by Kirsten McGoey | Aug 20, 2024 | Ajax, Ajax Family Photographer, Art, Bowmanville, Bowmanville Family Photographer, Brooklin, Brooklin Family Photographer, Christmas Photos, Courtice Family Photographer, Durham Region, Durham Region Family Photographer, Family Photographer, Family Photos, Holiday Photographer, Local Business, Magic, Markham, Modern, Oshawa, Oshawa Family Photographer, photographer, Photography, Pickering Family Photographer, Port Perry, Port Perry Family Photographer, Portraits, Print the Experience, Scarborough, Storytelling, The White Box Experience, Trinity Design, Uxbridge, Uxbridge Family Photographer, Whitby, Whitby Family Photographer
So you booked your Holiday White Box Experience 2024 and you are wondering how to prepare this is the article for you!
Get ready for FUN with your humans.
The White Box is fun, we have done over 100 sessions and by far it is the favourite session of most of our family clientele. They are a chance to get a reluctant partner or child excited because they are quick, allow for creativity and are full of laughter. Yes, you actually sit inside a 4x4x4 box.
What to wear and what not to wear.
The White Box is “white” so it is what we call an alternative universe to regular family photos. The white means leave your dark and black clothing at home and embrace colour. A lot of families like to do christmas pjs – we only ask not to all match, because you all get mixed up. Instead pick coordinating outfits, so we know who is who by clothing as well as the “story” in each box.
These images show you how they all look the same until you focus on the face.
Many of our studio items are shown in this version from faux snow balls, head pieces like antlers and so many Santa hats, too many to mention!
How to plan your boxes.
We encourage you to bring items from your own Christmas celebrations to use in the box. While we do have a HUGE choice of items here for you from books, signs and other holiday items – your own adds that personalized storytelling.
See images for a sample of items we have in the studio for holiday sessions, the collection has grown so you are welcome to have use of anything we have in the studio.
We did this amazing card for the ladies of Elm Law group – each session includes a 6 image collage 5×7 .jpg to create Christmas cards (actual cards are not included).
During the session.
Here are some more handy tips:
+ Arrive 5 minutes ahead, no sooner please as we have back to back sessions all morning/early afternoon.
+ A session is 15 minutes with 5 minutes buffer between sessions.
+ Come dressed – there is not room for changing when we do this many experiences in a row – there is however a bathroom and in studio mirror.
+ Work with us to plan the 6 images for your card and then we also shoot as many other options for larger items which you can order at your in person review.
+ We cannot go past your 15 minutes, if one of your humans is not cooperating we can sort out another option at a later date.
+ If you are a glasses wearer put in contacts or remove them, our light set up will show light reflections and impact the image. If you are okay with that then we will do our best to reduce the impact glare.
+ Let us get your littles to look at us, I will have an assistant on that day and we know how to get a child’s attention.
+ Worried about your weight? We have poses that work well for all body types and sizes.
+ We have fit four grown men in the Box at one time, it is strong and can hold a lot more than you think. It is also reinforced with two by fours and raised off the ground – which all our knees will be thankful for.
Shown above is a styrene mounted print on a wood block (blocks are no longer sold) – but we have lots of great products for you to choose from to gift to family this holiday season.
Reveal and ordering session.
We host all sessions in the studio for an in person reveal to accomplish a few things:
+ We review your images in proof form and make your collage for your card – 6 images in total. This is included in your session – a 5×7 .jpg (no physical cards are included).
+ Then we determine if there are any other products you wish to order from prints backed with styrene, to mounts and a few specific items that work well with this type of session.
Note – ordering additional products is not mandatory. We do need to order them before mid November in order to get them by the holidays as our provider gets very busy.
Have to book yet?
We would love to have you at the studio – click here to book:
Join us for the return of a day of limited edition Holiday White Box experiences.
+ Shot in our home studio in an actual box.
+ 15 minute time slots.
+ Up to 6 persons (due to time constraints).*
+ 1 collage included – 6 images in a 5×7 card format
+ In studio reveal to build card images AND order additional items such as larger collages, mounts and more.
* If you have a larger group we can book a solo session for you.
