Picture Perfect

I'm kind of obsessed with pictures.  I'll pause here and let my family and friends chuckle to themselves for a minute.  Done?  Ok.  But it's true, I am.

There is nothing more I love than doing a photo shoot with the kids or even Hubby and I.  I've done a handful of them at home and they've turned out better than the ones I've had done at the mall portrait studio.  My mom did our engagement photos and pregnancy photos and they all turned out great.  One day maybe I'll get them uploaded so I can show them to you.

But I think the real reason that I'm so obsessed with pictures is to have them to look back on later.  There are pictures of the Bink when he was wee-tiny--you know, because he's so big now--that bring tears to my eyes.  I feel like this is especially important in the first year, and even more in the first few months, because babies change to much, even just week to week.

I have eleventy-bajillion pictures of the Bink, especially since I've learned to use the "burst" mode on the camera when it just keeps taking pictures until I take my finger off the button.  I would have more pictures of K, but often when I pull out the camera in a public place I hear "You're embarrassing me!"

Can you hear it?  Make sure it's full of a mix of tween sass and exasperation.

I was lucky enough to receive an amazing camera for my birthday and I haven't put it down since.  I had been wanting to learn how to use a digital SLR camera (the big kind with all the fancy lenses and manual adjustments) for a long time.  I used to love a old film based one (Film? Who uses film?) in high school and would get such a kick of doing the focusing myself and trying out special filters.  So basically, I'm going to drive you all nuts with pictures because I took at least two hundred yesterday alone.

While I'm super excited for my new toy, you don't need to have a fancy camera to take great pictures.  Before Bink was born I knew I wanted to do a newborn photo shoot with him, but I had never done one myself (although I was quite good at that point at telling my mom how I wanted her to take pictures of me!).

I did a lot of research online, mostly browsing photography sites (google newborn portraits, adorable!) and finding ones that I liked.  I kept a file of those and jotted down ideas as they came to me.  Then, one afternoon when Binky was just three weeks old we found ourselves with nothing to do.  Hubby was playing video games, K was playing outside, and Bink and I were just sitting on the couch staring at each other.  So I decided now was the time!

I grabbed anything around the house that I thought might be a good prop, a white blanket, and my camera (not the new fancy one, an older one Hubby had since before I married him).  I opened up all the blinds, covered the couch with the blanket, and plopped Bink down.  The results are below:

Emerson Portraits

Are they perfect? No.  I could have used better lighting.  I could have used more experience.  I could have used a real backdrop.  Lots of things could have made the shots better.  But are they pretty good?  I think so.  Especially for not having any experience and doing it all by myself.  But the best part?  That afternoon is one of my favorite memories with Bink. And I use the pictures ALL THE TIME.  You'll see them all over my site, they are the ones I used to create many of the banners and buttons.  I've made countless photo gifts for my family with them.  Now and then I still watch the slide show just to make me smile at how much personality Bink already had at three weeks old.

Find a few minutes and take pictures of the people you love.  They can be posed, like my "formal" photo shoots, or candid shots while you've sitting around the living room.  Do it often, even if it doesn't seem like its important at the time.  You'll want the memories later.

The pictures through out this post are of Bink on a random Wednesday morning right before we left the house to start our day.  He was in a silly mood, using his crib mattress as a trampoline and I couldn't help stopping what I was doing to take a few shots.  Its one of the "everyday moments" that I don't always remember to capture and I'm working on doing more often. 

I have used pretty much every site I can find to create photo gifts.  There are a few that I go back to again and again, but I will also try any site that is having a good sale or giving away freebies.  Look for a series of posts soon on Pacifier Party, my review and giveaway blog, all about photo sites.