Tis the season for Showers and Weddings! A few weeks ago, beautiful bride-to-be Laura was surrounded by her family and friends at a wonderful backyard bridal shower. When you’re the parent of the guest of honour, the last thing you should be worried about is taking photos… you should be enjoying the moments, not concerned with capturing them. And that’s exactly what Laura’s mom thought, too! Karen and Laura, thank you both for letting me be a little fly on the wall (or ladybug in the garden) and ensuring you got to enjoy the celebration. To the Bride and Groom, best wishes on your wedding day and throughout your marriage! Enjoy.

Celebrations aren’t necessarily about gifts in your hand. Celebrations are about experiences and gifts felt in your heart. Don wanted to show Lisa how much she means to him and I think it’s safe to say, he succeeded. Lisa and her “girls” enjoyed a day of spa laughs and beautification, lunching in a limo, a backyard garden photo shoot and an evening with family and friends. What more could a girl want for her birthday? Wait, maybe a few puppy snuggles. Lisa absolutely loves dogs so Don and friends were able to wrangle up the most adorable little golden doodles to add some laughter and squeals to the day. I’m not sure what we heard more, laughter from us corralling the puppies or teeny squeals of delight from Lisa.

Don & Lisa… I had a wonderful time and feel very lucky to have joined in on the celebration. The two of you, along with your circle of family and friends, made me feel extremely welcome. Here’s to many more years of celebrating life, love, friendships and togetherness.

I’ve written and re-written the opening sentences of this post several times over, not knowing where to begin or how to coherently express myself. So, I’ve decided to start typing, keep typing, and hopefully you can put points A, B and C together :)

For those of you who follow my photography work either by visiting this blog or my fanpage, you will know that I often take part in fundraising adventures. I do so without giving it a second thought. I do so because there are endless individuals in the world who need our support, assistance and a little extra encouragement. I’ll admit that a lot of times I feel overwhelmed with the amount of negativity, sadness, illness, destruction, etc that take place outside the 4 corners of my home and I wonder if it will ever end. Truthfully, we all know it won’t, so I guess that’s why I continue to do what I do; giving a little extra on my end in hopes of it extending someone else’s happiness, life or positive outlook on the world.

Of course I have a business, a home, and most importantly a family that needs my income and personal support to survive. But life is more than just survival and existence… it’s about living. It’s about gratitude. It’s about teaching your children right from wrong and it’s about giving back. It’s also about memories.

I want people to capture important moments in their life. But, I also want people to feel like they’ve contributed towards a better society, more specifically, the part of society that holds a special place in their heart or mind.

For July, August, September and October of this year (2012), photos by holly is giving back. WE are giving back. How? By me donating your $150 session fee** to the registered charity of your choice. 

I get to create, you get to be a part of your family’s photographic legacy and we both become part of a little social goodness. It’s as simple as that.

Email me for more info and to book your giving back session. Thank you, so very much!

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** image DVD, products, prints, etc., are an additional investment

To many individuals, a company brand conjures up images of logos, when in reality, a logo is only part of the entire brand package.  A company’s brand is a combination of the visual goods that help you recognize the company but also the non-tangible items that help define and personalize any-sized company to their customer base; past, current or potential.

photos by holly is evolving and there’s no half-effort in this process. Providing a professional, quality experience and delicious (yep, delicious!) line-up of products and services is paramount to me and research, trial & error, hard work, experimentation, education and more are all key to business development.

Changes on the blog have happened and changes to the website are happening now.

Products are being checked out and added to the list.

Presentation and packaging are in various stages of completion.

Here’s a small look at the logo & business card portion of my brand. A huge thank you to Kim at MadiLu Designs for her amazing work! I absolutely loved collaborating with her 100% and couldn’t be happier with her level of customer service, vision and ability to make sense of my thought process and ideas.

On Saturday February 18th The Museum in downtown Kitchener opened their doors to Project Macfrica’s PM Night. Over 150 attendees, 35+ volunteers and 24 sponsors helped raise $8000 towards Project Macfrica’s upcoming trip to Kenya. Amazing! What is Project Macfrica? No, it’s not just a tongue twister that provided some laughs at PM Night with a game of Chubby Bunny ;) … it’s much more. Matt Scobel, a resident of Kitchener-Waterloo, began Project Macfrica in 2009 as a way to build and administer sustainable Apple computer labs in Africa.

The vision for Project Macfrica started with a conversation.  My sister’s life has currently taken her to a small village called Eldoret Town, Kenya where she is assisting with an orphanage for abandoned children.  During one of our conversations, I was fascinated by how she described the children’s reactions to the webcam in her laptop. The children couldn’t get enough of the reflection of their own image on this piece of equipment that they couldn’t yet understand.  They were drawn to it.  This was the light bulb moment.  My opportunity to take what I do, what I’m good at, and use it for something worthwhile. Macfrica was born. ~ Matt Scobel Project Macfrica

The above image is of Matt and some of the orphaned children of the Open Arms Village in Eldoret, Kenya, taken on the inaugural trip for Project Macfrica in June 2010.

Matt and his crew are heading to Kenya on March 23, 2012 and will be working together with Agape in Action to install a computer lab to be used by over 300 high school students. Travel to Kenya with the people and items to achieve this task isn’t all that easy without monetary help. But raising money has to be fun, right? Well, fun was definitely had with Live Angry Birds, Karaoke, live music, games, food and a special Macfrica Mojito for everyone to enjoy.

Giving back to my community and communities abroad is extremely important to me and I was thrilled to do so by documenting Project Macfrica Night. I’m beyond fortunate to live in a world with clean running water, electricity, education, food and more than adequate shelter. I may have been at the end of my high school career when computer labs entered the classroom, but they still made it there. Education and the ability to further one’s education through the use of computers is something I believe everyone should have access to, but as we all know this isn’t the case. Don’t you think we would understand each other a little better, grow a little more, appreciate our differences if we had the ability to learn why we are the way we are? Live the way we live? Believe in what we believe? Let’s work together at pushing the entire world forward with positive growth and change. It really only takes one person to make a difference… it’s just a matter of one person starting and letting it snowball from there.

Thanks Matt (and team) for your hard work and dedication! Good Luck in Kenya … we’ll all be following :)

Please check out more about Project Macrfrica’s upcoming trip and the entire Project Macfrica initiative:

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