Mother Nature was kind to us for most of the day, so we were able capture a wide variety of images - both indoor and outdoors.
Natasha and Matt: Thank you for sharing your big day with us and we thank you and your families for your kindness and hospitality. We wish you much happiness, laughter and joy in your life together.
If Natasha and Matt have given you access to their online gallery, click on “client galleries” on the top of this screen or visit our main website at www.roelphoto.com
I have been very fortunate to study with some of the world’s greatest wedding photographers and David Williams of Melbourne, Australia is one of them. He is a (tor)mentor, a wonderful colleague and a fine friend.
He will be in Toronto teaching his famous “Almost Alone with David Williams” 3 day course from January 27 to 29, 2009 which will be hosted by a great Canadian photographer, Storey Wilkins. If you have not had the chance to learn from David in the past, sign up immediately - you are in for an amazing educational experience. I can honestly say that I am a better photographer for having studied with David in the past.
If you would like more information or to enroll in this class, click here.
As the Chief Executive Dog for Roël Photography, I wanted to say “WOOF”. And - if you do not understand dog, that means “HAPPY NEW YEAR” in people talk.
Some people have asked me what a Chief Executive Dog does… well, I sleep work really, really hard and instead of telling you all about it, I will show you some pictures of me sleeping hard at work.
On a very cold and wintry night before Christmas, I ventured to London, Ontario for a very happy occasion - Marcia’s birthday. What she did not know was that her husband and two daughters planned a surprise birthday party for her at the beautiful Riverbend Golf Course in London. I don’t think I need to say that they all had a good time judging from Marcia’s laughter!
Just before Christmas, Anne and I had the pleasure of venturing to London, Ontario for Lindsay and Craig’s wedding. We met Lindsay and her mother about a year ago and ever since then, we have been looking forward to this winter wedding.
During the fall, Lindsay, Craig and I spent some time at Bellamere Winery in London during their engagement session… and they ultimately returned there for their wedding vows (it is a lovely place if you have not been there). They had an absolutely lovely winter wedding (mother nature made sure we had plenty of snow!) which included a touching ceremony conducted by a close family friend (hi Aunt Paula!) and a very elegant reception .
Lindsay and Craig: Anne and I wish you nothing but happines, joy and laughter in your life together.
If Lindsay and Craig have given you access to their online gallery, click on “client galleries” on the top of this screen or visit our main website at www.roelphoto.com
Another very busy (and extremely successful) year comes to a close. This was our first complete year operating out of Stratford, Ontario after we relocated the studio from Toronto in June 2007 - so we are now photographing weddings (and other events) in the GTA, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Hamilton and surrounding areas.
We were also extremely honoured to be named Wedding and Portrait Photographers International’s (WPPI) Studio of the Month for October 2008 and are touched by the hundreds of people who called and/or emailed congratulating us on this achievement.
A BIG thank you is in order to our amazing clients for making our studio such a success! We have the honour of photographing some of the most amazing people on the planet and it is our pleasure to serve you. We will continue to update our products which also includes family, event and architectural photography plus our ever expanding line of custom made fine art albums.
There’s no way I can operate this studio by myself… and I am very grateful to my wife Anne, David Chang-Sang, Ralph Heinze, Kristen Amies, Sheila Braam and Zeus for all of their hard work this year. I am very proud of this amazing team we have assembled.
From all of us at Roel Photography, we wish you and your families a safe and happy holiday season - and best wishes for a fantastic and rewarding 2009!
As a lot of couples are now booking their venues for their weddings next year, I have been getting a lot of people asking about the La Hacienda Sarria in Kitchener-Waterloo. Specifically, they are finding it difficult to contact them about arranging an appointment to visit the venue and to discuss prices.
La Hacienda Sarria is catered by Bingemans in Kitchener-Waterloo who handles all of the bookings for this great venue. If you would like to contact Bingemans for an appointment, you can click here.
Enjoy your wedding day (BTW, this is one of my most favourite places to photograph a wedding in Kitchener-Waterloo)!
For those of you who visit our blog regularly, you may have noticed that it just underwent some cosmetic surgery (so to speak). We’ve received a lot of feedback over the past year on how to improve navigation, layout, size of images/video - and we are pleased to have implemented our readers’ recommendations.
In addition to lots of minor changes, there are two new major features of our new and improved blog:
We have improved the navigation to different parts of our site. Just place your cursor over the images at the top of the blog and click on the section of the site you wish to visit.
The sidebar has been moved to the left and has been reorganized for easier access to the information in it.
Thank you again for your help in our makeover. If you have any other suggestions, please click here to email us.
Anne and I recently took a trip to Southern Europe and Northern Africa. I will be posting a series of photos (but not all 2,000+ I took!) from several of the fantastic places we visited.
So, having said that, I will start with Gibraltar which is actually on the southern most tip of the Iberian peninsula. It is where Europe meets Africa which made it a strategic military outpost in the days when Europe’s various armies weren’t on such friendly terms. Often, people refer to Gibraltar as the “Rock” and when you visit it, you will know why.
Once in a while you meet someone with a great big heart who wants to give back to society.
My friend and colleague, Andrew Adams, went to India last year and as most people who have visited this amazing place, he found it to be a life changing experience.
Andrew has decided to offer limited edition, fine art giclee prints of some of the beautiful images he captured on his trip - and 100% of the proceeds will go to the charity, Asha Canada, whose stated mission is “to catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children.” With 98.7% of their funds going directly to projects in India, Asha Canada has consistently rated among the top 10 charities by Charity Navigator.
We spend a lot of time designing custom albums and coffee table books for our clients. The key to doing it efficiently and effectively is to have superb software and excellent design skills.
A friend and colleague of mine, Andrew Funderburg (aka “Fundy”), has created a whole series of software tools and Photoshop actions that makes album design and workflow *much* easier for photographers. Our studio uses them and we have nothing but great things to say about Fundy’s products.
“Fundy” is offering a 30% discount on his products to the readers of our blog. When you visit his website, www.fundysos.com, use the code “roelholiday” to get your discount. This offer is good until December 24th, 2008.
Also, the Mercury chose several wedding images (from other weddings this year) to feature in the article, so don’t hesitate to check it out. If you would like to read the article, please click here.
Roël is a professional photographer and author who operates a wedding photography studio based in Stratford, Canada. His studio was recently named Studio of the Month for October 2008 by Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI). You can view more of Roël's work or contact him via his main website www.roelphoto.com or call him at 1.888.301.0829
