Rachel Ludwig Photography | Abbotsford Portrait and Wedding Photographer

This is my beautiful and sweet sister-in-law Debby, who is expecting her first baby, and tomorrow is the big day for their little one’s arrival! We can’t wait to meet her and Peter’s little bundle of joy. This baby is going to be the first local cousin from the Ludwig side for my kids…so fun!

We met up at Trethewey House, a beautiful historical home here in Abbotsford, right by Mill Lake Park. We had beautiful sunny weather and a great afternoon.I had so many favorites, I had a hard time picking which ones to share! Debby is super photogenic and made my job easy. Peter on the other end…um…provided some great comedic relief. (Just kidding, Peter. haha!)

Isn’t Debby beautiful? The B&W one of her laying on the stone bench is my fave I think

Another fave…the ones peeking through the dried flowers, with just a teeny bit of vintage lovin’.

And notice that little wooden building? An adorable outhouse for two.

And this big old tree was just too awesome to pass up. I love creating images that are not only a photograph, but art as well.

These are the type of images that are perfect for big wall art!

We’re praying that all goes well tomorrow with your c-section, and we can’t wait to hear the good news and meet your little one! Enjoy your sneak peek and your last night of full sleep in a while

Melissa has been a long time client of mine, and I was so excited to hear that she and Kevin are expecting! I know it’s been quite the journey to get to this point, and I always think it makes the whole miracle of pregnancy extra-special. The big siblings are super excited too, and I’m sure mom and dad will have lots of help with little Cohen when he arrives.

Melissa had one request for the session, which was the heart on the belly…I was more than happy to oblige! We also headed out to a fun industrial area nearby, it’s such a versatile location and works perfectly, especially at this time of year when greenery is limited.

A big congratulations to the happy couple who recently got engaged! Congrats you two!

This is always the point when the guys start to look at me funny. You want us to do what?!? Thanks for being game for my crazy ideas

Doesn’t Melissa look amazing? Hot mama!

Enjoy your sneak peek, and thanks for your patience Melissa! I’ll be in touch soon with your slideshow

One of the things I love about photography, is that it has allowed me to meet some pretty amazing people. Andrea and I connected over email, and as we went through all the pre-session stuff, we found out that we have a lot in common. Especially our love of reading, and we discovered that we have read and enjoyed many of the same books. When Andie (as her family and friends call her) agreed that the pumpkin patch would be a great place for some of her pictures, I was looking forward to meeting her and her husband even more! I always love it when clients are up for something a bit different.

We started the session at their beautiful home. Andrea has an amazing eye for design, and has created a cozy and stylish home that had me drooling! We discovered we also had a mutual love for interior design (although she’s much better at the actual execution part of it all…I just plan, and dream and never actually do the decorating. LOL). Well, you can see for yourself some of their gorgeous home below:

Meet their adorable dog Kingston (who is going to be in for some changes when baby makes his/her arrival!).

He’s the tiniest dog I’ve ever met…a little Yorkie weighing in under 3lbs if I remember correctly

Andrea looked positively amazing. 37ish weeks and glowing! What a beautiful mama.

Kingston loved being in on the action…he was a total ham

Then we headed off to the pumpkin patch. Andrea’s belly sized in at $5 on the pumpkin measuring chart!

I had to break it to her that babies are much more expensive than pumpkins…but fortunately, they are also much cuter!

Thanks again for such a fabulous session Andie and Derrick! I will be in touch soon with your slideshow…I can’t wait to meet your new little one!

It’s always a special treat to have the opportunity to work with family. I love that I get to share in some of the most special occasions of their life, whether it be wedding pictures, family pictures, newborn pictures, or in this case, pregnancy photos for my younger sister Marg. I was pretty excited when I found out Marg and Jake were expecting their first child. I know they are going to be amazing parents, and that this little one is very very lucky to have these two as mom and dad. And, for my own personal reason, I love it when my kids are lucky enough to have a cousin close in age that lives nearby!
The other bonus of shooting family, is that I get to try out some new things and ask them to do some crazy stunts all in the name of art. Case in point…asking a 36 week pregnant Marg to lie down on the driveway of their apartment’s parking garage (I’m sure we had more than a few people looking out their windows wondering what in the world we were doing!) You know your sister loves and trusts you when she doesn’t even hesitate to say yes. Thanks for being such a great sport about it.  I also happened to have Hudson along with me, so also included in my shoot, free of charge(!), was some advance parenting practice for Jake. I know he’s going to be a pro in no time with his own little bundle.

because I love focusing on the belly, here are a few that showcase Marg’s teeny-tiny bump

(and yes, those are her regular jeans that she’s fit into her entire pregnancy!)

this one feels so peaceful and introspective to me with the boat picture included in the shot:

my fave of the two of them as they wait for baby to arrive. And this look on Marg’s face is just so her.

