Hello friends!

You haven't heard from me in a while, so I thought I'd share some things that have been happening.

In November, I flew across Canada to visit my wonderful boyfriend Stefan ~chirilas (who as some of you know, I met on dA 2 years ago) in Kitchener, Ontario. It was actually my first time flying so I was a bit nervous, but really enjoyed it! Except for the fact that flying across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba gets very boring with no mountains to look at, haha.  

Anyway, so I stayed with him for 2 weeks and he showed me around the area. We of course, both being photographers, always had our cameras on us and took tons of photos. I got to see the famous Niagara Falls and Toronto too. Even though I missed the mountains, I really fell in love with all the older fancier churches in Ontario. Just ask Stefan, I couldn't stop imagining shooting weddings at these churches! I also liked all the old run-down buildings, some of those were quite photogenic too! The best spot Stefan took me to was Webster's Falls though. This place plays a huge role in the fact that I met Stefan! See, I commented on the first photo below Stefan took at Webster's Falls and that is how we started talking.

Here is the original edit, an updated version, and one from when I came!



Since we are both photographers and shoot engagement sessions, we thought we would give ourselves one, even though we aren't quite yet engaged. Lots of tripod, timer mode and running. I will hopefully get around to posting photos from my trip soon, once I have time to edit them!

Speaking of engagement sessions, I will soon be posting photos from one I had at the end of October. I will also be shooting the couples wedding in March! That's all for now!

I am working on a news article featuring my favourite lens, the 50mm 1.8 and am in the process of collecting photos right now. It can be any brand or make of the lens, as well as taken with any aperture! I'm looking for a variety of photos: portraits, flowers, still life, animals, you name it!

If you would like to be featured, please send me a note with your thumbs (no limit) or post links to your photos in this journal!

Feel free to send me works of others also!

Sorry it has been a while since I updated here. I've gotten lots of work regarding photography lately.

My church has hired me once again to take tons of portraits again to update their website! I took staff headshots last week, you can view them on my blog if you're interested. Last Sunday and this past Sunday I took photos for their children's church programs. The kids are so cute, and some of the rooms have wonderful natural windowlight that just makes their eyes sparkle (other rooms have fluorescents...). I edited almost 100 photos from that yesterday, took me 7 hours, haha. Tomorrow evening I will be taking photos of the youth I believe, that's about all the details I was given.

Last week I also met up with a couple who have now hired me as their wedding photographer in March! I will be shooting their engagements perhaps sometime next month.

I also joined the local photoclub here ([link] and I need to hand in my first images by tomorrow! The assigned topic is "Down the Path" and then I can choose 2 others photos of any catergory to enter. Let me know if you have suggestions!

As many of you know two and a half weeks ago I shot my first wedding. I'm sorry I've taken so long to update you on it, I've been so busy editing all the photos!

It went very well, despite the fact that it rained almost for the entire day! Thankfully the rain held off for all the group photos and thankfully there was some outdoors cover too. The overcast and rain gave beautiful soft lighting and saturation though. We shot the photos at a monastery that had a nice open field and I used a bit of the architecture in some photos too. A big thanks to my friend Arielle ~Air-557 for helping assist me for the day!

The couple was very kind and the entire bridal party was a lot of fun to photograph! I really could not imagine a better couple for a first wedding, they even paid me and gave me a bonus on the day of the rehearsal!

I'm so glad to be done editing, I spent over 80 hours in total. Partly because of my slow computer and partly because I am a bit of a perfectionist and it takes me a while to be content with a photo I'm editing as I experiment around a lot with blending modes, levels, etc.

Anyway, I just finished making their slideshow DVD last night. So now I'm just waiting for them to pick them up their DVDs and then I will post my favourites on dA!

Thanks to everyone here who encouraged me and offered their advice regarding the wedding, it really meant a lot to me.

I woke up this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see I received second place!

This is the first contest I placed in the top 3!

I agreed to feature the winners of #BeautyClub's Flower Contest. Here they are!

1st. Place
by


2nd. Place
by

3rd. Place
by

I have been interviewed by ~chirilas!

Find out what inspires me, which photographers inspire me, how I got into photography, a few of my techniques and more.

Please view the interview here: [link]

I would really appreciate it if you could help me out and favourite the article so it can get more exposure.

A big thank you to Stefan ~chirilas for interviewing me and all your time.





Things have slowed down now, with soccer camp photos being done. I've had some time to take photos for personal enjoyment which felt really good. It's nice to relax before the wedding, less than three weeks away. Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and kind comments from my last journal. It's really made me feel better. Also, Stefan was really sweet and bought me a backup camera battery online, so that is being shipped to me. I've looked everywhere, asked pretty much everyone I know about getting a backup camera body, have had no luck. So, I'll just be using the S3 and Rebel XT. Things should still go well.

Tomorrow marks one month till I photograph my first wedding. I am really excited for the images I'll get, but I am SO nervous! I did a wedding job shadow with my teacher last year in December and that helped me realize this is something I am capable of. I know how to pose the couple/groups, I am always looking at wedding photos gathering new ideas. The couple also told me after their engagement session that they are confident I will do a great job on the wedding, it's really nice having them believe in me like that.

My problem is I keep reading about weddings and the loads of equipment people insist that is necessary to do a good job photographing a wedding. I really don't have the money for all those fast f/2.8 lenses and flash guns. Before reading about all the "required" equipment I felt a lot more confident. I was pretty happy with the photos I got from assisting a wedding with my only lens at the time 17-85mm IS. Since then I got a f/1.8 50mm which I love, but I realize it is not all that versatile for weddings. Hopefully I can get some portraits of the bride/groom with it though. I used it for their entire engagement session almost, so I think it should work for this too. I am just feeling quite intimidated and could use some encouragement.

So anyway, I'm caught in a dilemma. I have about $450 available to spend on the wedding (I'm regretting not asking for a downpayment now ). With this money, I'm for sure gonna need to buy a backup battery for the Rebel XT which is listed at $89 for the Canon brand. Does anyone know of a place to get the battery cheaper, maybe a non-Canon brand battery?  Secondly, I need more memory, I currently have 4GB. Thirdly, I would like a backup camera body. Currently, I have my Canon S3 IS which has a great 12x optical zoom, but I would really prefer an SLR for backup. So I am debating finding a place to rent one (haven't had much luck with) or buying a cheap used Rebel body. Any suggestions here? I would really prefer to rent one, but what do you think?

Lastly, if I ended up renting a body, I may have money to spare for a Sigma lens. I was looking at the 70-300mm f/4-5.6($200), 28-70mm f/2.8-4 ($140), 28-135mm f/3.8-5.6 ($130). I haven't read the most positive reviews on the last two lenses and I'm not too sure if I would need a telephoto that slow. Do you think any of these are worth the money, or should I just stick with my 17-85mm and 50mm?



Other than the wedding stuff, I'm pretty busy with photos. Last week I took photos of a drama dress rehersal for my church. It took quite a while to edit the 70 photos. I also volunteered to take photos for my church's soccer camp. So tomorrow and Thursday I'll be taking photos and gotta have them all edited by Friday so they can use them for a slideshow. I am just missing the fun in photography lately. Like I don't mind taking all these photos, but I miss taking portraits and nature photos. The garden is full of photogenic flowers and I just can't find the time to take photos or get around to editing them. Sorry for such a depressing journal, it's just how it is now.



Alyssa Schroeder Photography has a Facebook Page ! I'd really appreciate it if you viewed my page and supported me by becoming a fan there.