Well, at least I am set to finish the Christmas cards this year, before … 3 days before Christmas. I had decided that I did not want another picture of all the children, sitting next to each other, smiling at the camera. Every Monday morning, I accompany one of our son’s to a teacher’s lesson prior to the start of school. And, the teacher has all the Christmas cards she receives tacked to a wall. There are quite a lot of them. And, in every one, the children are looking straight at the camera smiling. And, this is what we have always done too. But, I find something quite unnatural in them. So, this year, I decided to take a different approach. And, in doing so, learned learned a lot about pictures, lighting, and cameras.
I started by looking for inspiration. Something, or some idea, to spark a creative ah-ha moment. I always start with Google, then Google image search, then Flikr. And, really, nothing caught my fancy. Everything looked so posed. Looking through magazines from the 1930s, 40s, or 50s, would have been nice. But, where to access these? However, I did stumble upon this photo, which I thought was super.
I loved this photo of the two children, whispering in Santa’s ear. Just loved it. I initially wanted to re-create something like this. With all four children, whispering in Santa’s ears, and whiskers. But, I didn’t have anyone that could pose (and pose convincingly) in a Santa costume. Maybe, with a little more prep, I will try this one next year. It’s such a fun and sincere picture.
I ended up deciding to take an un-posed picture of the kids, dressed up, in our home, in front of the fireplace. I’m sure many of you can attest to the stress and logistics involved in taking family pictures. It was several hours of intense stress for me … making sure the little ones got their naps at the right time (so they’d be happy!), prodding the older ones to get dressed, dressing the younger ones when they woke up from their nap, making sure nobody ate anything or got into any food (I have pull locks on the cupboards), getting everyone into the room at the same time, and so on. Very stressful. And, prior to that I had to set up some lights in the room (it was nighttime so there was no natural light, and the room itself does not have sufficient light), setting up the camera, practicing with the different camera settings, and on and on. But, anyways, we have one picture that is not perfect, but it will do. It seems to me photographing children should be a job for 3 people. One to photograph, and one assistant per two children.
The red Christmas frocks I found for a steal at a little shop in Greenwich, CT, that is going out of business, unfortunately. So many of these brands going out of business, Best & Co., gone, Oilily, gone, Old World, gone. I was able to get these for less than $20 a piece. The red ballet slippers on our eldest girl, are real ballet slippers, around $5 on e-bay, brand new. We buy a bunch of them in different colors, and the girls use them as house slippers. And, the boy’s bowties I made from a brown velvet, to match the brown corduroys. But, you can find (and alter) adult velvet bow-ties also on e-bay for under $5.
On a side-note, I just finished a large wool quilt, that I am planning to gift to a couple as a wedding present. I will try to post it in the next few days, with a tutorial for anyone that has not made a quilt before (it was my first!). It has one square that is a collage of the couple, a collage made of fabrics. And, all the wools, are super quality, which I was able to find at Mood Fabrics in New York City (Carolina Herrera and Ralph Lauren wools at great prices). (A lot of the big time designers unload their remnant fabric inventory at Mood – it’s a wonderful place to shop – aside from e-bay!).
Dina
