Happy Little Tree
Pinterest Fail........Again
I got exciting news that a long time client of mine was due with their first baby in a month!
I also knew that they have prayed for this and had heartbreak in the past.
I wanted to do something beautiful to honor their rainbow baby.
I saw this gorgeous maternity dress.
There were three different versions and a sash version floating around on maternity sites.
All of them sold out.
I tried Easy but it would take 6 weeks and 400 dollars.
I spent days emailing dress rental sites from California to Florida. All were booked out until July.
I posted on forums asking to rent it from privately from photographers. No one messaged.
So two days before the shoot I said screw it!
I went online and ordered 5 yards of each color of the rainbow in beautiful translucent chiffon.
The next morning I walked into the fabric store.
It was packed! There were at least ten older ladies waiting with arms full of fabric to be cut chatting away.
I pulled a ticket number and got behind them.
The kid behind the counter then called out, "42".
I looked at my ticket expecting to see 50 or 60.
The entire line got really quiet as they realized none of them had drawn a number.
I sheepishly smiled and got a sash cut to attach all of my chiffon to.
I am not skilled enough to make a dress so a sash it is.
I also picked up heat tape which just lets you iron fabric together because as you guessed it I also can't sew.
I got home and after Flynn went to bed that night I went to get all my supplies together.
No iron.
When had my iron disappeared? I don't know I'm a bad housewife!
So the next morning I borrowed an iron.
I dropped Flynn off at Preschool.
I sat down on my living room floor and laid everything out.
I start pulling out all of the beautiful chiffon I ordered!
First the red, then orange, then yellow and then it went horribly wrong.
The next three colors I pulled out were not chiffon.
They were a thick, scratchy broad clothe I would not make a potato sack out of!
Ok I still had a few hours. I could do this! My session was not until the evening!
I ran to the store and cut 5 yards of each of the missing rainbow colors and drove home as fast as I could without getting a ticket.
I spread all 7 colors out in the order they were to be ironed onto the sash.
Then I reached for the sash.
Gone.
The bag containing the sash and the heat tape was missing.
I swear it was right there on the floor next to the brand new iron all ready for me before I went to the fabric shop.
I searched EVERYWHERE for it!
By this time there is only an hour to go until the shoot and I still have to pack up my gear and drive out to the site.
I run to the cupboard where we keep gift wrap and pull out a Christmas holiday ribbon.
I then run downstairs to my husband's work desk and steal his stapler.
I line up the colors on the holiday sash and start stapling like a madman!
Half way through I run out of staples.
At this point I am pretty sure the gods are laughing at me.
My husband then comes home with a half hour to go and is treated with the sight of me running around opening draws and boxes looking for more staples!
He helps me find more, I staple staple staple and then grab my bag and run out the door to arrive for my session right on time.
I love the images we got.
I have used it twice already.
I will next week hire a seamstress to appropriately attach the material too a proper sash.
I also will never ever make another Pinterest project again!!!!!!
Maybe......
Somewhere
My son likes poetry.
Since birth.
I do not.
Not just the New Kid On The Block and Where The Sidewalk Ends.
Garden Verse with Stevenson, Emerson, Poe.
It puts me to sleep before him.
It actually took me two years to completely understand and speak The Maldive Shark fluidly.
Some of them I dread him asking for.
Rossetti is one of them.
Until I found the following poem.
This year I have had more wonderful Mommas to Be come to me with Rainbow Babies.
For those of you that don't know pregnancy and birth following a miscarriage or child loss is a Rainbow Baby.
So when I read this poem it spoke to me not as a child's verse but as a Mom.
The Rainbow
By Christina Rossetti
Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.
There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.
This Is Your Brain On Kat.
Jekyll & Hyde
Day 12 of My Twelve Days of Xmas Giveaway.
Who would you want to be if you could do a shoot as that person?
I got a variety of answers!
Carrie Underwood
Lady Gaga
Michael Jackson
Wonder Woman
Jessica Rabbit and more.
But Katie won the session.
Katie wanted to be Kat.
Kat Von D
I did a little research. Black, black, black and more black. Ok got it.
And Tattoos. Everywhere.
Ok got it.
I shopped for some gigantic tattoos. Skulls and flames. Hearts and flowers.
hmmm I'll just get some of both.
Tight black clothing. Well that was easy enough to find.
Now wig or no wig?
No wig. I still wanted Katie to shine through.
Now for stunning makeup.
Well we called Shantel of course!
We took a few photos of Katie as she is everyday.
Then we stripped her down so that I could apply tattoos everywhere as Shantel gave her gorgeous Kat eyes.
I kept the exact same light as the before photos but with one exception I just added a hair light.
It was a blast! I had so much fun shooting something I normally wouldn't.
I have been trying to talk someone into doing this session for years!
I am so happy with the results I want to do it myself now! LOL
Comment below and tell me who you would want to be!
Alive, historical, fictional anything goes!
SURPRISE!!!! Well Kinda!
Elijah contacted me two months ago well before Mother's Day.
"Tree do you think I can purchase a session for Emmy and Eden? What do you think she would like?"
He was going to keep it a surprise but some women want to actually prepare for these things. LOL
So after a day of pampering Emmy and Eden spent part of their Saturday in a field with me.
Singing, having tea and cookies and slightly praying the heavens didn't open up and drench us.
Eden is at one of the tougher ages to shoot.
18 month olds do not stop moving and aren't old enough to follow directives for long.
But with a shoot like this it doesn't matter.
The only thing you are trying to capture is the relationship between Mother and Daughter and how they interact.
I am not trying to get her sitting in a chair, looking straight at the camera and smiling.
No
I got something much better.
Her plucking dandelions and giving them to Mom.
Finding out Mom is wearing jewelry and trying to take it.
Walking down the path and exploring while still being safe and holding Mom's hand.
Making Mom think she was going to share a bite of her cookie and changing her mind and popping it all in her mouth at the last minute.
Why do I love these sessions so much?
Because Mom's are usually the ones taking the photos.
If they are even in the picture it is usually an arms length selfie that does not do them or their connection with their child justice.
So Significant Others out their take notice.
This is not just for Mother's Day.
This is year round love that needs to be captured.
Music To My Ears
Winter is Strong.
Winter is Beautiful.
Winter is Fearless.
Winter is also the slender reed of a girl I have been photographing since she was one.
At the moment I am trying not to get whacked in the face by branches as she leads the way through the park.
She has spotted a part of the park she wants to photograph in.
So of course I listen to the seven year old on where to shoot.
She is really the one running the show. Not me.
As she plows on ahead through the thorny brush she starts humming.
Hmmmm I know that from somewhere.
After a minute she starts scatting.
YES SCATTING!
For those of you that don't know Scat is like a crazy mix of onomatopoeia vocalized that sounds like it's own instrument. Think Louie Armstrong.
As I'm listening it hits me like a flash to my childhood.
I had that album.
I turn to her mother.
"Who taught her the scat to Minnie The Moocher?!!!!!"
Her Mom laughed, "Well she has an awesome music teacher."
Indeed.
I would like to thank her music teacher Mrs. English,
for making my heart happy in the knowledge that out there is a little will of the wisp of a girl singing Cab Calloway instead of Kid's Bop.
