2013: Adding Sophia to the Father's Day mix!

Every year since he was born, Joshua has taken part in my little Father's Day tradition for David -- my attempt to get a cute little triptych of photos with letters spelling out DAD.  By now, Joshua is somewhat used to the drill, and he got really excited about playing with the big D and A when I brought them out this year.

And thankfully, his sister isn't nearly as persnickety as he was.  :)  (Remember Father's Day 2010 and 2011?)  It did take a little doing, but we managed to get some really sweet photos for this year's collage!

I took the kids out for our first attempt early in the morning, in order to take advantage of the lovely morning light pouring into our backyard.  It was already really hot outside, and we were running really close to Sophia's nap time, so I was a bit concerned as we headed out -- but the light was just so perfect that I had to at least give it a try.

I put out a blanket for the kids to sit on, and tried to speed up the process by giving them each a letter to play with, figuring I'd be able to merge or split photos as needed in post.  And then I made the grave tactical error of trying to get them to switch letters.  Joshua was very, very upset that I wouldn't let him hold both letters at once, and then he got even more upset that I wanted him to let Sophia hold the D.  And then poor patient Sophia, having endured several minutes of sweaty heat plus a big brother trying to steal the fun new toys away from her, finally reached the end of her rope and clearly just wanted to go to bed.  So I gave up for the morning -- I'd taken a bunch of photos, but wasn't convinced that I really had anything worth keeping.

So I tried again later in the afternoon.  The light was decent, and the kids were in better moods, so I had high hopes!  I also did a lot of prep work with Joshua beforehand, which I should have known would be necessary -- I told him that we were going to play with "just one letter at a time," and that he could play with them both once we were back inside.  He dutifully repeated the "just one at a time" mantra over and over again during this second afternoon session.  :)  And I caught some really playful moments between Joshua and Sophia this time around!

Later that evening, I looked at the photos on the computer monitor.  And I actually really loved a number of the shots we got during *both* sessions!  What can I say, our kids are super adorable and photogenic even under difficult conditions...  :)

So I put together two different triptychs for David.  He ended up choosing the morning set as his favorite, so that's the one I'm having printed out for him, but I wanted to share both, just because of how stinkin' adorable our kiddos are!




And just because I get super weepy when I look at the whole progression (look how LITTLE Joshua used to be!), here are links to all of the Father's Day posts: 2010, 2011, 2012.

Hope you all had a lovely Father's Day, celebrating the wonderful men in your lives!

2012: The year of the perfect Father's Day photos!

I'm in the middle of writing a blog post for Father's Day 2013, and realized that Father's Day 2012 fell in the black hole of unblogged posts and pictures from last year... So this is embarrassingly after the fact, and only the tip of the old backlog iceberg, but here's a little bit of a start...  :)

Every year since Joshua was born, we've kept up a tradition of doing D-A-D photos as a Father's Day gift for David.  And every year, I've had a vision of lovely outdoor photos which sadly never came to pass.  (See the 2010 attempt and the 2011 attempt...)

Never, that is, until this year.  :)

Joshua is finally old enough to really enjoy playing outdoors.  And he's at an age where he's beginning to ham it up for the camera, complete with a giant cheesy grin.


So finally, finally, we managed to get the photos I've always wanted to get for David.  :)

(And let me also say how very much I love playing with telephoto lengths -- these shots were all taken in the little patch of yard between and amongst the condos, but the telephoto compression makes it actually look pretty!)

Just a few of my favorites from this session.  You can see that one of the tricks in my "getting Joshua to look at the camera" bag is asking him where the camera is -- he loves pointing, with his entire body, at the camera.  :)





And the official Father's Day 2012 set!


Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful fathers out there!

Someday, I'll get perfect outdoor Father's Day pics...

Remember last year's Father's Day photos?  Perhaps I was a bit ambitious back then, hoping to get perfect, placid, D-A-D shots with a 5-month-old who had never really spent much time outdoors... But surely it wasn't too naive of me to try again this year, with a much more worldly and experienced 17-month-old, right?

I was determined to continue the tradition we'd started last year of getting D-A-D photos in honor of Father's Day.  And while Joshua has continued to be somewhat skeptical of grass, we have had some successful "photo shoots" outdoors this spring (like the wonderful evening walk we took out on the Battlefield), so I allowed myself to dream dreams of perfectly-lit, bucolic outdoor photos of a smiling toddler obediently holding the wooden letters...

Perhaps I should have been warned by the fact that on that lovely evening walk, Joshua flatly refused to walk on the grass, running for the comfort of the paved sidewalk whenever we let him go.  And by the fact that the wee emperor has been on a throwing kick, gleefully flinging his toys all over the house...

I took him outside the day before Father's Day (yep, I didn't even give myself any extra lead time to get these photos done), stuck him on the grass, handed him the D, and sprinted back to take the photo.  And this is the very, very best I got:


Furrowed brow, confusion, and extreme distaste at the feel of wet prickly grass at his feet.  And not two seconds later, the poor D was flung to the ground.