Kirsten McGoey | Visual Storyteller
by Kirsten McGoey | Jul 3, 2024 | Ajax, Ajaz Food Photographer, Bowmanville, Bowmanville Food Photographer, Brooklin, Brooklin Food Photographer, Courtice Food Photographer, Durham Region, Durham Region Food Photographer, Editorial, Food Photographer, GTA Food Photographer, Local Business, Magic, Markham, Modern, Oshawa, Oshawa Food Photographer, Peterborough Food Photographer, photographer, Photography, Pickering Food Photographer, Port Perry, Port Perry Food Photographer, Portraits, Scarborough, Storytelling, Trinity Design, Uxbridge, Uxbridge Food Photographer, Whitby, Whitby Food Photographer
Amazing food (in part through our photography) in the Durham Region is a story we have been telling locals and visitors to Whitby about for many years. For 2024 we have continued this alongside our client partners at the Town of Whitby Tourism team with ten new pages and a refreshed look to the entire guide.
The guide is an award winning piece that was awarded the EDAC’s the top Marketing Canada Award for a Single Publication – 5 or more pages from the Economic Developers Association of Canada in 2023. The design by Amanda Jones and the entire team is alive with the amazing food scene options we have to offer in Whitby.
Please note all content is made for the Town of Whitby tourism and they hold exclusive rights to this content for 6 months from launch. Afterwhich all content can be purchased for use by the respective businesses showcased.
As you might imagine a refresh means content from the 2022 and 2023 issues remain and we have added new content each year. I am only going to showcase the pages with our images from the 2024 refresh but invite you to spend time with the full guide which we will cite at the end of the blog post.
Page 5: We took only the images from Namak Handi.
Please note all content is made for the Town of Whitby tourism and they hold exclusive rights to this content for 6 months from launch. Afterwhich all content can be purchased for use by the respective businesses showcased.
Kirsten McGoey | Visual Storyteller
by Kirsten McGoey | Jun 12, 2024 | Ajax, Ajax Family Photographer, Bowmanville, Bowmanville Family Photographer, Brooklin, Brooklin Family Photographer, Courtice Family Photographer, Durham Region, Family Photographer, Family Photos, Magic, Modern, Oshawa, Oshawa Family Photographer, photographer, Photography, Pickering Family Photographer, Port Perry, Port Perry Family Photographer, Scarborough, Storytelling, Trinity Design, Uxbridge, Uxbridge Family Photographer, Whitby, Whitby Family Photographer
It’s always a win to hit golden hour for family photos on the beach in Whitby. Parents often come to me after not having done family photos for years because the kids – teens and young adults – were just not into it.
As the acceptance letters for University come in and they move into their new residences we love to help capture the family as it is before that big milestone. This session was mainly for the three girls, but as you will see Mom and Cubbie also got into it and as you can see Cubbie stole the show
Each family is different but I do warn people that I am a hug, hand holding, large laughter and emotion based photographer. I want to see your hands, your dogs, the relationship you have with your siblings.
These three sisters are close and you can feel their energy in the session. The emotions as your sister and mom tease you. The smiles as Cubbie runs me over for his treat. It is a joy to capture this family of which two are runners who we know through Durham Dragons.
Connect with us for your family session this summer, we would love to capture the experience for your and your family.
Kirsten McGoey | Visual Storyteller
by Kirsten McGoey | Jun 3, 2024 | Acting, Acting Headshots, Ajax, Ajax headshot photographer, Ajax headshot photographer, Art, Bowmanville, Bowmanville headshot photographer, Brooklin, Brooklin headshot photographer, Courtice headshot photographer, Durham Region, Durham Region Acting Headshots, Educational, Magic, Markham, Modern, Orono headshot photographer, Oshawa, Oshawa headshot photographer, photographer, Photography, Pickering headshot photographer, Pickering headshot photographer, Port Perry, Scarborough, Storytelling, Trinity Design, Uxbridge, Uxbridge headshot photographer, Whitby, Whitby headshot photographer
Join us as we show you how a professional theatre production can be captured in Dress Rehearsals to support your production later in the week. Henry Street High School has a long standing tradition of great theatre and they delivered a great production of Mamma Mia! this year. Here we go again!
I am looking for the big emotional and physical moments in a play. This is infinitely made harder as I have rarely seen the play and sometimes notes about what to look for are not given. I watch to see where I can see the shots I want to make and often take a series of twenty to just get the right smile, eyes open and touch of nose or sassy look. Practice for them also applies to theatre photography, the more you do the more you know what to look for.
What I loved about the play this year was this black light sequence. It was so seamlessly blended into the story and the choreography was just amazing. It allows more of the ensemble to show off the depth talent at Henry. It was a great storytelling technique for the dream sequence and I was delighted I got some good frames as it’s the definition of “low light”.
When photographing theatre you will be faced with light changes, sometimes from moment to moment, sometimes one side is a different scene than the other. It’s always worth mentioning it to the tech team, sometimes the lights are like in Mamma Mia full of colour and capturing that is on point.
Every now and then a part is so perfect you could not imagine anyone else playing it. Meet Stella who plays Rosie in the production and nailed this part. Her physical comedy is spot on and I laughed, clapped and cheered her on in her pursuit of Bill. Bravo! A dash of her work is below:
I mean with ABBA as the soundtrack and a strong plot there is just not much you can say about this play that would be negative. The performances were amazing, the leads for performance 1 and 2 changed for 3 and 4 so we have tried to show you both casts as much as we could.
Stage Director : Skylar is rarely in front of the camera or on the stage but without her and the team there would be no performance. She guides the performance (her 6th with Henry) with skill and confidence – always smiling and ready to make it happen. We will miss you as you are moving on to post secondary.
Kirsten McGoey | Visual Storyteller
by Kirsten McGoey | Apr 4, 2024 | Ajax, Ajax headshot photographer, Ajax headshot photographer, Bowmanville, Bowmanville headshot photographer, Brooklin, Brooklin headshot photographer, Business Content, Courtice headshot photographer, Durham Region, Headshot, Local Business, Markham, Modern, Orono headshot photographer, Oshawa, Oshawa headshot photographer, photographer, Photography, Pickering headshot photographer, Pickering headshot photographer, Political Photography, Port Perry, Scarborough, Storytelling, Trinity Design, Uxbridge, Uxbridge headshot photographer, Whitby headshot photographer
Creating effective photographic storytelling is unique to each person and the service they provide. Ryan Turnbull is a local MP in Whitby, Ontario and reached out to document his working day for his constiuent website. This site serves as a hub of information and a connection point for Whitby constituents to reach out to Ryan and his staff about key issues concerning the Whitby riding. In addition, there are links to many key services provided by the Federal Goverment – such as passports, old age security, the CRA and many more.
(above) Ryan connecting with staff who showed him how they work in the centre and tested out some machines together.
(below) Ryan shown in the Whitby Public Library – a stunning building designed in 2005 by Shore Tilbe Irwin and Partners (now Perkins+Will).
“My name is Ryan Turnbull and I am your MP for the riding of Whitby in Ontario, Canada: a fast-growing and diverse community just east of Toronto.(-) I am passionate about social issues as well as building a sustainable, eco-responsible economy.” (quote from website)
Telling the story of Ryan Turnbull, MP involved visiting his real constituents all over Whitby. Showing real people engaging with Ryan in community hubs, on campus at Durham College and businesses throughout Whitby allowed for great storytelling alongside connecting in real time with constituents, students, faculty and business owners. Ryan has been the Whitby MP since 2019.
Below: Ryan is shown at the Whitby Seniors Centre in the cafeteria engaged with constituents who know him well and had a hearty discussion on local issues.
Above (1): Ryan making espresso at Bistro ’67. (2) At the Maker’s Hub with Cheryl experiencing the confetti throws from her live shows during COVID. (3) Learning some paddy making skills in the food school at Durham College. (4) Testing the machines with Elliot at the Abilities Centre.
Above: Ryan is shown in a Durham College’s Mechanical Technician – Elevating Devices as a professor runs through servicing an escalator alongside students.
Above: Ryan is shown in a Durham College’s farm fresh and accessible year-round container which grows food; think shipping container with a hydroponic equipment that create rows of “bunk beds” for growing food even on the coldest Canadian winter days.
Kirsten McGoey | Visual Storyteller
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