Baby Session: LP is ten months old and ready for her star

I had a consultation with a client last week who is looking to take pictures of her  adorable 10 month-old daughter.  She was concerned that her daughter was too shy.  So we had the consult at her house to answer questions, peruse product samples, and, more importantly, to  introduce myself to her adorable daughter.  One topic we discussed is my determination to respect a family’s privacy.  When photographing a minor, especially young ones, I am especially mindful of privacy and keeping parents well within their comfort zone.   I won’t publish or blog any photos without the parent’s permission.  Blogging photos helps market photographers and show off our style and current work, but I will find other ways to do that if you don’t wish your child’s photos to be displayed.  Some people want their personal lives to remain just that…personal.  And if I do blog a children session, you may notice that I refrain from using proper names.   You  might have noticed I use initials when write about minors.  I am not real fond of the whole initial thing…I’m playing around with the idea of coming up with awesome nicknames like …Breaker, Slash, Lightning Strikes.  We’ll have to see.

Also on the books  for 2011, one of my goals is to book more weddings.  If you are engaged, hoping to be engaged (cross those fingers), or know someone in those categories, stay tuned right here.  I will be offering huge discounts and incentives for wedding packages.   

I’m still doing a lot of children’s photography.  HB (a.k.a. ‘Ladybug’) is a returning star for me and a budding model at just age 2.  This time, the spotlight was for her little sister, 10 month-old LP (a.k.a. ‘Lollipop’).   10 months is a great stage.  I love the stage where they can sit on their own, crawl, and stand (with or without assistance).  Once they start walking,  photo sessions become triple the work.  I have to don ‘play clothes’ and do a pre-shoot warm-up, as me and my camera  will most likely be rolling and diving on the ground to keep up.  Even though Lollipop can’t walk yet, I still got a good workout for her session.

On my drive home every day, there’s this abandoned tire on the side of the road.  I knew I wanted to try to set up a shot there.    The street was a little busy for my preference so Lollipop’s Mama is right next to her.  Safety is NUMBER ONE!!!  I also gave that tire a good wipedown with disinfecting wipes.

I don't know if I like the coconut in this setting...but it was honestly there before we got there. I have no idea how it got there.

Introducing 10 month old LP, LolliPop!!! Love her cheeky smile!!!

I’m not sure how much I love that coconut there but that wasn’t planned.  It just appeared by the tire in the past few weeks.  I have no clue where it came from.  Not a lot of coconut trees in my part of Kaneohe. 

2 year-ol Ladybug watched us work with Lollipop and wanted to jump in the action.  So, we took some shots right there on the sidewalk.  She had some creative posing worked out, I didn’t give her any direction.  As soon as I picked up the camera, she would pick her knee up and assume the “Karate Kid crane” pose.   I watch American’s Next Top Model so I know talent when I see it. 

Notice her clear Cinderella slippers?  Apparently, she chose them herself for the shoot.  Fashion sense at age 2.

Also another Ladybug original pose.

She mesmerizes you with those doey eyes.

My favorite of the two of them together. LolliPop playing during one of the breaks.

LolliPop playing during one of the breaks.

Sneak Peek: Lil Sisters LP and HB

In case I don’t get a chance to blog again by midnight tonight….

“Happy New Years” or as we say “Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!!!”

Our baby girl struggled with chronic lung disease after her premature birth.  Also, Hawaii is putting a ban on most fireworks in 2011.  Thus, we are expecting the island to look like a smoke-filled war zone.  So, combine those two things together and you’ll understand why, for our first New Year’s celebration together, we’re headed to a hotel for the night.  It was our best solution to get Slugger (hubby nicknamed our baby girl) up and out of the smoke cloud.  But our house will be partying for us.  Our friends are having a bash at our house while we’re away.  So, I really have to clean today. I hate people knowing how messy our house really is.  My mantra this week was “I will have a clean house by 2011.”

We got the hotel room on a deal so I’m not sure what it has…microwave, fridge etc.  So, we’re going prepared.  We’re taking hurricane popcorn (that we got from Vinnie and Krystie), sparkling cider (a Christmas gift from Crissy and Todd), fancy hot cocoa and giant marshmallows (a gift from Malia and Chad), and picking up pizza (we figured it can be eaten hot or cold).  We’re prepared for anything.

I’m also starting my “healthy eating” attempt a day early (try to forget reading most of the previous paragraph).  At my visit to my doctor yesterday, she said “your blood pressure looks great (106/67) and…ummm, your weight has…stabilized.”  What she means is, after losing all my pregnancy weight right away…that darn scale is creeping steadily up again. Ugh!!!  That and I get winded just going for walks.  Pitiful!  Even yesterday, my thigh muscles were all sore like I had climbed the Stairway To Heaven (which incidentally I have never done), and I was totallly confused since I hadn’t gone running or exercised.  Took me a while to figure out it was from the day before when I had a photo shoot.  My legs were groaning after just an hour of having to squat down to get eye level with a 10-month old.  So, I had a salad for a lunch yesterday which was slightly offset by the in-laws taking us all out to Kobe Restaurant for steak dinner.

That’s my exciting plans for bringing in the New Year.  What’s yours?

Here’s  sneak peeks from my session with sisters LP and HB.  Remember what I was saying about always trying to find locations nearby and close to home.  This was just up the street from my home.  You can’t beat that.

Introducing LP...I hope we will be seeing tons more of her chubby cheek cuteness.

Sometimes you just see a place and you have to go for it.  The picture above is actually outside someone’s house.   I had a cute set-up on the sidewalk and I saw this wall about 50 yards away.  The house was raised which was a good thing because there were two big dogs in the yard.  I guess they didn’t see us because they were sleeping the whole time.  A good thing since I didn’t want my little models to get spooked.  How adorable is LP?   Her daddy says that she’s so mellow that sometimes they lose track of her at home because she just wanders from room to room playing without a sound.   They’ll find her just playing contentedly in the corner with her toys.  She’s also a non-stop smiler, it just melts your heart.  

Big sister HB is a familiar beauty

I love the light of late afternoon but working with kids has a timeline.  Even with puffed star treats, kids will eventually hit their limit.  As the photographer, I’m always trying to get just one more setting…one more pose…but you’ll know when the kids have had enough.   And you usually want to end the session about ten minutes before that happens.  So, my favorite shot of HB happens to be after we called it a day and we were packing up our stuff.  She saw this in my prop bucket and wanted to try it on.   I grabbed a shot before she even knew it and this last shot happened to be one of my absolute faves.  By the way, that crown was for me to wear at my baby shower.

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