Some adorable (gender-neutral! for anyone trying to figure out if this little one is a boy or girl) boots they picked up on their recent European travels:

This baby already has quite the little library…I think he/she is going to arrive knowing how to rhyme a la Dr. Seuss:

One happy and beautiful mama, who can’t wait to meet her little one:

I can’t get over how fabulous she looks:

Check out Marg’s adorable dimple in action here…she’s even smiling while lying on the driveway of the parking garage

This is completely inspired by one of my very favorite family photographers, Tara Whitney from Orange County, CA:

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned here before the journey we’ve been on for the last year or so with Arden (my 2 year-old-daughter) and her speech. Around her 2nd birthday I felt that things weren’t quite right with her speech development, and turns out that things weren’t. So started a road with lots and lots of appointments and evaluations  and most importantly, being given tools to help Arden learn to communicate verbally (instead of with the screeches and temper tantrums she was prone to). It’s been close to a year, and I almost can’t fathom how far she’s come and the remarkable progress she’s made.

Enter Skye…speech pathologist extraordinaire!  Skye has had such an incredible impact on Arden’s speech, and I simply can’t thank her enough for everything she has done. I don’t know where we would be without her. She has such an incredible gift and is extremely good at what she does. With every visit I’ve been so impressed with her patience and resourcefulness…she comes up with the neatest ideas and fun activities to help Arden, and as a result Arden thinks it’s great when it’s time to go ‘play’ at Skye’s house!

And now, on to some pictures!

I think this is my favorite picture from this session…just seeing these two together so happy makes me smile

(as does the fab flare I got here! The winter sun was beautiful on this day)

Rob just got back from being away for 6-months for work. Just in time for the baby to arrive:

It was a beautiful sunny day…and very cold and windy. Skye was thankful for her internal furnace (aka baby!):

A man who can serenade you with his guitar? definitely a keeper!

Beautiful on the inside and out. Can you believe that this is number 4 for her?

Four pregnancies and almost nary a stretch-mark. If we could only all be so lucky!

Rachel Ludwig Photography Update

I know it’s been some time since I’ve posted…life with three has been wonderful and busy and rewarding and crazy and everything in-between. I had hoped to be back into the swing of things by this point, but we’ve had a bit of a delay with our childcare arrangements which has made it tough for me to devote the time I need to cross things off  my rather long to-do list. However, I have set up some temporary baby-sitting (thanks Joni!) until our more permanent arrangements are in place. I am hoping that by March I’ll officially be back to ‘full-time’ shooting. But in the meantime, I will be taking on a very limited number of time-sensitive sessions, (ie maternity and/or newborn). So if you’re pregnant and interested in booking a session, please contact me as soon as possible. I am also still available for one or two more weddings this year, so pop me an email with your date to see if my calendar is open for your wedding day.

Looking back over the last year I realize how much my pregnancy took out of me, so I’m really excited about having a renewed focus and energy for 2009. I have lots of things planned for the year ahead (like some great new albums!) that I can’t wait to share with you.  Keep your eyes open for information…you’ll see it here first.

A big thank you to everyone for their support and patience during 2008. I’m really excited for everything this new year has to bring.

Adria’s Maternity Sneak Peek

Now, onto the sneak peek! Adria, Chris and Addisen are practically family… Adria is a sister to two of my sister-in-laws, so i get to see her and her family from time to time, and this also happened to be their third session with me. I love reconnecting with ‘old’ clients!  And their fourth session will be in the next few weeks after the twins arrive. Yes, I said twins! Adria and Chris were more than a little surprised when during her first ultrasound at around the 20(ish?) week mark the technician discovered there were not one, but two babies. In the following weeks I think they went from surprise, to a wee bit panic, to excitement. And now a bit of anxiousness as they look forward to the arrival of their two new family members.

Here are some of my favorites from their session:

Guess who got their own set of twins?

My new backdrop:

It was super cold and snowing heavily on the day of our shoot, so I think Adria earns the bravest client of the year award for braving the elements! We had to pop back into my toasty warm truck a few times in between shots to warm up.

A little vintage processing on this one:

I was having a tough time deciding which version of this pose I preferred…the color one or the vintage-y black and white. What do you think?

Doesn’t she look fabulous?  I loved her boots so much, I ended up getting my own pair to match

I love how happy she looks here:

Right at the end of the session (and before a certain incident that involved a telephone pole and my truck….eeek!) I asked Adria if she might be willing to do a snow angel for me. I was shocked that she actually said yes, but it was definitely worth it for this shot, don’t you think?