Brainstorming First Year Portrait Ideas

My little Baby Boo will be a year old in September and I have been storing away all sorts of ideas in my head for a while. I posted about party location and cake ideas before, now I'm thinking about the 1 year portraits.

We use a photographer that I went to high school with (way back when). She does an amazing job and she is great with kids. I highly recommend her if you are a Twin City-anite. She is on facebook under SuzanneJean Photography and her her website is http://suzannejean.blogspot.com/. I first used her for Little Dude's 1 year photos last year. I like to do newborn, 6 month, and 1 year professional shots for each kid. Once I am done having babies, I think we will go to doing yearly portraits. It has been really convenient with our current 2 since their birthdays are almost 6 months apart. Little Dude's 2nd year portraits were also Baby Boo's 6 month ones.

With September approaching I remembered that I need to set up our session soon since late summer/early fall is a busy time for photographers. Of course my mind also went to what kind of photos I want to do. I know I definitely want a beautiful outdoor location to take advantage of the (usually) beautiful September weather. Little Dude's birthday is in April which means that everything is gross, cold, and mucky outside so we have been limited with our outdoor options during those sessions. Last year with Baby Boo's newborn session it was unseasonably chilly for September so we opted to do everything inside then too since she was only 7 days old.

Here are a few from Little Dude's 1 year portraits:

Showing off his mural

Deep in thought

Handsome boy!

Playing with daddy

This is a composite of several shots taken at Baby Boo's newborn/ Little Dude's 18 month portraits:

This is now printed onto a canvas and hanging in our living room.

Little Dude's 2 year/Baby Boo's 6 month portraits are the ones currently in the header for this blog:

There are dozens more from each session that will one day (soon) be part of some photobooks.

This time, I am really hoping we can do some gorgeous location somewhere around the Twin Cities for the photo session. I am still scouting spots, but I have a few in mind that I want to run across Suzanne.

As far as the styling and props go, I want to do a smash cake in the grass, a pretty and classic shot, and of course whole family shots. Anything else will be a bonus.

For the pretty and classic shot I am really loving the petti rompers that are so popular right now. So they are definitely more trendy than classic, but I love the pretty lace and I plan to accessorize it with some pearls and a flower headband.

I have been scouring Etsy.com for some cute petti rompers and there are several I love:

Demi Blair Couture

Chicabootique

Stitch to Stitch

Pretty Petals

I am leaning towards a yellow romper with a blue flower, but nothing is ordered yet. I could definitely make my own or have my mom make it - but for the price it is so easy to just order one. My mom has a large collection of pearls so I will be borrowing them from her. I used to dislike the idea of a little baby being posed with grownup accessories like pearls, but one day Baby Boo got ahold of my mom's pearls and I thought she looked so cute with them:

I think it is just a cool juxtaposition (check out my big word eh!) of old/traditional and new.

I'm not sure what kind of outfit I want to put her in for the smash cake shots. . . I'm thinking just a brightly colored bloomer and a matching hair bow would be best to highlight the craziness that is sure to ensue with the cake smashing. I can also enlist my mom to make those for me so there will be barely any cost to it.

I found this photograph on google images that is close to what I'm thinking:

It comes from Heidi Hope Photography

I don't know what colors I want for this but I know I want freaky bright frosting. Baby Boo's actual birthday party smash cake will be much mellower and lower in artificial food coloring, but I can't help myself for the photos. Ooh, maybe something with red velvet cake inside!

For the family shots I want to coordinate everyone, but not be too matchy-matchy either. I haven't thought about that one much yet, but I'm sure I'll have fun shopping for it soon enough. The hard ones to shop for are the boys since little boy clothing departments can be so limited. . . besides stuff with Cars II or Diego on them that is. The hubs is rather tall (6'4"), so his clothing options are sometimes limited too. There needs to be big OR tall sections instead of just big and tall - that would be too convenient I suppose. I will probably shop for the boys first and go from there.

So there are my thoughts on everything so far. I love putting them down here because it has really helped me focus my ideas. I can't wait for September!