I tried again a few times, but wasn't fast enough to get a shot with him holding the letter.  This was the *only* A photo I got:


Not exactly the face I was hoping for...

Tired, sweaty, and on the verge of a meltdown (him more than me, though I was probably close!), we packed it up and brought it all inside.  Once we were back in the comfort of home, Joshua was actually curious about these white wooden letters -- he kept rooting around in the bag for them and trying to carry them off to his room.  So I figured I would run with it, and try again on the daybed in his nursery.

Turns out, all he needed was for the photo session to be put in terms of a new game.  One where he grabbed the letter, put it on his face or on top of his head, and then tried to throw it to me while I sat on the floor next to the bed.  :)  We had some close calls (thankfully, the letters never hit my camera, though I did get a direct hit to my knee), but I think we got some really fun photos this time around:




These really capture Joshua's playfulness and joy, and are so HIM at this stage of his life.  So even though it's not what I had originally planned, these are perfect.  Which is a good reminder for this type A over-planner of a mama...  :)

And here's the final, official Father's Day 2011 set:


Happy (very) belated Father's day to all you wonderful dads out there!

Evolution of a Father's Day gift

One of the photography boards I participate in tends to have these bandwagon projects that everyone joins in on.  Back in February, it was Valentine's Day photos, with little kids holding giant heart-shaped lollipops and/or surrounded by heart confetti.  In April, it was Easter photos, with little kids in Easter finery and perhaps holding plastic Easter eggs or wearing bunny ears.  Lots of ridiculously adorable photos -- and it's a fun way of practicing getting posed shots with good composition and focus, which is a lot harder than you'd think, especially with little kids!

Until recently, Joshua has been a bit too young for us to join in on these photography projects.  But lately, he's been able to sit up with some support, and he's been showing a lot of interest in grabbing at toys and bringing them to his mouth, so I thought he might be old enough to try our hand at this month's bandwagon -- Father's Day photos, complete with white wooden letters spelling out "DAD."

I had this beautiful vision in my head of my little Joshua, sitting placidly in a lush patch of green grass, playing with and perhaps nomming on the white letters.  These were going to be gorgeous photos with vivid colors and a smiling baby eager to join in on honoring his daddy and creating a memorable gift for David's first Father's Day.  What could go wrong?

I learned three important things in my first attempt to take these photos:

1. Joshua really dislikes grass.
2. Joshua really dislikes sunshine in his face.
3. And I'm pretty sure Joshua really dislikes white wooden letters.

What I hadn't counted on was the fact that Joshua had never actually played outside before.  He had never experienced grass in his young life, and I'm pretty sure he was NOT a fan of the textures (stiff, prickly, damp).  We also try to shield him from too much direct sunlight, given the sensitivity of his baby skin and the conflicting studies on the use of sunscreen on infants, so he definitely wasn't used to having to look up at a bright sky.  Here's what happened the first time I tried to position him for this project:


I'd found such a beautifully lush patch of grass, and his Princeton orange polo shirt provided such a nice contrast.  But wow, was he not happy about lying down in grass, or about having to squint in the brightness (despite the fact that we were in a nice bit of open shade).  And about 30 seconds letter, the meltdown began.

Desperate to try to salvage the situation (the beautiful weather!  the vivid colors!  my vision of a wonderful Father's Day present!), I tried a couple other options outdoors.  But this is the best I could manage:


"I know that evil grass is right under this blanket.  You can't fool me!!" 

"The sun!  It burns!!!"
So I had to pack it all up and bring it back inside.  Seeing our IKEA Poang chair in the living room, and remembering how well it had worked for Joshua's 4-month photos, I decided to give it another try indoors.  Sure, I'd lose the beautiful colors of my original vision, but that was clearly a big fat fail, so perhaps I could recapture the smiles and cute facial expressions we'd gotten a few weeks earlier?


"I know I'm back in my happy place, but it's gonna take a whole lot more than my chair to make me forget the evil outdoors."
I'd forgotten that the reason why we'd gotten such great smiles in the 4-month photos was because Joshua was looking up adoringly at his dad, his favorite playmate in the entire world.  With just me there, and with my face blocked by my big black box of a camera (and without a real chance to recover from the traumatic outdoor experience), I had to just give up for the day.

I tried one more time the next day.  While David was at home.  Most of the women on the photography board were doing this project as a sweet surprise present for their husbands.  Me?  I can't keep a secret from David to save my life.  :)  So it's not like I was ruining the surprise by enlisting his help -- but I had hoped to do this all by myself so that the end result would still be a bit of a surprise...

At the end of the day, though, these photos show how much Joshua loves his daddy.  With David there to attract his attention and bring forth the smiles, we got some really wonderful photos.  So even though none of it really worked out the way I had planned, I think the end result is a much sweeter Father's Day gift.


Happy Father's Day to all of you wonderful dads out there!