Emily Partied it up with a Mini Mouse Themed 1st Birthday Cake Smash!

There were rumours in the air that Emily was turning one and having an epic Mini Mouse themed party.  So naturally we, Amy and Jeff at Left of Centre Photography, decided to crash Emily's first birthday party. We arrived just as the adorable Emily was finishing up her meal and we feared that the party was coming to an end. That wasn't happening on our watch, so we knew it was time to bring out the cake! I have to say, it was one of the best parties I have ever crashed, mini mouse has always been a favourite character of mine, and with cake-a-plenty we were in our element.  So was Emily! We knew we had found the coolest party girl after discovering that she was still going strong, even after missing a couple of naps! We had such a great time photographing Emily's cake smash and we loved that Mom and Dad got in there with their mouse ears on!

Here are some of our faves from our session with Party Girl Emily! -

Love, LOCPS xoxox

Looking for an epic Cake Smash with your one year old, or want us to crash your party? Contact us - Left of Centre Photography Services www.locps.com info@locps.com 905-877-3900

I need your help selecting my new headshot!

Over the weekend we were out photographing family portraits when I decided it was time to update my business headshot. I wanted something different from the in-studio look I've been rocking for the last couple of times I had my business portrait taken.  I wanted something a little more relaxed, and I had an artsy look-away-from-the-camera image in my head.  Of course I was more than pleased with the results and I managed to narrow it down... kinda. This is where I need your help! Which photograph should I use? Looking, not looking, smile, no smile? I have been staring at them so long trying to decide and figured who better to ask than all my friends out there who will be looking at this mug of mine every time I post something unbelievably intelligent and witty. This will be used in the typical social media sites, including LinkedIn.

Let me have it! Your thoughts, favourites and help is appreciated! The images are numbered (just hover over the photo) and don't forget to click them to make them bigger.

Love, LOCPS xoxox

Looking for updated, artsy headshots? Let us help you - Left of Centre Photography Services www.locps.com info@locps.com 905-877-3900

New Floors at Left of Centre Photography Services

Summer is my second favourite time of year; fall being my first. In previous years our summers would be filled with weddings every weekend, but now that we have decided to change things up and not photograph weddings any longer we have a little more time on our hands for other photography jobs, projects and adventures.  We are taking full advantage of summer this year with day trips, explorations and we are currently in the process of redoing our front entranceway, stayed tuned for more postings on this. Generally we do one renovation per year, ranging from a fresh coat of paint to a complete kitchen overhaul. Last summer we took a good look (we actually tried not to look too closely) at our floors.  Our home studio is pushing 100 years old and the original wooden floors had taken quite the beating over 8 years. With sessions involving moving background and lighting around the floor the wood had definitely seen better days as you can see below -

The question was, how do we fix this? We, like many, love a good DIY, but you have to be really careful with wood floors. For instance, a drum sander with just a little too much pressure can go right through the floor and you could wake up nicely chilled in your basement due to sanding right through the wood. If you think logical facts like this would stop us, you are wrong. We decided to give it a go and commit to this incredibly risky DIY. Now, we aren't complete fools (that's what we tell ourselves anyway), so we decided to use an orbital sander opposed to a drum sander.  Though it would take longer and go through more sand paper it would also make sure our unfinished basement would not become open to our studio space. You can thank us for not risking your lives with the possibility of falling through the floor and into our basement when you're next visiting our studio! Of course the process took waaayyy longer than anticipated, plus we had to hideaway for a few days after the final coat of sealant was on to guarantee that it had actually completely dried and we wouldn't end up destroying all our (Jeff's) hard work.  In the original "plan" (my plans are always in quotations because they aren't really plans, they are "ideas"..."thoughts"... "disasters") we were going to skip the kitchen.  Too much work and we, "technically", were still completing that reno.  Being a typical "Amy plan", the kitchen was not only involved with our floor renovation it was also stained a completely different colour. Go big or go home, right? I have never stained a floor before, but I am very good at picking out a colour of floor stain so naturally this makes me a professional.  We decided that splitting the kitchen floor between us, me on one side and Jeff on the other, would make it faster and easier... and faster. This was a mistake because, although I am not at all competitive, I decided that I was going to do my half of the kitchen floor the fastest, and I did! I also was completely covered in stain, as were some of the walls and kitchen cabinets.  All wipeable, well, the cabinets wiped off... looks like I will be painting the trim white again, but I won and that's really the moral of the story!

Overall I am very pleased with the outcome and a year later the floor is holding up well regardless of the numerous studio setups and cake smashes that occur.

I hope this post was worth a 4 week wait. I won't make you wait a year until you see our front entryway, although at this rate it may take Jeff a year to complete it.  Which would be a shame, because I have a lot more "plans"!

See you next week (I promise!).

Love, LOCPS xoxox

Looking for awesome photos? Of course you are! Let us help you with that- Left of Centre Photography Services www.locps.com info@locps.com 905-877-3900