It’s with a heavy heart I must share Baby A & her families one year session! Ever sense we did her six month session I’ve waiting for this day to come & now that it has I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself! Almost right after Papa J booked Baby A’s first session Mama M & I started sharing our enthusiasm about her first birthday session! Cake Smashes have got to be my favorite thing to do. If I could only do one thing the rest of my photography career it would definitely be cake smashes!
It’s always so amazing how much babies as well as their parents grow in such a short amount of time! Jarett & Matoka seem like they’ve grown so much closer together as a couple but were still the overly affectionate parents I remember from our prior session! Baby A had a smile that could warm even the coldest heart… but something changed in six months! She’s now so menacing it’s ridiculous!
Just kidding… she’s as sweet as ever & was amazing at keeping herself busy! J & M make such a cute couple that I couldn’t help spend a little extra time with them taking some adorable couple photos. There was so much going on around us & despite this & all the distractions Baby A was the perfect little model & pretty much let her parents do whatever they needed to do.
When it came time to do her CS we started to loose her. Baby A’s curiosity grew too strong & she was more interested in the flowers behind her! (I still can’t help but show off her adorable ensemble!) I love customizing outfits almost as much as I love making sets! I made the little Mossy Crowns months before & I’m always looking for an excuse to use them (which is how we ended up with a bit more of a rustic woodland set, sorry Matoka!)
This was my first outdoor Cake Smash so of course I was a little nervous on how it would turn out! It’s a lot easier having an indoor set simply because you only have a small amount of space to fill when you’re outdoors there are so many other factors to take into consideration! After lots of trips to Michaels & lots of burns from the hot glue gun later, I’ve got to say though this is probably my favorite cake smash to date & I’m so happy I got this experience with this wonderful little lady! I had a general idea of where I wanted to get setup after out family session & while I waited for my little brother to bring the cake from home I scouted the area. I found a beautiful tree with some low hanging vines & it looked just perfect! I was about to go back to my car & move everything a little further down (so I wouldn’t have to make ten trips) but than I saw something that instantly changed me mind. Wrapped around one of the low hanging vines was a HUGE snake that was making it’s way into an opening of the tree. The tree I was about to set a baby in front of. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. Thankfully there was a beautiful location much closer to us!
Though Baby A was a little angel the majority of our shoot the last 30 minutes of Baby A was growing pretty tired of our shenanigans & was about ready for her nap. We couldn’t let this delicious cake go to waste though! Thankfully we had a mommy, daddy, & photographer with enough enthusiasm to go around! Baby A wasn’t about to dig into her cake either, she was content with a chunk of icing on the side of the cake so we had to help her a little bit & get her hands dirty! (Photos Below) It was a great excuse for all of us hungry adults to grab a chunk of cake or glob of icing while Baby A regained her composure.
I spend so much time directing clients & trying to get them comfortable with the whole process when we first start that my shoots normally run a couple of hours! At the point it just comes natural for Jarett & