outtakes.

if you're wondering, i took james' valentine pictures this year. last year i didn't and i regretted it so this year i made the time. i thought about a prop and made it happen. go me! but let me say one thing - most of the time i just take pictures to capture memories of james. i just take my camera along and hope i can get some good snaps to document our fun adventure or what-have-you. on the valentine card, you can tell it is staged. or i hope you could. this takes planning and thought. that is why i don't take these kind of photos often. i don't have any cute back drops or anything so i get tired of using my chocolate brown, dinning room walls but unfortunately this is the room with the best natural light and open space. well, it has open space when i move out the dinning room table and chairs. you see where i'm going? this takes effort and planning and light. since i work this means i need to use a sunny weekend day and i must pay attention to the shadows and hope that when all is right that james is in a good mood and ready for some pictures. phew! this makes me tired just thinking about it. or you think i sound lazy. i'm going with the first one though.

so, i planned to take james' pictures for his valentine cards on january 16th. early. i know! but by the time i made them from scratch, ordered them online, got them mailed to me and then found time address them and mail them out, it takes time. truth be told, i bought the sucker on the 15th and so if i found time on sunday i would have what i needed and wouldn't curse myself for being to lazy to drive and search for a lollipop. on sunday, around 11 i noticed that the light was good so i moved out the table and chairs and recruited the hubs to give james a bath and just put his patigonia pants on him. i found a stool, combed james' hair and unwrapped the sucker. the photoshoot started at 11:27 and ended just shy of 11:31. yep, that was quick. it didn't take long for james to shatter the sucker on the ground, proceed to shuffle it everywhere and get covered in sticky sucker crumbs. after we denied him the joy of licking the pieces off the floor, we had a meltdown and all were covered in pink, sticky sucker. joy. mr. h said something like, "wow. that was quick. did you get anything?" i thought, man i don't know. i hope so.

i uploaded my images and snapped exactly 20 images. i know this may sound like a lot to some of you but to those who have children and try to pose and prop, you know this isn't a very big selection. especially if you're shooting moving children. i found two images that i was happy with and therefore decided to make a two-sided card.

i thought it would be fun to share some of the outtakes. i want you to know how hard i had to work to make this simple card happen and how most of the images just didn't make the cut.

enjoy.

there are some award winners, right? every time i think this will be easy, i am proved wrong. apparently giving my 18 month old a sucker and wanting him to pose and smile was more challenging than i had hoped. the trick to getting the perfect image is to take lots of photos. and pray that you'll be satisfied with a couple of images. luckily, james pulled through and i got the snaps i wanted. thank you baby james. and mr. h for you help and patience with me. i love you both for your camera cooperation. it makes me one happy momma.