Christmas Photography

Pinterest has become a new pastime for me.  I’m not actually a member yet, I’m on the waiting list.  But that doesn’t stop me from perusing hundreds of pins and bookmarking every favorite idea I come across.  These ideas range from crafts to do with Hayden to recipes, and led to my first attempt at a photography shoot.

Oh, I take pictures all the time.  And I do mean all the time.  But I saw this adorable photograph and just had to try it on my boys.  So I hung up white sheets, taped lights to them, laid down the toddler mattresses and covered them with a furry soft blanket.  The tutorial showed icicle lights, but I only had straight lights on hand, so I purposefully strung the lights rather haphazardly (if that makes any sense.)  I was so proud of my set up and couldn’t wait for the boys to wake up so I could try it. (Unfortunately the tape couldn’t hold the sheet up anymore and fell before I thought to get a photograph of the backdrop.)

I gave up when the urge to yell at Hayden for rolling over his brother for the umpteenth time almost overwhelmed me.  Then I loaded the pictures to the computer and, being addicted to taking photos and obviously a glutton for punishment, we went back downstairs after lunch with the plan to take a few more pictures of the boys together since those turned out the worst.

I was chagrined to see the sun out in full and shadowed lines across my carefully planned photo op.  So, I did what any desperate mother pretending to be a photographer would do and I used painters tape to tape a white sheet over the window. 

The lighting was actually much better than the morning’s light had been.  The boys were still pretty uncooperative and some of the morning together photos were actually better.  Then I put Hayden down for rest time and went back down with Mason and shot about 10 more pictures while he didn’t have his brother trying to claim the spot light.  Those are definitely my favorites of Mason, the lighting was so much better and I was able to get his attention with some funny noises and also just take pictures of him playing with the ornaments. 

I have to say that the results made it totally worth it.  The pictures aren’t perfect, some are awful, the focus is off on some of them and there are random feet, fingers and toes missing in others, but overall there were several that turned out pretty good.  I learned so much about picture taking, the hands on experience was great and thankfully I’ve got my boys to experiment on so no else’s children were tortured in the process.  I’m also excited about the pictures and proud of myself for venturing out and trying something new.