It's been a while I have been wanting to update my website, and I am proud to say it is finally done!
Having done it myself, that was a much bigger endeavor I anticipated it to be, but much needed. What changes? -It simply represents my evolved work better as I constantly grow as an artist. As soon as you get to the main page you can see in a flash what my global style is: Fresh clean & crisp images with soft colors and glowing natural light where the subject is the focus. -My Full Price List is now online! Please visit: http://www.lilisweetphotography.com/pricelist It includes all session digital package deals, print prices and canvas. If you have a special request like: Pro headshots or social media photos, artistic shots or family photos with older kids, children or teens...etc please contact me for an estimate at: [email protected] More sections are visible on my portfolio section, accessible through flickr: -Toddlers/children: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zenhennamontreal/sets/72157648854882766 -Photos of newborns & toddlers outdoors in the studio's garden: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zenhennamontreal/sets/72157648908012432/ -And artistic Photos of newborn with a black background https://www.flickr.com/photos/zenhennamontreal/sets/72157655604013315 2015 was wonderfully busy and creative. My photography, posing and editing skills improved so much because of all the opportunities that arose! Thanks to all my customers for supporting my business and my friends and family for your ongoing cheers and encouragement. I feel extremely blesses to be immersed full time in my passion. It was only when I refused to compromise, created a vision and followed up on it while setting my fears aside that life allowed me to thrive from my passion. While many seek out prosperity, they do not believe that it is possible to feel fulfilled by what you do at the same time. But isn't it better the accumulate what nurtures your heart and soul and live simply? I believe if you do this and focus on happiness and believe in your powers of attraction, then eventually, prosperity can not escape from you. I wish you the courage to embrace all of your craziest dreams for 2016! Love, Lili. Here are some of 2015's best! Lately, I'm obsessed with making newborn headbands out of upcycled t-shirts and vintage lace. Does it show? And my newest compulsion? Yes Crowns!..Oh boy, does it ever end? Props are important to Newborn photography. Although you can bring your own accessories and props to a session if you wish to make it more personal, I offer a large quantity of these. I am always shopping for new ones or even making them myself or re-hauling them. Here is my ever growing collection of baby wraps, hats, headbands, blankets and furs. These are my artist palette, my inspiration....Every piece in the studio has a particular story and is waiting to make new ones with your family! Don't hesitate to let us know which piece you feel particularly attracted to or to bring your own. Props are great but I also believe they are not everything. A picture with a naked baby and a white blanket is one of my favorite set up... The pieces I choose are usually organic and able to showcase baby without dominating the picture. I am more interested in the magic your angel carries than anything else, but I am equipped and ready for anything! Here is where the magic happens! Look at the beautiful light I have flowing from my double window panels...Everything is set up so that it is an arm stretch away & for baby's comfort. When the light fails I am equipped with great back up light softboxes that do an incredible job! On the left side of the studio, I am set up for family/maternity sessions (with seamless paper rolls that pull down from the ceiling and lightboxes) so that I can switch from one to the other in the same session without having to change my set up completely. Welcome! Hope to see you soon! This is just a small part of the props I own...This does not include the entirety of my growing newborn collection, my toddler or my maternity props....Featured in the the photos above are some quilts (I am obsessed with finding these!), wool fluffs (whole or in large knits), handmade angora bonnets, knitted by a local artist, animal hats, diaper covers and a few crowns. All at your disposition! Presently working on needle felting little animal friends! Can't wait to show you :) Here is my last flea market score i got this past August... Ohhhh, I can't tell you how excited I was that day! One of my best collect to date and already got a lot of use!
Had fun designing a few timeline covers for my Facebook page and had I more time, I'd spend all day on this, it's kind of fun! But now I can not decide which one is my favorite...Which is yours?
