Quick Update

Well, we did not receive any entries for the "Trash the Dress" session so our winners from last year - Colleen and Jeff -- will be in Barrie on July 12th to have fun in their wedding attire. We will be visiting some fantastic architectural areas as well as a abandonned building with a caboose and ending up at the waterfront. We are all very excited about this new venture.

NightinGail has been extremely busy with wedding season now in full swing. We are gearing up for Deerhurst tomorrow and Taboo on Sunday so congratulations in advance to Deb and David (Deerhurst) and Jenny and Richard (Taboo). Shiri will be second-shooting with me at both events. We've also been photographing a number of "Love" sessions and we are finishing off the last of our portrait sessions until the late fall.

Jennifer and Jason were home from Calgary at the beginning of June and we had to opportunity to get fabulous engagement and family portraits while they were here. We've also finished "Love Sessions" for Jodi & Al and Kristen & Lonny.

Our new website has run into a glitch or two so the "go-live" date has been pushed back to mid-July. Hopefully before we are closed for some well-deserved downtime.

We've got some new friends on Facebook as well as new fans of NightinGail Photography. We'd love to have you join us.

At lot of other things have been happening as well. Last weekend we planted a new flower garden in our front yard (which will be used as a fabulous backdrop for portraits over the summer). We also had to put in a new lawn and at least this year, it rained every day for the two weeks after we laid the sod. Whew!!

For those who have been asking, Don is doing very well. He's almost back to his old self and is participating in heart exercise class in Newmarket twice a week. We are both watching the portions of food so hopefully, everything will pay off with us both being in better shape.

Well, that's it for now. Have to get off for some sleep because it's a hectic weekend.

Update from our friend, Rob O.

One of our NoBS photography associates is going off to Florida next week for some beach sessions in the Venice-Sarasota area so if you're nearby and need fabulous photos, check on Rob's itinerary here. Have fun, Rob.

We were in the area over Christmas and can't wait to revisit in early 2009. The weather was amazing and we are planning a whole week of shooting on the beach.

Free "Trash the Dress" Session (4)

Win a 1 hour TTD session in July (date to be determined) with NightinGail Photography. Session includes 1 hour of photography at Heritage Park, Barrie, on-line web gallery with 40 images, CD with 20 fully-retouched images in colour and B&W. Little Black Book with your choice of 10 images. Regular session value - $350. (sorry .. no cash value)

Rules:

1. You must be married.
2. You cannot worry about getting your dress dirty.
3. You like to have fun.
4. You want to have something different than those standard bridal portraits.
5. You don't care about getting wet!
6. You may bring your husband along (but only if he wants to take part).
7. Tell us why you'd be the one of the best candidates and e-mail me a photo of you in your gown (if I did not photograph your wedding.)
   

Winners will be chosen by voting here on the blog. Entries close on June 7th at midnight. Winners will be notified by June 10th.

Quick Update

Well, as you can see, NightinGail has been really busy.. and we owe our clients a big apology! Our on-line viewing and ordering gallery have been off-line for a couple of weeks due to problems at our hosting company. We have been unable to resolve the issues so we are currently in the process of a complete website redesign and a move to a new hosting company. The new on-line proofing/ordering galleries will be easier to use and add additional security features. We expect to have the new site on-line for June 1st.

Our wedding season is almost full with June and August being completely booked. There are still dates in July, September and October. As always our November 2008 - April 2009 receive a bonus offer for booking during the "off-season". Due to the number of inquiries and booking requests, we have added another primary photographer who will be available for you, should I be personally booked. She will be photographing the event; but all post-processing and final product are fully completed by me.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Yervant-Bussick Times Two Tour last week. What an awesome experience to meet two of my wedding photography idols and see how they capture the image right through the post-processing. I absolutely cannot wait to implement some of their ideas into our work for this year.

