I had my kids in the studio for their annual Valentine's session in February. These two get so excited when they see me moving the props out of the attic and taking them down to the studio. A reason that they enjoy these holiday sessions so much is because they know they are going to have some fun.
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I decided to do a different sort of setup for this year's photos. I wanted to see if the lighting would be any different if I used a large scrim instead of my usual umbrellas, with a reflector on the opposite side. After being a bit indecisive over which background to go with, I settled on the red, but knew I wanted it to be lighter, so pointed my other light at the background.
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I was so excited to get started that I grabbed my son to help me test the lighting, of course he was running through the house dressed like a pirate at that moment, which made for this amusing image. As soon as everything was setup the way I wanted it, we went to get changed.
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My son had done a 100 days of school event a few days before where his class dressed like 100 year old's. For his outfit, I ran to walmart and bought him these adorable heart suspenders with matching bowtie, then added this hat he's had bouncing around his room since he was a baby. After seeing how it looked, I knew I had to use it for his Valentine session.
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Once he was figured out, I knew I wanted to find a way to get my daughter's outfit to coordinate with similar colors, and was pleasantly surprised to find these adorable blue heart pants and light grey heart top, so they matched perfectly.
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I don't usually give much direction to my kids during their sessions, but this time when they decided to sit together, I asked them to hold hands, and they let me tilt their heads and move their hands, then gently held each other for a long hug while I snapped away.
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Looking back at previous years, here was these two in 2020, I wasn't able to take a photo of the two of them together, I don't really remember why, but I love how my daughter was willing to be a little model with the white headband that matched her dress, while holding the flowers.
Going back further to 2019, my little girl still loved hugging the heart pillows, but she was so little that she could just barely get her arms around it.
This session was also the first time I got a hugging pose with them, these two are the best of friends (most of the time! haha)
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Going back even further to 2018, we come to their first Valentine's day together. My daughter was 9 months old, and my son was around 2.5 years old.
The background is a thin pink fabric with lights hung behind, which is actually more difficult than you might think. I got icicle lights which had to be connected together to make them look even, and I found out the hard way that not all lights can be photographed because they will look like they are off depending on the shutter speed. I actually bought a batch of LED lights for a session, then had to return them and get regular bulbs.
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| My little angel, always full of smiles. |
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I had just received the wings and angel props from a photographer I went to college with so was inspired to add them to the session.
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Foxie has been with my daughter since day one, and is still her favorite, sleeping in bed with her every night. |