I am definitely not the best blogger, I keep meaning to post more stuff but work piles on with so many things on the to do list. I have a bunch of sessions to share with you but at last let me share one of my favorite January sessions... William came as a late x-mas present on December 26th. A miraculous gift of 7.6lb. Daddy Neil and mommy Clare were overjoyed and came to my studio when Will was 14 days. Later than I like to pose newborns but William was perfect and practically behaved like a 1 week old. Lucky me, that does make my work easier. The January overcast but bright day, offered us perfect lighting for this loving trio. Neil & Clare loved the pictures so much, they ended up purchasing them all. I have to say there were so many good shots (which I am struggling to post a fraction here) it made it impossible to limit it to a selection. In most my newborn sessions now, I also offer to do family +newborn, newborn+mommy & newborn+daddy pictures (newborn +siblings if there is some). And almost everyone chooses this option. I love photographing intimate family moments and I feel so privileged to be invited to do so. I love these 2 black and white images. I started to do more and more black background images in my session just to offer variety. A nice changed from my typical whitewashed ones. I have never posted an image of a newborn crying before. I don't usually like them but for some reason I love this one so much. It almost looks like the baby was just pulled out of the womb (after a good clean up, yes, he's awfully clean). On the second shot I find William looks like he is dancing & completely free of worries...lol, Here's a feeling, I wouldn't mind experiencing again. Thank you William for putting up with all my requests so patiently & thank you Clare & Neil for being such wonderful parents & assistants (holding my reflector and so on...) Can't wait until our next meeting.
Talk about magical! I just love this shot! Here is one of my last newborn outdoors session of the year...It is true we have been blessed with gorgeous September weather and I may be able to stretch my luck a little further... I don't own a cat, but I would probably own a couple if I could. Having a severely asthmatic and allergic partner and running a newborn photography business from home, does not exactly allow for that...So, I get my fix by making friends with neighborhood cats. I don't exactly know this cat's name but my 4 year daughter has nicknamed her ''Rosie''. Rosie is my favorite neighborhood cat. She's the sweet kind that rolls on her belly as soon as she sees you and starts purring right away. She is one of the only cats around that will let my daughter do just about anything to her. So when Rosie came for a visit during the shoot, I knew baby Penny would be in safe hands (paws) and that the 3 of us would make magic together. Can you spot another magical visitor in the image above? Also, did I mention that I built this little bed myself!? What a wonderful family I was blessed to photograph. We captured so many great shots in this session, it made it nearly impossible to narrow it down to a selection. Well I could have greater problems in life, but capturing 8 days old Penny, 2 year old Reese and 5 year old Caleb was not one of them. It often gets chaotic and exhausting getting children to cooperate. I wouldn't say this shoot was easy but it was far from hard. The key is working fast in blocks and to try to keep it as light and fun as possible and if all fails offer a series of bribes. Having chill parents like Tania and Justin also helps more than all the other stuff I mentioned...So thanks for binging peace to your family and harmony in this world guys and creating such delightful children!
Here is Mila, she is about 5 weeks old here. Her parents, Brooke and Mat, had just gotten engaged the same day. What a way to celebrate! I feel so lucky to be surrounded with babies and people who are in love all the time...I've had so many different jobs in my life but I promise you I am not leaving this one any time soon.
