ring and no-one replies to email, so it is always my most productive and focused time of the day.
- Our world is run on the hard work of so many small business owners. I love working with small, local businesses whenever I can.
- My free time no longer lines up with the free time of most people in my life. When I want to take a Thursday afternoon off, everyone is at work. When friends plan a get together on a Saturday night, I am at work. This means making time for people in my life is more important than ever.
- Schedules and routines are so important to me! Some small business owners will tell you the opposite, but for me routines are how I stay organized and ensure some work/life balance.
- 80% of my work doesn’t involve touching a camera at all! There are 100 other things that go into running a business and being a photographer, so every time I do get to shoot, I love every minute of it!
- I don’t handle “alone time” as well as I thought I would. I am a naturally introverted person, so I thought working alone at home would be an easy transition for me. But it took a lot of adjusting! I didn’t realize how much I would miss having a co-worker to turn and have a 2 minute chat with every once and a while. Some days I go to the gym or yoga class just for the human interaction!
- Support from the people in my life is so important. My husband and I both have a million things going on in our lives, but we keep each other sane by making time to support whatever the other is doing. We are also much happier when we make time to take days off together.
- Networks are important. You will receive most of your business from people who already trust you. Plus I have so many friends and family that will listen to me and help me work thru things in my business.
- Growing and changing is constant. You have to stay plugged into what is happening in the world and what your clients want.
So if you have made it this far and are still reading, thank you for your support! I am looking forward to a busy summer and another great year of growth in my business and my life!
Finally….a new website!
After a lot of hard work through the beginning of this year, I was so proud to launch a brand new sujataphotography.com last week! Anyone who has ever built a website from the ground up knows how much work is involved and how exciting it is when you finally release it into the world wide web!
As a photographer, I think it is very important to provide a personalized and custom experience. In creating this new website, I spent a lot of introspective time trying to make sure who I am and what I do in my business shines through on the web. In particular, the About and Info sections of the website contain a lot of information meant to help prospective clients make an educated decision about their photography needs.
Besides all the pages and information you can see, this new website is going to allow me to bring an entirely new experience to all my clients. Here are a few of things I am working on for all my clients this upcoming year:
Client Lounge
This will be a special section of the website dedicated to providing detailed information to current and inquiring clients. It will have detailed information on all of my pricing and products and will help clients through the booking process.This part of the website is still under development, but if you would like to take a look when it’s done, just drop me a note!
Plus Sites
Plus sites are a bonus feature we will be offering to all our existing and new wedding and engagement clients. These are like mini websites built just for you! They will have a custom URL, and will feature photos from your engagement session (and eventually your wedding), the story of your relationship and any details about your wedding that you want to share with your guests. I am so excited to built my first plus site and share it with everyone, so stay tuned!
PASS
When you have photos taken, where is the first place you want to put them? Facebook, right? You want all your friends and family to see and share your photos. So, I have decided to stop distributing digital files on DVD and instead I will be using PASS. PASS is an online file storage system for your photos. If you decide to purchase the digital files from a session with Sujata Photography, you will now receive a beautiful PASS gallery where you can download the high resolution files, share and tag on Facebook, and view all your photos on the go from a mobile device.
I can’t wait to start offering all these features to my clients! If any of these have peaked your interest in booking a session or your wedding with us, please send me an email: crystal@sujataphotography.com
Posted March 27, 2012 at 2:26pm in website wedding photography portrait photography branding
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Last weekend, Paula and I had an awesome time at the Welcome Wagon Bridal Showcase in Calgary. We met so many fun and excited Brides and Grooms preparing for their weddings! As part of my brand new service this year, we set up a photobooth at the Bridal Show and it was so much fun! Thanks to Paula for taking all the awesome photos while I was busy chatting with the brides.
If you are in the Red Deer area, we will be at the Welcome Wagon Bridal Showcase at the Festival Hall tomorrow with our photobooth. The event is free and you can pre-register at www.welcomewagon.ca or your can register at the door. See you all at the Festival Hall at noon tomorrow!
Right now, I am in the midst of one of those big projects that can only be tackled in the dead of winter: I am rebuilding my website. One of my main goals in starting from scratch with my website is to create something unique that really showcases who I am as a photographer and as a person in general.
One of the ways I am doing this is to create a visual bio for myself. This has been a very fun and introspective project for me. It has also allowed me to go thru the massive amounts of personal work I have and find a new way to showcase these images.
The above images are a sampling of what will be on my new website.
Posted February 17, 2012 at 11:24am
In the summer, nothing makes me happier than a beautiful sunny day playing in the mountains. Last summer was not a very good hiking season, so I have been feeling very mountain deprived for a while. Since I am way too clumsy for skiing or snowboarding, my winter activity of choice is snowshoeing…. even then some might say I am too clumsy for that too :) I keep saying there is a coordinated athlete in my head that is battling to break free of my uncoordinated body.
So on Saturday, a group of ten of us met at the Peter Lougheed Visitor’s Centre and tackled the Penstock Loop. It’s an area I have hiked in the summer, yet it provides a completely different landscape in the winter time. Everything just seems more magical with crisp mountain snow. If you have never tried snowshoeing, it is super simple to pick up. Just stop at Sports Rent on your way out of town. There are handful of great trails that start at the Lougheed Visitor’s centre, just follow the little orange signs :)
