McMaster Photography Studio is establishing a popular annual tradition with its Cutest Baby Contest each May — the 2023 edition is now concluded, and the winners have been declared.
“We had 41 entrants this year, lots of beautiful kids, a really good reaction from the community,” said Mark Duffy, the owner and photographer of McMaster Studio. “The judging went really well. We had [Mayor Clive Tolley] again, and Wanda [Hallborg] from the Moose Jaw Express, and Courtney [Fielder] from the radio.
“And they enjoyed that, they all picked their top five, and then once we got the results from the judges we just calculated the winner.”
The contest was for families with children aged newborn to 18 months. When the shoot is over and the images have been edited, the album is uploaded for parents to browse online. After finding a photo to enter into the contest, they received 50 per cent off regular prints and 20 per cent off everything else.
The top prize of $500 went to Hiyan Pandey, who was born premature in February and was three months old when he went for his photo-shoot. Second and third places won free family photo-shoots and large prints.
“One of my friends brought their son to the contest last year, so whenever I was seeing his picture on Facebook, I was thinking about it, too,” said Gagan Pandey, Hiyan’s mother, who travelled from Regina to participate. “And then this year, we had a son, and I saw the ad again.
“It was a beautiful experience with them. They were so nice and friendly. When we went, I was like, OK, this will just be an outing to go there and get the photos done. And it was good, and then we won! Which, you know, we didn’t expect that, but it was so nice.”
Pandey said the photos turned out beautifully and passed on her thanks to McMaster Studio.
“It was just really successful, no glitches, you know, it’s a lot of fun,” Duffy said. Duffy heaped praise on his office manager, Trudy Thiele, for her work and communication during the process.
“Trudy really does all the behind-the-scenes work. She puts it all together and gets everything on Facebook and promotes it and all that. She prepares all the sets and everything for the little babies, and the wraps, and communicating and getting the smiles, and all of that.”
The contest will definitely be going ahead again next year, Duffy confirmed.
