First up: her nine year old pictures. Each year this is proving to be more and more difficult, yet easier at the same time. How is this even possible? First, The Girl likes outdoor pictures. Well, the funny thing is, her birthday lands in January...every single year. I find it difficult to find interesting locations with the lack of outdoor beauty that we have in comparison to the summer or fall months. While I think the snow is gorgeous, and love taking pictures in it, it isn't always a guarantee that we will have some on the ground. It's more likely that we will just have brown. All over. And let's say we do have snow on the ground. Snow equals cold. Very cold. I've found that she and I both tend to be a bit grouchy when trying to work pictures in the cold. So there you have dilemma number one. Dilemma number two: She's nine. I want to pose her like she's older, but not too old. I want to dress her hip and cool, but not too old. I want to make her look like the beauty she is, but not too old. Are you seeing where I am going with this? There is a fine line, people.
It also has gotten easier. Since she is nine, she has her own ideas for what she wants her pictures to look like (and they are good ideas, too), she has an opinion on what she would like to wear/what she thinks is cool (thankfully, she is pretty modest, and her style isn't too far out there), and The Girl can pose. I mean not just, "You stand here, and smile like that" type of following directions posing, but she can "Work the camera like she was born to work it" type of posing. I give her very little direction, and she just goes with it. I love that.
Here's my not too old, dressed appropriately, and "working the camera like no one's business" nine year old girl:
This picture and the one after it are probably my favorite of the session. I just love the way they look snowy and cold (and it was so cold that day...not so snowy, though). They are exactly what I hope for in a outdoor winter shoot:
Since I can't choose the second image for my wall (it goes the wrong direction), I think I might go with this one. I like the wood background, and I love her real smile. She was laughing at herself:
This is The Hub's choice for the wall. I like this one too...not sure which way I'll go:
Later that week, we also had her birthday party. This year, we came up with an idea, picked a date, and sent out invites for just a few days later. It was a whirlwind for sure. I thought no one would be able to come with such short notice, however, each friend she invited was able to make it. She decided she wanted to get her nails done and have pizza at a local salon and pizza place very close to home. Well, neither place took reservations, down payments, or offered party packages. So, I kindly let them know that 10 little girls would be coming, and the day and time. They were thankful for the forewarning. We were in and out of the nail salon in 30 minutes, and then they all walked a few doors down to the pizza place where we stuffed ourselves with pizza and cake, and played a fun game of "Would you rather" (which third grade girls find hil-ar-ious). Just goes to show, you can throw together a party, where everyone has a great time, out of thin air. It was two hours of giggly, squealing, girly chaos, and I survived.
Here are some pics:
Showing off the nail color they picked:
Getting the toes done:
Dry time:
Everyone's finished product:
The wild crew on our way out of the salon:
I'm sure the salon owners were happy to see us leave...not to mention the other unsuspecting customers who came to relax and have a pedicure after a long week of work.
Here they are at the pizza place:
And blowing out the candles:
The pizza place had some difficult lighting, to say the least. I rarely (like this was my third time) use my flash on my professional camera. So, needless to say, I need to get into the manual and figure out the flash on that baby. As you can see, there was a lot of photoshop correcting done to that last image due to the flash totally annihilating the image. I'm a little sick over it since she only blows out her nine candles once. I wish I had something better.
Since I was able to survive this party, I'm sure I will be able to muster up the strength to somehow survive not getting the perfect shot of her blowing out her candles.
And I've survived posting the second half of our photo album called "Catch Up".
Whew!
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