our fl trip | grand rapids kids photographer

We’re back in town from FL, where we had a great time!  We went to Disney where I ran my first half-marathon (the Disney Princess Half) with some good friends, and then we traveled a couple of hours south to the Gulf (Anna Maria Island) for a week.  It was a fabulous, much-needed break from the cold Michigan winter.

I did take my DSLRs (both bodies, in fact) but I really wanted to capture most of our trip on my film cameras (EOS3 and the holga).  I shot 4 rolls of film total which was less than I’d anticipated, mostly due to the fact that I used my iPhone a TON of the time.  It’s so easy to use because it’s always on me.  I was able to just quickly pull it out and snap quick photos with it, mostly through instagram because I LOVE square format images  Typically, when we get back from a trip, I print 3 sets of images from the trip – one for each girl’s photo album and then one set goes into a “vacation” album of our trip.  This time, while I do plan on still printing all of the images that way, I also wanted to try something new.  After all, how often do we go through the albums once they’re put away on their shelf in the office? – once a year?  I want to enjoy the memories more often!  Now if you know me, then you know I adore large wall art – canvases in particular.  They’re just such a dynamic way to display images.  I definitely practice what I preach in that regard – my main floor alone has 5 canvases, none smaller than 16×24  I just LOVE seeing our memories big on the wall, all of the time.  So this is what I came up with, inspired by my SUPER talented photographer friend Dena Robles and the fabulous girls at Photographer Cafe (check out this blog post for details on how you can purchase a similar – but more awesome – template for your own favorite images!).  I’m still deciding how big I should go – but probably a 30×30 canvas:

Thanks for letting me share some of my personal snaps with you all!  I did also get some great images with the “real” camera, which I’ll be back to share soon.