JV89TNBRZGYM

I promised I would share the 2 previous years of working with these 2 sweet little girls.  I decided I would work backwards from the most recent that I already shared, so this post is the photo shoot and card designed for 2008.

The girl’s mom has a horse, and has had him for many years,  so I asked if we could do the Christmas photo shoot with him.  She LOVED that idea, because she really wanted photos of her horse with her girls anyway.   Incidentally, a couple of months after this photo shoot, our oldest daughter {A}, received horse riding lessons from us for Christmas at these stables, where my clients horse is boarded, and so happened to ride this very horse every time for her lessons.  {A} was really excited about that, because she was assisting me at this photo shoot, and so was familiar with this horse already.   His name is Wellington, and he is a BEAUTY!

Now, I didn’t really have a ‘theme’ going in my head yet, for the Christmas card itself, except that it would have photos of the girls and Wellington.  But, I had faith in myself that I would come up with something. Somehow, I would MAKE it work.  lol

Meet Wellington.

As usual for my work-style, I DID have visions in my head for the photos I wanted to take of the girls with the horse.  But when I got to the stables and talked to Wellington’s ‘trainer’, I realized I was going to have to come up with other ideas, real quick.  I wanted to take the horse and the girls out in the field, and put the girls on him, for one.  But, she said she would only allow the girls on him if he was IN the stall.  Bummer!!  Then she said the girls really should wear helmets.  LOL!!  Ok…I’m all for safety, but really.  That was going to kind of ruin my photos.  I talked her out of that little bit. So….needless to say, all of the shooting was done in this DARK stall, with ‘dappled sun’ coming in through the windows, which always bugs me in portraits in most cases. (Like this one! lol)

Just so you know….it is VERY hard for me to ‘let go of my visions’, once they are in my head.  I can get downright, uummmm….ornery, about it. (No, really!).  So….I was really feeling like my little dreams were crushed, but had no time to pout.  (Again…bummer!).  I had to ‘make do’.  I don’t like ‘making do’!

Ok…done complaining.

So here is one photo of a small handful of shots of the girls on Wellington’s bare back.   It was not an easy shot, because the little one wasn’t comfortable, saying her sister was smooshing her. lol.  I was sure not to let the oldest one really put her weight on the little one, but….I wanted this shot, and I was going to get it!

I took this shot with absolute purpose.  You’ll see soon enough. ; )  lol.

Oh!!  About the plan for clothing for this session.  I had suggested the mom find winter capes and boots, for the girls.  But she was unable to find any capes.  She found these beautiful coats with matching hats though, and I was thrilled with them as an alternative!!

In the doorway of the stall.   Which is 1 of a several stall in a row.  These stalls are so cool.  You’ll see, it’s like a long house, with a farmer’s porch!  I just love it.

The little one, and Wellington, having a moment.

And the oldest with him too.  She has been around Wellington more, being the oldest.

I really love this shot at the porch of the stall.  Don’t they just look beautiful and classy!?

And look at these 2 beautiful faces.  Such gorgeous brown eyes.

As I said, the mom chooses all of the photos to be used on the card, and then orders those in prints along with lots of others from the photo shoots.  This shot above isn’t the close-up shot of them together that she used for the card, but I chose it for this post because I just love the little ones expression, again.   She cracks me up.

Here is a better look at the style of the outdoor stalls. I just love the old feel to it all, with the porch with worn spindles, and gorgeous old wood split-doors!  Look at the rocking chairs off to the side.   But back to the girls, you’ll notice that the little one doesn’t have her hat on anymore.  Wellington kept nipping at it, and he pulled it off.!  lol.  She threw a little fit.   So….Wellington got another peppermint candy to keep his mouth busy, and the little one got one too.  Both of the girls were doing a really good job, and I knew the photos were going to be great.  As I said before, it just takes a little more time and patience with little ones sometimes.

Besides what you’ve seen here, there were other photos I took and the mom bought too, including some of the boarding owner’s Clydesdale horse, Baron.  My client bought photos of him too, to give as a gift to the owner.

I was so excited to get the photos edited, and show them to the mom–who was over the moon again!  Once she chose which ones she wanted me to work with, I got to work on the card – and here is how it came out. She LOVED that also.  And so did I!   I blurred out the names, per usual.

These cards were 5×7, and were printed on a beautiful linen stock.   And I did think of appropriate text for the card – which for me, is the fun of the creative process.

FRONT of the card.

They opened up vertically, so this is the INSIDE SPREAD.

The BACK of the card…..which I thought was a riot.  Again, I love that this client let’s me have so much fun on the back of cards.  She lets me do whatever I want with everything, and naturally, I can really get along with someone like that!

Huge photo print order. Huge Christmas card order. Happy client. Happy photographer/designer.

The next session I show with this family, will be the very first time we worked together, 2007.

Hope you are enjoying this series. : )

Share this:

I am pretty behind in sharing our recent work in this area of the blog.  I apologize about that.  I hope this special post helps make up for it.

I have done a photo shoot with these sweet little girls every year, for the past 3 years.  When their mom first contacted me for our first consultation in 2007, I was ecstatic.  I knew the last name, because the husband has an established business in town.  So I was interested to find out what she was looking for.

We clicked immediately, and have been the best collaborative team, every since.  She has excellent taste, and a real appreciation for creative, custom and quality work.   I would offer nothing less, and I have pretty high standards for my own work. ; )   What she really wants every year, is photos of her girls, and a one-of-a-kind Christmas card, using photos of the photos of her girls. She has a real flair for style, and is not a fan of the ‘traditional Christmas elements’, like everything red & green, etc. (Neither am I.) Although they do go to my church, so they are not that far from traditional Christmas. ; )  So anyway, it is one of my big creative gigs I take on every year, because the mom/my client leaves the whole planning up to me, from beginning to end!

We usually meet in the fall for a consult, and by then I’ve usually brainstormed an idea, and she is always thrilled with it!   I pitch to her what I have envisioned.  She gets anything we need for the photo shoot, such as particular clothing for the girls, etc.   Once the photo shoot is done, I allow her so many photos to choose for me to work with, and then I completely custom design their whole Christmas card.  She always places a big order for not only the Christmas cards I designed, but lots of prints of the photos I took.  So all of my efforts are well worth it, in the end.

It’s a really FUN project for me, because she not only gives me SO much creative freedom, from planning the photo-shoot that involves where we will shoot, what the girls will wear, and the kind of shots I want, to designing the whole card. But also because she APPRECIATES all of it so much!  She gets SO excited when her cards, envelopes and photos are in.  Giddy, even.  It’s really nice to have someone appreciate your creativity on that level.  And I love seeing and working with the girls and their mom, every year.

This year, our 3rd working together, was the first year I planned their photo-shoot in my studio.  I had such ‘visions’ in my head, and even had a general idea of how I wanted to design the card, all before our consult took place, and photographed the girls. So I was thrilled that once again, the mom was on board with my idea.   The theme this year, was CANDY / SWEETS.  I had the mom looking for big swirly pops, but all she ended up finding was these marshmallow pops, which ended up being so much fun!

Just to let you know, I never use the names of children I work with on the net.  Or last names.

Here are the girls, on my ‘swing’ in my studio, in their white nighties their mom bought just for this shoot. They are 4 years old and 6 years old now.

This is the oldest girl.  She is so polite, very co-operative, and such a darling.  She has grown so much in the past 3 years, and is quite the little lady now.

Her little sister, is a real spit-fire!  What a doll, huh? She gave me a run for my money the first year I worked with her, when she was 2 years old!!  But I don’t quit easily, and it sure paid off that first year.  I know how to work with kids, if I do say so myself.  Sometimes, it just takes time and patience, all of which I needed that first year.  But when I want the shots, I’m going to get them. ; )   This year, now that the girls are that much older, they were both a dream to work with.

I love this photo, and I love the memory of taking it.  Her and I were belting out the song, ‘Party in the U.S.A.’.  It was hilarious, because you know how kids think certain words in a song are something other than they really are?  Because that’s what they think they are hearing?? Well, we were singing, and she’s telling me, “No no….that’s not how it goes.  It goes like this….”. <She sings.> I was cracking up.  Her mom was shocked I knew the song so well. lol

I took lots of shots, most especially because I was having so much fun taking them, and being with these girls.   So it was really hard to narrow down what we had, and choose what we were going to use for the card.  There were several we just HAD to use.  So once we figured that out, I got to designing the card, that was in my head.

I started with designing ‘digital paper’, or a background to work with.  I was definitely stuck on using pink this year.  I also knew I wanted to incorporate candy in the design.

So I ended up sketching out candy/sweets on paper, and refining the drawings with a sharp black marker pen.  Then I scanned them into my computer, and made them into digital brushes, to be able to work with them.

This is how the front of the card came out.  It’s 5×7, with the fold at the top.

This is the spread inside, when opened.  As you can see, I was determined to use several photos!!  Check out the middle photo–I thought it was so funny!! Their expressions are a hoot.  I really wanted to use the photos that showed their fun side, and personalities the most, because in the past, the cards I had done were very different from each other, but both very classic in style.   Here, I did blur their last family name, and the girl’s names, on the card for privacy sake on the internet.  But I loved the little piece of candy I put in between each name along the bottom of the card.

I always do something fun on the back.    The mom is also really nice about letting me brand myself/my work on the back of their cards, however I want to.  All of my work is branded, but I go a little bigger on these, because I can, and because I’m so happy with them in the end.    Another thing to note about this card in particular, is that although these images above are the images I sent to have the card printed,  the actual card was printed in PEARL paper, with UV gloss.  (Unlike how flat in color they look here. )  So, the entire card printed,  has a real pretty pearl shimmer to it, when it’s in your hand,  and then has a glossy coat over it.  They feel so nice too! They were simply  GORGEOUS.

If anyone would like to see the previous year’s work/card (2007 & 2008)  for this family, I’d be happy to dig those up and share them too!!  As I said, the creative freedom this client gives me, makes it all such a joy for me.  I’m looking forward to next year, already.

Share this: