It's that time of year again for our annual family Christmas photoshoot. A few years ago we were introduced through my hubby's grandparents to Drysdale Tree Farm. It is located just south of Barrie which made it the ideal location to do our Christmas photos. Our family photographer Tim Smith owns his own photography company in Barrie, so we often make the trip up his way in order to avoid having to pay mileage in addition to his fees. Our photos turned out so great the first year that we've continued to return to the farm every year since...and we've never been let down.
This year in particular I was so excited about our photos. Not only did we get a beautiful dusting of snow just hours before the shoot but for the first time ever we had our photos taken as a family of 6. Unfortunately we opted to not bring our 90 pound golden doodle...and I certainly did not regret that decision. Although the tree farm looked like a beautiful winter wonderland covered with freshly fallen snow - under that lurked a thick and mushy layer of mud. And knowing our dog, he would have been covered head to tail in mud before the photos were even taken.
This year we did things a little differently and surprisingly everything worked out. We normally do our photos first thing in the morning in order to avoid any major toddler meltdowns, instead we decided to schedule our time slot for the afternoon which gave us the entire morning to get organized and ready. As for napping...our 2 and 4 year old definitely still need a nap some days and thankfully they both fell asleep in the car. As for the actual shoot, we only had 45 minutes with our photographer because he was booked back to back. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be enough time. The kids were cold and constantly complaining about it so we had to stop several times to allow them to warm up inside. I was feeling pretty frustrated and worried that our photos wouldn't turn out as I had hoped, but of course I was pleasantly surprised when Tim sent us the preview. He had done such a great job as usual. To be honest I couldn't narrow it down...I loved them all!
One of my favourite things about working with Tim is that he always gives you full access to your edited photos...meaning you can do whatever you would like with them. There is never any added costs and you don't have to purchase any prints. He gives you a pre-determined number of edited photos in colour as well as black and white. He also sends you two sizes of each photo - one for online use and a higher quality option for print.
This Christmas we used quite a few of the photos on our family Christmas cards and we also plan on framing a few in order to hang them (I'm seriously the worst when it comes to hanging photos!). It was the greatest feeling seeing our family together for the first time in a photo - and we're all looking! I decided to use https://www.shutterfly.com/ and https://www.vistaprint.ca/ to make our Holiday cards this year. I'm always torn with which company to use because I like them both and in the past I've been equally satisfied with their services. The only comment I'll make is that I do like the card options that Shutterfly offers a little better - but they're also more pricey. In the end I went with both companies and split the shipping costs with a friend. I ordered a smaller amount of cards from Shutterfly to give to our immediate family (and I included a ton of photos!). I also went with a very nice option through Vistaprint and ordered several more to give to friends. The combined costs were reasonable and I managed to order them in time for Black Friday so I got to take advantage of all the sale offers - so worth it! As for shipping...my Vistaprint cards arrived very quickly and they look great! I'm expecting the ones from Shutterfly to arrive any day...fingers crossed.
Here is a preview of our Christmas photoshoot...
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| Our good friends and neighbours did their photos at Drysdale too! We had to ask Tim for at least one group shot. |
Have a wonderful week!
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