For a while now I have been wanting to build a baby bed out of tree branches and I finally did it! I'm so proud of myself, it was the firt time I ever built anything out of wood. Isn't it the sweetest thing you've ever seen. This sleeping beauty in my woodsy garden? I had almost cancelled this session that day because it was grey and rainy and I do use mostly natural light in the studio (it just looks soooooo much better). And in the summer I shoot half of my photo shoots outdoors. But I knew Mat was coming in from Florida only for the weekend and we wouldn't get another shot at this. So when the pouring rain thinned out a bit, we went out with a big umbrella and I took quick shots while Mat would hold it over Mila. I live on a very quiet street, but a few street walkers/neighbors stopped by enthralled by the cuteness of the spectacle. It was just such a special sight! I'm happy to hear Brooke and Mat's long distance relationship is coming to an end soon and they will be united for good since Brooke is moving to Florida next month. Long life and long love to you guys! Stella is Isa and Giancarlo's newborn daughter. Here is a sneak peek from their final selection. I had previously photographed this wonderful couple to memorize their pregnancy in June and found it so wonderful meeting them. This time around I got to meet their precious sweetheart and Isa's parents who were visiting from Brazil. All, just wonderful warm, kind people. Thanks to my neighbors Gary and Lucy for letting me use their garden for the shoots, which was wonderfully blooming and perfumed. It won't be my last visit! Stella was an easy baby, sweet and calm like her parents, we got a few ope eyes shots at first but she got shut eye very quickly and just could not be bothered by much afterwards.
Thanks for the love estrellita! Olive is the newborn baby of very dear friends of our family. It was such an honor that they have asked me to photograph their angel! Olive was already 3 weeks old when I photographed her so I was a bit unsure about how she would perform but she was still so tiny and went along sweetly with the process giving us the most delightful smiles and curling up like a 5 day old newborn. We had to somewhat bribe her older brother, James for his cooperation to pose in a few shots with her and we found Popsicle promises was our ticket to a great (but short) photo ride. We discovered something in my garden that looked like an olive branch (in the first top picture) but I'm actually not even sure what it is. Do you? I arranged white flowers on the side of her head. We smiled a the Princess Lea resemblance. We were blessed with Olive's peace & charm.
So this is day two of my outdoors adventures! Thanks to my wonderful backyard, transformed into an instant studio & my lovely front yard, shooting outdoors is fast becoming the favorite part of my work! Here is little Arthur at 11 days. Meet his wonderful family: Laure, Paul & their young daughter, Clémence. Arthur was a breath of fresh air, a real breeze to work with, easing into my requests with trust. When I start a session, baby most often greets me with open eyes. It's time to shoot quickly these few ''open eyes'' moments and they are often my favorite pictures because the eyes speak so much as you know. The first picture in the gallery says everything about my style. I try to capture the essence of your precious angel without drowning him/her in cutesy props. Less is more, as it speaks more about one's essence & journey and less about the superfluous. My other favorite shot is the top one. I love the contrast I'm getting with the concrete wall in my backyard, the fluffy carpet & the perfection of a newborn. It was a beautiful warm day so Arthur being in his birthday suit, suited him just fine! Thanks to this wonderful family for their outstanding patience and kindness all through the session, I could only dream all session were as such. I always say chill parents: chill kid= amazing pictures.
What a darling little Anabelle was. I had previously photographed her beautiful mom, Patricia while she was pregnant. So Patricia and I formed a dynamic duo in the studio. She had brought gorgeous blankets knitted by Anabelle's fairy grandmothers. I say fairy because both were some of the most beautiful handmade blankets I have ever seen. You can see Anabelle nested in them in the first top picture. Trish aslo brought a beautiful flower she purchased from a hand crafter on Etsy (my favorite e-store!). So even though I am growing quite a large quantity of handcrafted flowers now since I just started to make them myself it was nice to have new accessories to work with. This always brings well welcomed inspiration. Patricia was at my side the whole time assisting and making sure Ana was safe and giving an extra hand. Because I don't have an assistant, parents often fulfill that role in the studio. I think it is great for them to have that interactive experience instead of having a stranger handle their baby the whole time. It creates a wonderful intimate session that they will always remember. So thank you for this Patricia. Baby was easy breezy, Anabelle settled like most babies after a good feeding and relaxed wonderfully into the process. What lovely memories we recorded that day!
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Lili Sweet
Lili Sweet is a newborn, maternity & family photographer with over 20 years experience from Montreal, Canada. To book a session or to get a quote please write to [email protected] or phone 514-272-7119 & visit my main website HERE Archives
July 2016
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