What I Actually Shoot (The Honest Answer)
I get asked this question a lot and I always feel like the short answer doesn't quite do it justice. So here's the full honest version.
The short version first.
I shoot everything except weddings and babies. I know that's a little bit of an unusual thing to lead with but I'd rather be upfront about it than have someone reach out hoping I'm available for their wedding day. I'm not the right fit for that and I'd rather point you toward someone who is than waste your time.
Everything else though? Let's talk.
Events.
This is a big part of what I do and honestly one of my favourite things to photograph. Networking events, social gatherings, community celebrations, fundraisers, fashion shows, award nights — any event where real people are doing real things and feeling real feelings about it.
Event photography done well is documentary photography in a room full of people. It's moving through a space and paying attention to everything happening in every corner of it. The conversations that went longer than anyone planned. The moment the energy in the room shifted. The speaker who didn't realize how good they were until they saw the photo of the audience watching them.
If you're an event organizer in Calgary who has been relying on someone's iPhone or a camera on a tripod pointed at a podium, let's change that. Your events deserve better.
Families.
Real families. Not the matching outfits in a field version — the actual chaotic loving unpredictable version of your family that shows up every single day.
I photograph families the same way I photograph everything else. Candidly, on location, in spaces that mean something to the people in them. I'm not going to arrange you into a pose and tell you to hold it. I'm going to follow you around and catch what's already there — the way your kid reaches for your hand without thinking about it, the look your partner gives you when you're not paying attention, the moment everyone forgets the camera exists and just exists together.
Those are the photos you're going to treasure for the rest of your life. Not the perfectly arranged ones.
Friends.
Friendships are one of the most underrated things to photograph and I genuinely don't understand why more people don't do it. You and your people deserve photos that actually look like a Tuesday with your favourite humans. The ugly laughs, the mid-sentence faces, the running jokes that don't make sense to anyone outside the group.
Book a session with your crew. Seriously. You'll be so glad you did.
Pets.
Your pet is a whole entire personality and deserves to be documented like one. I will absolutely get on the ground for your animal. I will make whatever ridiculous noise it takes to get their attention for half a second. I will wait as long as it takes.
They're not going to be around forever. Document them properly while you can.
Special occasions.
Milestone birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, retirement celebrations, the moments that don't fit neatly into a category but matter more than almost anything else. These deserve more than a few blurry phone photos taken by whoever had their hands free.
You did something worth celebrating. Let's make sure you actually remember what it felt like to be there.
Headshots and branding.
If you're an entrepreneur or small business owner who needs photos that feel soulful rather than corporate, I do that too. True to colour, on location, zero stiff poses against a grey backdrop. Just you, looking like the real version of the person your clients are going to love working with.
The common thread through all of it.
Everything I shoot is candid. Everything is on location. Everything is true to colour with no heavy filters. And everything is approached the same way — find the feeling in the moment and don't get in the way of it.
If what you're looking for sounds anything like what I've described here, my inbox is open.
Until next time :)
Michaela
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