I’m Ang. I’m a Cornwall, Ontario-based photographer offering maternity, child and family portraiture throughout the Ottawa region. Visual storytelling is what I do best; weddings and documentary family sessions are available worldwide. Laughter is important in my life and in my work, so my clients experience informal, interesting shoots that make them feel connected to one another and full of life. Please explore more of Moment.us Photography‘s site to see more examples of my take on storytelling family photography, whether it’s Cornwall family Christmas preparations, Winchester Hospital births, or just an average Saturday morning family session at home.
This year, I’ve had the pleasure of joining a couple of households as they make their Cornwall family Christmas preparations and I’m loving it!
Tree decorating and Christmas crafts are two of my favourite things about the season, so when Jessica asked if I’d have time to do a documentary family session for her gang as they got ready for the season, I knew I’d be clearing space to make it happen.
Having done a number of portrait sessions with Jessica and Andrew, I was extra excited to get to do this session for them and their two girls. If you’re looking to try out documentary family photography, choosing to schedule your session at a time of year that has extra meaning or involves season-specific activities makes it that much easier to settle in because you’ve already got an activity to get started with. For some people, knowing that they’ve got something to do helps alleviate the pressure that comes from being used to needing to stand and smile at the camera. Granted, these guys didn’t need any help settling in. When I arrived, they had a gingerbread house out and the tree was up and ready for ornaments, so they were ready to roll and carried on with their afternoon as if I wasn’t even there. Perfect!
The ornament box – by the way, let’s face it, those boxes are really just glitter bombs that you’ll spend the next six months recovering from – was opened with a little bit of ceremony and lots of sparkle and then Alivia set about pulling out anything and everything that caught her eye. Emma is just getting ready to start walking, which means her centre of gravity is nice and low – perfect for commando crawling under the tree to find out what’s happening down there. :) Along with an attraction to shiny things, Alivia has some impressively intense focus and was determined to get as many decorations on one side of that gingerbread house as she could. Not to worry, though, since Andrew had an equal amount of interest in the house and was happy to help balance things out! Their annual salt dough ornament project was met with equal enthusiasm and focus, and Alivia had a ball rolling out the dough and “artistically” poking it full of holes. I think that, as a parent (particularly if you’re crafty, like Jessica clearly is), it could be so easy to want to make these sorts of projects look perfect, so I love that Jessica was so happy to let Alivia take on these projects without interfering – well, other than asking that she leave a few ornaments unadorned with straw-sized holes. ;)
Here’s a little look into an entertaining afternoon with the Gagnes as they went about the business of getting ready for the holidays:
