Do you realize what it takes to get one good picture? I didn't! In this case, there was a lot to do to get things just right. The idea was to have a great picture of Anna for her first Christmas. Naturally, a pretty dress would be needed. It just so happened that Mom had a brainstorm idea after perusing the shops in Dallas, so with lots of effort and love, she made Anna's dress. There was one scary moment when she showed me one of two sets of buttons she'd purchased for the dress; they looked like mini-salami slices! But the other set was perfect!
The next problem to overcome was getting decent picture quality. My camera is a Canon Elph and uses APS film. You can't do much with APS film to fix lighting problems. The photo shop recommended shooting in daylight, which I prefer anyway, but there isn't much daylight in Vermont in winter. So I winged it with ASA 400 film and ended up pretty pleased with the results.
I ticked off the next few items - I whipped up a slip to match the dress (without fitting Anna because she was asleep at 2 a.m., and it's a tight fit getting the second arm in). I counted my blessings that it was a sunny day on the morning of the shoot, Dec 18. I moved the chair upstairs, opened the shades all the way, set up the tripod, gave the baby a bath, put on her slip, and voila! Here's what happened.....
In my impatience, I snapped some shots of Anna anyway! Then I noticed my reflection in the mirror.
Anna awoke shortly while the sun was still in the east, and I propped her up in the chair, praying she wouldn't topple over. We took lots of shots and got some great results:
After a while, Anna had had enough of the stunt of staying on her chair and watching Mama be goofy. She began to slide and slide and I kept shooting:
There's another shot with her falling forward and my arm reaches out to catch her! But finally I felt satisfied I'd gotten what I wanted. No, that's not quite true. Anna decided she'd had enough, so we ended the roll with a shot of us both!
And that's the end of the story! I did, however, load another roll and shoot it before we left for Chad's birthday party! Anna, sport that she is, got slaphappy silly and we had a grand time.
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Can't wait for the birthday shoot next month!