Today we are very excited to share with you that we have grown, re-branded, and birthed a new identity!  We present to you the new us: Brett & Emily Photographers!

Truth be told, we’ve really been Brett & Emily Photographers for a long time – it’s just taken us a while to get our branding to catch up to us! We’re now going to skip over filling this page with a bunch of words about our journey and get to the good stuff. Check out the new digs over at www.brettandemilyphoto.com.

We’d like to to take a quick second to thank our clients who have entrusted us to capture their special moments over these past 4 years. You are our inspiration and it has been our honor to be a part of your lives. We’re excited for a new year and for the new friends we’ll make along the way.

This will be our last blog post at this address and we encourage you to change your bookmarks, subscriptions, and RSS to get feed from our new site. This site will be up for a while – but nothing new will be posted here again. Ever.  So join us at our new home where all the new activity will be happening!

Cheers!
Brett & Emily

Design Credit: Cody Small of Caava Design

P.S. There is a reward for whoever can track down the owners of the domain www.brettandemily.com and get them to sell the domain name to us!

I have to bring your attention to the FANTASMIC cake that we had made for North’s birthday party. The cake was made by the amazing Claudette of Urban Confections. I gave her one picture with just a few modifications and she made everything PERFECTLY. Not only did it look amazing, but according to everyone there it was seriously one of the BEST cakes anyone had ever tasted. So, to all of you brides out there – she does fantastic work that looks good and tastes better!!!

North, mommy and daddy love you so much. We are so proud of you and how much you have learned in your first year of life. You amaze us every single day. You are a gift, a blessing, an awesome little man. Happy Birthday!

Ok, so everybody BUT north liked the cake!

Instead of all night parties, we thoroughly enjoyed our time over coffees, meals, and middle of the trade show floor conversations with some of the old and new friends that we have within the industry. We returned physically exhausted, but mentally and emotionally energized. It was so encouraging to listen to photographers speak whom we admire only to find that we are doing so many things the same way they are. Yet we are excited about the great ideas that we learned from others and are challenged to take Emily Faulknor Photographers to the next level this upcoming year. There are a number of ideas and services that we plan to implement that will make the experience and our services better for our clients, as that is what matters most to us. There is SO much to look forward to in this coming year!

We have had several of our blog followers and clients ask to see current pictures of North. Today, we thought we would answer those requests and take a break from posting wedding and engagement sessions.

So, here is our favorite kid in the world! North loves to go to the park and enjoy the playground. Here he is showing off his 11 month old playground skills, and swinging is definitely his favorite!  North, we love you so much! Thank you for being an amazing child, thank you for your amazing heart and joy of life! You are truly a very special gift.

Those of you who know us well or are past clients of ours, you already know me. To many of you silent readers (you know who you are!) this may be our first introduction!

My name is Brett. I’ve been the mostly silent part of Emily Faulknor Photographers up until now. But things will be different this year. Why is that you ask? Because the past 3 years I have balanced a role as an administrator at a university with our role as photographers. I seem to have misplaced my day job (ok, I left it) in order to join Emily as a full time partner in our photography gig. We are excited to work side by side (literally – you should see our office set up) and better serve our clients and friends.

Since you are going to be hearing a lot more from me, I thought I’d share 10 things about me that you might like to know:

1. I am Canadian. And proud of it – but not obnoxiously where I wear a Canadian T-Shirt every day and always have a hockey game on TV when you come to visit.
2. I am an outdoorsy kind of guy. You will more likely find me biking or rock climbing than playing or watching football (which I have come to appreciate by the way!).
3. I am a closet numbers nerd. Yes I actually enjoy preparing my taxes, budgeting, and doing geeky stuff like that. (which benefits Emily greatly!)
4. I do shoot nearly every wedding and engagement session with Emily. In fact, about half of the images you see on our blogsite were taken by me!
5. I love gear. Photography equipment, outdoor equipment, even all the new equipment we obtained for our new baby boy this year. It just makes me happy.
6. As much as I love people, I’m a bit shy in large groups.
7. I love my apple products, but am proudly a DROID user.
8. I love teaching leadership theory. I have done that at a couple universities and hope to continue teaching within my new career.
9. My favorite color is forest green. Must be part of that outdoorsy theme.
10. My New Years Resolution is to read – a lot! I would love to hear what non-fiction books you have read that has left a mark on your life. (please comment your book recommendation!)

Now for the fun part!  As a celebration of my new status as fully self employed I am offering a giveaway!

One of you will win a FREE Portrait session by Brett!