We also want to congratulation Barb Kucher and Elizabeth Ashwood who were the certificate purchasers at the Wings Annual Dinner in March. We have already photographed the Kucher family (a fabulous group of five) at Sunnydale Park on Mother's Day. That's a great idea .. having family portraits taken for those special occassions. Call us to book your session today.

Please stay tuned for the latest updates and as always, please e-mail us or give us a call for all of your photography needs!

International Women's Day Dinner

We were thrilled to be able to donate three certificates for a one hour environmental portrait session with an 11x14 wall portrait for the sponsored organization "Grandmothers to Grandmothers" which provides assistance to the grandmothers in Africa who are raising their grandchildren due to the AIDS epidemic held at the Barrie Country Club on March 7, 2008 hosted by WINGS (Women In Networking Growing Strong) and BBWN (Barrie Business Women's Network)

Congratulations to Barb Kucher who purchased two of our certificates for this excellent cause. We are looking forward to photography the Kucher family shortly at Sunnydale Park in Barrie.

Thanks again, Barb, for supporting the Grandmothers to Grandmothers organization.

Wedding Bookings Update & Other Stuff

June 2008 is SOLD OUT. July 2009 has only 1 date left available.

NightinGail Photography welcomes our newest clients - Debra & David (London, ON) who are celebrating their wedding at Deerhurst Reort on June 28th. Our many thanks to the awesome wedding coordinators at Deerhurst for their recommendation of NightinGail Photography.

NightinGail Photography is absolutely thrilled to be photographing our most recent clients throughout Muskoka and cottage country this year.

Taboo Resort - Jenny & Richard - June 29th
The Sir Mackenzie Inn- Jodi & Mark - July 9th
Hidden Valley Resort - Lesley & Morgan - July 16th.

Locally, we are photographing at:

The Barrie Golf & Country Club - Paula & Shaun - May 31st
Orillia & Oro Township - Eve & Edmund - July 19th

We also have weddings throughout Ontario this year.

Brampton/Mississauga - Terri & Arron - June 14th
Fenlon Falls/Bethany - Kristen & Lonnie - August 23rd
Toronto - Lori & Al - September 6th

I had a chance to drop in at the PPOC Convention in London, ON on the weekend where I ran into our fab friends from NoBS - Rob (fineart) and James (hodgy) as well as Rob's beautiful wife, Tina. I sat in for a few minutes on Rob's presentation. It's always a pleasure to see what's going on with their studio in Sudbury.

I also got the heads-up about the 3rd Annual NoBS Inferno. This year, we are taking the conference on the road and out of Ontario and will be heading off to Texas. Preparations are still in the planning stages but it's exciting to be a part of this group of photographers. I have made many friends since being involved with this forum and it's a great place for sharing and learning from others.

There are also exciting new changes coming for NightinGail Photography. A newer, easier to navigate website that reflects our style and passion for weddings is currently under construction.

Upcoming events for NightinGail

April 14 - NexGen Seminar (Toronto)
May 12 - Yervant Seminar (Toronto)
August - Niagara School of Imaging (St. Catharines)
November - NoBS Inferno (Texas, USA)

And on a personal note, Don is recovering nicely from the heart attack and is getting back to working on his business - The Grand Poo-Bah. He's taking it easy with only booking four appointments per day and has cutback the service area to only Simcoe County for this year.

Stay tuned for breaking news!

Fun with the Kids!

The kids are having a ball! NightinGail tried something new just for fun (for me actually). These are just a couple of my favourite shots that we got during an all-day session my friend's studio space. Well, as you can see, we had a great time this past weekend. I coerced some of my friends to bring their kids down to a studio where we played with the props and got everyone dressed up for an impromptu photo session.

The boys were having great fun playing around with the motorcycle among other great items in the studio while the girls were just doing what girls do -- Dress up and play!!. Thanks to Heather, Sherry and Daniella for letting Auntie Gail torture your kids once again as a learning experience.












We had such fun doing along with my friend, Diane, who really went above and beyond in helping me out with the use of her studio. All the costumes and props belong to Until Dawn Studio. If you are interested in this type of studio photographic art, please contact Diane directly.

