Redeeming Myself

Last year I, gasp, didn’t have any professional pictures taken of my children!  I have always had pictures taken once a year around their birthday, and of course I had lots of pictures taken of them during their first year.  For whatever reason I just couldn’t make it happen last year.  Mainly because I’m so tired of “studio” pictures.  The best pictures we have of them were taken a few years ago during a beach vacation.  I’ve been looking for a photographer in my area, but I haven’t found the right person yet.  So, rather than put it off any longer I decided to just take some pictures myself.  I really wanted to capture them at their current ages – 4 and 6.

For their 3 and 5 year old pictures, I took them to The Picture People and actually got a few keepers from that photo session.  I used some red felt and appliqued numbers to their shirts to show their age.

This time I decided to use some paper mache numbers I picked up from Hobby Lobby.  I used scrapbook paper and craft paint to embellish them.  I just traced the outline of the number on the scrapbook paper, cut it out, and then used a little Mod Podge to adhere the scrapbook paper.  It was really simple.

Then before the sun went down on Saturday afternoon we had a little backyard photo shoot.  Now, I’m not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination.  I have a very basic digital camera – Panasonic DMC-ZS7, and beyond that I really don’t “know” how to use this camera.  However, there a tons of blogs that give great advice on how to take a good picture.  Katie Bower of Bower Power has given lots of great tips for how to not only take a good photo but also how to edit the photo (if you’re a photoshop person).  Also, the Centsational Girl has lots of great tips.  I especially love her post on the joy of using Picasa to edit your photos.  It’s FREE- so enough said, and if you don’t have photoshop (like me) it’s even more awesome.  The main thing I’ve learned about taking photos is TURN OFF THE FLASH!  What a huge difference that one thing alone can make in your photos.  Seriously, the flash is not your friend.

So, here’s my little photo session.  Again, I’m not a photographer.  I’m just a procrastinating, cheap, can’t make up her mind mom who decided to take matters into her own hands and just git her done already!