Belle Photo Op

The only reason I get a little sad as spring approaches is because that means my kids birthdays are coming. Don’t get me wrong, it’s exciting that they’re growing up and we get to celebrate the coming year, but at the same time, we’re approaching the time when they won’t want to spend the day with their parents.
The original idea for this session came from a pin linking to https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z120sj14lpzky1kwh04chpqzjtfru3yhntk0k which is an adorable image of a woman dressed as Belle, browsing the shelves at a bookstore.
I went back and forth on it, but decided to use the library instead of the bookstore. It was no big deal getting my little darling to put on her Belle dress for a few hours. She got the dress from the Disney store (thank you Nana) and it is just gorgeous! We weren’t a big fan of the Belle shoes, and not that you can see them in the picture, but she’s wearing her Rapunzel shoes.
She even cooperated before we left and let me attempt the Belle hairsstyle, but that’s another blog for another day!
Before starting with the camera I browsed the shelves and found a Disney Princess book for her to “read” during our shoot. I took maybe 20 pictures, switching poses quickly as her attention span isn’t the best at 3!
I’m looking forward to what her fourth year brings to my little diva, but I hope she doesn’t outgrow this dress up phase too soon!
For other girl photo ideas, check out last year’s photo shoot at https://superstevied.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/wedding-dress-alternative/.
The original, pre – editing picture for the above shot was this:

This one was a little goofy for her 4 year old picture, but was cute not to share! All I did to prompt this smile was ask her “what do you think of when I say ‘tickle the baby’?”

Enjoy your own photo sessions. Remember that the best memory you’ll have won’t be the pictures you take, but the time spent with your baby. The picture will just be a reminder of that time!

Split Pic

This was kind of a useless pin, but I had so much fun playing with it and I know there will be more fun over the summer!
I found this app when I was looking for another app recommended by an entirely different pin, and I have to say, I love when things are discovered by accidents. I checked around on Pinterest to see what people had done with this app and there were some very cool things, I must say!
My first thought for this app, was a fairy photo combination because Chiara has Tinkerbell and Periwinkle dress. For those without young kids, Periwinkle is Tinkerbell’s sister that she discovered in the recent movie, The Secret of the Wings. I had spent a little time playing with the app, no real purpose, just normal duplicate shots. (As normal as a picture of my children duplicated can be)
So a nice day of vacation rolled around and we went outside to play. Normally Chiara does alright with getting her picture taken, but other times she doesn’t want to play because she is so caught up in being a fairy, or a princess or whatever dress she’s wearing.
Lucky for me she cooperated long enough for 3 different attempts. The first one was kind of cute, but I didn’t realize she was further back for half of the picture. Think about the forced perspective of Lord of the Rings, and that’s kind of what it was. Chiara number 2 was hobbit sized! Second one, she was the same size, but her poses looked obviously, well, posed.
We took a quick break for a snack and Tony was looking at the pictures we had already done and pitched the idea for her peeking around the tree at herself. The exact idea, back to the tree and leaning out and around was a no-go for her, but we modified a little bit.
I was so amazed at how this picture came out. Even my mom was asking who the second little girl was. My response, “Um, your granddaughter….” It was a moment.
The app allows you to take the left side of the picture first, and by allows, I mean it makes you start on the left. Then you take the right side, and they make it relatively easy because you can see a shadow of the left side so you can line them up. Once both pictures have been taken, there will be an obvious center of the picture. Next step is to blur the center which is a button option on the bottom. As you can tell from this picture, this works amazingly well. I’m really looking forward to getting this picture developed and hanging it up somewhere.
I hope that you all give this app a try, it is free after all. It’s a fun way to blow off a few hours and anyone who likes to take photos will at least enjoy playing with it!
Original pin was a picture found at http://media-cache-is0.pinimg.com/originals/4b/0d/15/4b0d15fad0c57627fdc0e3d573b53cb1.jpg