We may do some more sessions later in the fall after our very fully wedding season winds down.

April Showers Special

Aren't we delighted to be slowly have the snow disappear from our yards! And so what if the April showers are on the way. After all, April showers bring May flowers and other exciting new things for spring.

We are offering to all new wedding clients our "April Showers" special. This is a booking special of a pre-tax savings of 20% for any new clients who book a wedding package with us before April 30th, 2008. This applies to any weddings which will be taking place during the remainder of 2008 and up to April 30, 2009. Please quote Coupon Code "April20080407 in any e-mail requests or when you call us at either 416-721-0541 or 705-792-5105. Please feel free to use our toll-free number at 1-866-488-2241.

NightinGail Photography is now specializing in weddings which includes engagements, Trash The Dress, and bridal boudoir portraits. We have now limited the number of weddings to three per month in order to provide our clients with the utmost attention to every detail of their wedding day.

Our 2008 schedule is currently filling up quickly under our new system:

April - 2 openings (April 26 gone)
May - 2 openings left (May 31st unavailable)
June - 1 opening (June 14 and 29th booked)
July - 2 openings (July 19 gone)
August - SOLD OUT
September -2 openings (September 6th taken)
October - 2 openings (Thanksgiving weekend booked)
November - 3 available dates
December - 2 available dates (December 6th unavailable)

Engagement, TTD and bridal boudoir sessions run periodically throughout the week. These sessions cannot be booked on Saturdays between May 24 and October 10th except by last minute scheduling.

We look forward to welcoming our new friends and clients. Remember that any wedding referrals from our current family of clients qualify you for a "special offer".

Facebook

Well, NightinGail Photography is now on Facebook. We'd love to have all of our clients and former clients sign up to be "fans" of NightinGail Photography. Facebook really has become a big social network and there are a lot of our fav clients who are already fans of NightinGail. Thanks to everyone.

Don was off to the Sleep Clinic tonight at the Royal Victoria Hospital. They are running some tests as part of his recuperative process. We also went to his first "aftercare" meeting on Tuesday afternoon which was all about stress-reduction and exercise.

Thank you again to all our friends, family and clients who have been so kind during Don's health crisis. We so appreciate all the phone calls, visits and get-well cards. We really appreciate all of the prayers that have been said on our behalf.

Wedding Bookings Update: We are rapidly filling up the 2008 and 2009 calendar so if you are planning on celebrating your once in a lifetime day this year, please give us a call. Our February Special "We Pay The Taxes" (Coupon Code NGP_20080229) remains in effect until February 29. After that date, our Wedding Packages return to the regular listed prices.

I'm off to Toronto on Thursday and then assisting one of my second shooters with her fairy/knight photography sessions on the weekend. If you are looking for this, Desiree has a few openings left on both Saturday and Sunday. A portrait session of your "fairy" or "knight" would be ideal Mother's Day or Grandma's Day gift. Give me a call and I will pass your information along to her.

Update!!

Well, after a very eventful (and stressful) couple of weeks, Don is now recuperating at home with a prognosis of a full recovery in a few weeks. He is following the doctor's orders for the most part but really has some difficulty with not being able to drive for a few weeks. As for me, besides all the regular work going on around here, I've had to learn how to run the snowblower. On top of that, I've had to take over the one task that Don does so well (and that I destest with a passion) - grocery shopping. And now I have to read all the labels too. The good thing... we're both going to lose weight!!


I've been working on Kelly & Claudio's wedding photos from January 19th. We were thrilled to work with them in Innisfil and Toronto on one of the coldest days of the year. We also had the opportunity to work inside the Botanical Gardens at Allen Gardens which has to be one of the most beautiful locations to photograph during the winter. We also had the opportunity to work with a videographer from Babalon for the first time. He was a lot of fun and I'm sure that my clients will be thrilled with his work. I also had Desiree Neville working with me as my second shooter. This is our second time of working together and she did a great job with the guys.






