First Birthday Photo Shoot
I knew I had several First Birthdays on my calender, but lucky Ashley & Keegen got to be my "guinea pigs" for my inaugural Smashing of the Cake episode. It was a successful experience for everyone involved-when there's cake and a 1 year old, how could it not be successful (& fun & cute)?!
Knowing she had a lot on her plate and as a surprise to Ashley, I asked one of Keegen's godparents, Becky, to assist in finding an appropriately sized cake for him to smash at the end of his session. She did not dissappoint! Becky did a blitz trip to Walmart's bakery and found the perfectly sized square of a colorful cake, grabbed a "1" candle and we called it "Good".
The next hurdle was the weather. As I don't I have an indoor studio space, I shoot mainly outdoors and the day of their session would be in the mid to lower 60s with some breeze. Not the prime weather for Naked Baby to make an appearance. So, thinking of ways to make this as easy on Ashley and as little clean up for her afterwards as possible, I asked Becky to bring some newspaper for Keegen to sit on, rather than a blanket (which inherently would've meant SERIOUS laundry). Ashley had wipes in her car and always-prepared-momma-that-she-is, also had a change of clothes on hand. We kept Keegen's clothes on due to the chilly-er temps and let him go to town on the cake, knowing we were covered on the clean up end of things.
Keegen turned out to be a pretty clean eater! Yes, he may have had his feet in his cake, but not much actually got on his clothes. So, about 5 wipes later, we were able to toss the newspaper, the wipes and what little was left of the cake....and we called it "GOOD". :)
For future First Birthday photo sessions, I imagine warmer weather in the coming months which means Naked Babies will be appearing. We could use blankets instead of newspaper, or put the cake on a plate and let Baby sit in the grass. We could go to a park and have lots of wipes on hand to clean up before the car ride home. Or we could do the session in my client's backyard so they can take Naked Baby straight to the tub afterwards.
Knowing she had a lot on her plate and as a surprise to Ashley, I asked one of Keegen's godparents, Becky, to assist in finding an appropriately sized cake for him to smash at the end of his session. She did not dissappoint! Becky did a blitz trip to Walmart's bakery and found the perfectly sized square of a colorful cake, grabbed a "1" candle and we called it "Good".
For future First Birthday photo sessions, I imagine warmer weather in the coming months which means Naked Babies will be appearing. We could use blankets instead of newspaper, or put the cake on a plate and let Baby sit in the grass. We could go to a park and have lots of wipes on hand to clean up before the car ride home. Or we could do the session in my client's backyard so they can take Naked Baby straight to the tub afterwards.