HOW TO WIN:
Email me at brett@emilyfaulknor.com by January 15th and tell me why you or someone you know deserves some quality photos of them and a loved one. Your goal is to sell me on why you deserve this more than the next person. It’s that Simple. Winner to be announced later this month. *Note – photos session will take place in San Diego.

P.S. Thanks to one of my favorite photographers and friend, Ewan Phelan for the photos!

We love  you North!!!

Mom and Dad (aka. Emily and Brett)

p.s. more amazing weddings will be gracing the blog in the near future…!

I am trying so hard to emerge from this baby vortex. It is a black hole that sucks you into the wonder and joy of being with a little mini-me -  ok, let’s be honest, he is a mini-Brett! Well, I guess constant feeding, diaper changing and midday naps to compensate for sleepless nights might also contribute to the vortex factor. Either way, we are so overwhelmed with the joy of being new parents.

Despite all that, it is time to re-emerge and come back into the world at large. Goodbye vortex, hello world – gradually!

Today I introduce to you our son – North Joseph Faulknor!  He is a splitting image of his father – and I love him for it!  These are a few pics taken by my sleep deprived hubby at the hospital!

North Homecoming01 North Homecoming02 North Homecoming03 North Homecoming04 North Homecoming05 North Homecoming06 North Homecoming07 North Homecoming08 North Homecoming09 North Homecoming10 North Homecoming11

Now what would I be doing blogging and not talking about weddings?!?  Here is my wedding note of the day:

We are happy to announce that we are almost completely booked for 2010 and are currently booking for the 2011 wedding season.  Thanks to all of the wonderful couples who have entrusted us to capture their wedding this year. We are so excited to get to know you all better and to have a blast at your engagement sessions and weddings with you. Those of you who still want to book us for 2010, connect with us soon! We hate turning people away, but we just cannot be in two places at once! To those that we have had to say’ I’m sorry, but we’re not available that day’ – we wish you the best and know that our photographer friends that we refer you to will take great care of you!

Regularly scheduled blogging to resume. . . as soon as the battle against the baby vortex is won!

As you can tell from today’s blog title, we are going to talk about us. Yup, we love to talk about you you you usually, but occasionally…(if you listen to country music you should get that – if not, just move on!).  Ok, back to the point. Today we get out from behind the camera. Nothing to hide behind. All eyes on us. We’re gonna get in front of the camera and see what it feels like to have two dark barrels of pretty Canon cameras hunting us down.  So…to accompany these new photos of us, we’re also going to share our top 10 list of things that we think you might not know about us. Here it goes.

Emily says about Brett:
1) Brett has a very funny sense of humor that most people don’t catch onto until their third time hanging with him. 2) He loves the outdoors, especially downhill skiing and mountain biking 3) He is one of the most dedicated workers I have ever met, he puts his heart and soul into everything he is passionate about 4) He loves gear of any kind, whether it is for the outdoors or for photography-in fact, researching the gear for me for photography is what perked his initial interest in shooting with me 5) Brett is a huge Dave Ramsey fan – he loves to crunch numbers and help people get out of debt. 6) Brett doesn’t really show a lot of expression even though on the inside he is bursting with joy. 7) He grew up introverted, became an extrovert, and is becoming an introvert again As much as Brett wants to dance, he is a white boy with two left feet and no rhythm 9)Brett is Canadian and proud of it! 10) He loves pie, especially Strawberry-rhubarb!

Brett says about Emily:
1) Emily loves to be in front of the camera. 2) That’s how this all started for us. She wasn’t thrilled with our wedding photos and decided to do something about it for others getting married. 3) Emily grew up in the Czech Republic as a missionary kid and is still fluent in Czech (ask to hear the Czech tongue twister and prepare to be amazed!). 4) Em couldn’t cook when we got married. Now she is cheffin’ it up! 5) She freaks out for holidays and special occasions – she just can’t get enough of them. 6) She loves Ranch dressing entirely too much. 7) She learned to drive on a stick shift car in Europe – but won’t tackle driving my 5 speed Jetta. Em is a super fast reader. She can (and does) read circles around me. 9) She only likes sweet white wine. No Merlot for her! 10) Em gave up working in the Hollywood industry to become a photographer. No more movie junkets or meeting celebrities. And no regrets – she loves what she does!

Thanks to our dear friends, Rico and Rachel Castillero for the photoshoot exchange. We love you guys! We’ll post the pics we took of them later so stay tuned.

Note: this is NOT a maternity shoot, I just happen to be pregnant. Maternity pictures are coming, I promise.