I've also had a chance to take a quick look at Angela and Stephen's wedding from January 26th. We were thrilled to work with them on their special day as well as at their rehearsal dinner. NightinGail Photography was estatic about being able to photograph our first wedding at our home church, Emmanuel Baptist Church on Salem Road, Innisfil, Ontario. Pastor Rick Buck performed the ceremony in the chapel with the reception being held in the main sanctuary. Caleb really stole the show. Even though we weren't able to build the snowmen for Angela and Stephen, the day was a total success.





Today, I updated my profile on Facebook as well as added NightinGail Photography to the site. Please visit and sign up to be a fan. Leave me a post on my wall!! NightinGail loves to hear from all our family, friends, clients and potential clients for our services.

I also dropped in on Norm Cheung's photography shoot on the weekend. It was awesome to touch base with a lot of old friends like Joseph LeDuc, Richard Nadeau, Mandeep and other NoBS members as well as make some new ones. Norm's workshops run once a month where he gets a bunch of photographers together with various lighting set-ups, make-up artists and models to have a great day of taking images. Her are a few samples of the fun that everyone has as Norm's workshops.

One of my resolutions for this year is to make every attempt to keep my blogging more current.

NightinGail Photography will be announcing our "Mother's Day Packages" very shortly so please stay tuned.

Thanks to Everyone

Just a quick note of thanks to all of our family, friends and clients for the support this past week during my darling husband's heart attack. He is resting comfortably now in the Cardiac Unit at Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie but will be sent down to South Lake Hospital in Newmarket on Monday for further testing. We also want to thank our Emmanuel Baptist Church family for all of the assistance and to Paster Rick Buck who dropped in on Don on Friday as well.

A really special thank you to my step-son, Glenn, who stepped up and cleaned out our driveway on Saturday morning after the blizzard on Friday. I am really grateful.

Leo is very despondent about his "daddy" not being at home but a few rides in the car over the last couple of days has cheered him up a bit. He is still sniffing at the front door because those strange men were in our house and took his "daddy" away.

I especially want to thank our clients this week for all the understanding about the possibility of a minor delay in their product delivery. I promise that we will get to everything very soon.

Off to the hospital in a few minutes so I'll touch base later.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We wish Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Seasons Greetings to all of our family, friends and clients who have made NightinGail Photography so much fun in 2007. We are really looking forward to 2008 with a lot of new friends with upcoming weddings, anniversaries, new babies and all the other fabulous events.

NightinGail Photography will be closed starting December 20th and reopening on January 2, 2008 to allow us to enjoy this festive season with our families as well.

This Week's Update

Well, I am on the road again, visiting my sister in Ottawa for a few days. And, of course, working along the way. It was a beautiful day for a drive down and even though the weather forcast was predicting snow.. I didn't see a flurry at all. Tomorrow, of course, could be a completely different story.

I had the opportunity to drop in on Roy Studio in Cornwall this afternoon. Our own NoBS Stalker was really busy (and by the way, he dresses up for work... including a tie!!). The studio is amazing and I'm in envy about his camera room and off-the-wall props. Thanks for the tour, Dan. Being a part of the NoBS Forum has been an amazing experience for making new friends world-wide. We really appreciate Rob & James who have worked so hard in setting up this amazing website for photographers.

NightinGail Photography is now pleased to be associated with Open Road Chapel (a ministry for truckers) with their head office in Orillia. We photographed the 2007 Chaplains and the Board of Directors as well as individual head shots of their spouses and the staff for their website (www.openroadchapels.ca).

2007 Open Road Chaplains

2007 Board of Directors

Stay tuned for our upcoming specials for January/February.

Weekly Update

Well, the Mayor's Gala for the Arts photos have been delivered to the Town of Markham (http://www.markham.ca/). Cathy Joyce (co-ordinator for the event) as well as her team worked very hard to ensure that the Gala went off without a hitch. A great time was had by all the participants, Gold Guests and VIPS, as well as the corporate sponsors.

The Mayor's Gala on-line photo gallery is now up on our website located at www.nightingailphotography.com/Gallery2 . Click on the "Welcome Sign" photo and the sign-in page will open. The access code is Markham (case sensitive). Contact us if you have any problems accessing the gallery.

In celebration of this worthwhile event, NightinGail Photography is pleased to provide any brides booking with us for the 2008/09 wedding season, a 10% Package Savings Coupon. E-mail us to set-up your complimentary consultation or give us a call. Just print it off and bring it with you when you meet with us. Sorry, only one savings coupon per booking and prices are based on the current season's pricing at the time of booking.

We have shot our last wedding of the 2007 season on November 10th and were thrilled to be a part of all our clients' events this year. Congratulations to all of our couples...

All of our wedding couples' names were entered into our 2007 "Trash the Dress" contest. NightinGail Photography is pleased to announce that the winners are Jeff & Colleen Van Norman. This is a $450 value. What did they win? 2 hours of photographic coverage on multiple locations where Colleen and Jeff get dressed up again in their wedding gear to play outside and have TONS of FUN!! Sun, water, street scapes, parks, or wherever. We will photograph the festivities and not worry about the dress getting dirty. Congratulations, Colleen & Jeff.

October News

Well, it's been a crazy October for NightinGail Photography. We started off with a great pre-school session (thanks to our dear friend, Daniella, who is one of our biggest supporters). We photographed about 30 children at the Whispering Pines Montessori School in Midhurst. All of the children were fabulous and we will post some photos once we get permission for the parents who entrusted us with this special task for 2007-2008.


We also were selected to be the official photographers for the Mayor's Gala for the Arts in Markham, Ontario. This was sponsored by the City of Markham (http://www.markham.ca)/ as well as many wonderful corporate sponsors. It was an absolutely fabulous evening and Mayor Scarpitti and his guests were fabulous. It is a charity event to raise money for all the arts in Markham. We were thrilled to be a part of this event. A selection of images from the event will be posted in the Mayor's Gala Gallery after November 26th. You will be able to see some of the highlights and a brief slideshow.. so stay tuned.

As per our usual hectic schedule, we have photographed three engagement sessions, two weddings and four portrait sessions in October as well.


We want to thank all of our clients and friends who have supported us and encouraged us during this year. NightinGail Photography has now been in operation for 3 years as of October 31st. Thank you.


On a personal note, our grandson, Lincoln, is now standing and walking around the furniture. Once of these days, he's going to take off running and then his mom and our daughter, Jenn along with husband, Wes, will be on the run with him. It's so hard to believe that he is seven months old already. Jenn & Wes will be celebrating their 1st anniversary in November. Boy, how the time flies.


Our son, Shaun, turns 30 in a few days (boy.. now that's hard to believe). He is doing his usual things but it was great to see him last week when he got back in off the road. He has new girlfriend who is very beautiful and very nice. We certainly hope to see more of them now that they are back in the country.


And, on another note, NightinGail Photography will be closed from November 4th through the 10th inclusively. We will answer all e-mail and phone calls upon our return.

Our November / December special is a complimentary 11 x 14 photograph with any photographic service booked before December 15th, 2007. As always, this is subject to our availability.

September Chat

Well, things have been a little hectic in the NightinGail Studio the last few weeks. We've been working hard on our new 2008 packages for both weddings and portraits and they are now up and published on the website.

We had the opportunity to do a number of family portrait sessions over the summer. Maternity sessions are booking up quickly so we are thrilled with all of our new clients.

The girls were over a couple of weeks ago and we got to play out in our backyard.





















We've all been fighting a virus and hopefully by next week, we'll all be back in full-swing.

Watch for our upcoming Christmas Portraits Special.

Niagara School of Imaging - Day 3

We were thrilled to be able to photography 'Mackenzie" - the six year old daughter of one of our classmates. She was just awesome. Here are some of her photos.

A new Environmental Photo Package using locations of your choices will be coming soon for you and your family. Stay tuned..

Niagara School of Imaging - End of Day 2

Or the end of the first full day of classes. I arrived at Brock University early on Sunday morning, got myself checked in to the dorm (like back in college) and got the information about what was going on for the rest of the day.

From 1 p.m. - 5 p.m., we had "power hours" which were mini sessions with various instructors to get an overview of the classes. I really would have liked to be able to split myself into a number of me's so I could have attended more than one course.

After a fabulous dinner in the dining hall, we had our first class. I am in the NoBS Photo Success class being taught by my friends, Rob Provencher (Westmount Photography) and James Hodgins (James Hodgins Photography). I have known them for a couple of years through the NoBS Photo Success Forum -- an absolute must for any photographer. Then off to Issac's Pub for a meet & greet with the other attendees.

The first full day gave us a ton of information. The results are stunning... and we were thrilled to have such great and fun models to work with... our morning session was with a great couple who had a lot of fun running through the grass and just playing but with lots of romantic poses thrown in as well.

It was cold and rainy in the afternoon but our first model just jumped right in and let us photograph her in a variety of poses. These are just a couple to keep everyone up to date on the constant training that we participate in to allow us to provide all our clients with the most up-to-date techniques for the wonder portraits and wedding images that each of NightinGail's clients receive after booking with us.

I am really looking forward to the updated wedding photography session that we are having tomorrow. Unfortunately, Rob & James could not get a wedding on Tuesday to let us try out all the new techniques that they have for us. Maybe next year!! But they are always willing to let us drive up to Sudbury to assist on their weddings (just for practice, of course). And we love them for it!

Now it's time for bed.. breakfast is at 7:30 a.m. and I'm so looking forward to tomorrow.

Up & Away

Well, July and August so far have been extremely busy with 7 weddings and 8 engagement shoots. Throw in a few family portrait sessions and there hasn't been a lot of time for updating NightinGail News. Photos coming later.

September Specials:

• Bridal Boudoir - $150 plus taxes. $50 deposit required with booking. Offer valid with bookings made until September 30, 2007.
• Trash the Dress - $275 plus taxes when added to any wedding package booked for 2007-2008 . $75 deposit required with booking.

Our new pricing plans plus some specialized bridal packages are now available for download from the Pricing Page as well as the Weddings Page. Just click on the link and the new brochure will open.

We are off to the Niagara School of Imaging for the week which is part of our training for 2007. I was fortunate enough to win my tuition (Trend Photo Lab) entered us into the draw and we WON!! Thanks, Peter.

On a sad note, my Grandma passed away on August 4th so we were off to Belleville. She was 94 years old and was a great lady. My Grandpa is still hanging in there (at 102). Most of the family turned up for the service which was held at St. Charles Bormeo Catholic Church in Read, Ontario.

While on our way there, we discovered that my car had a hole in one of the tires so off we went to the local tire dealer. I must say that we received awesome treatment from all of the staff at Belleville Tire & Auto Centre. Thanks to all the wonderful staff at this location!

Belcroft Estates Preferred Photographer

NightinGail has been put on the preferred vendor list at Belcroft Estates after photographing Christina & Derrick's wedding at their new venue on May 26, 2007. We are thrilled to be associated with this phenomenal venue!!

Belcroft Estates is a fabulous "hidden" location just south of Barrie with beautiful gardens, barns, ponds and other amazing backdrops for any wedding or special occasions. The gazebo and the wrought-iron staircase are just waiting for those romantic photographs of your wedding day. The long red stoned driveway is perfect for bridal party arrivals and just those fun photos of couples walking off into the distance. Please visit their site at www.belcroftestate.com to contact Jim to schedule your visit. Special NightinGail pricing is in effect for any events booked at Belcroft (provided NightinGail is available).

Some sample photos from Christina and Derrick's wedding: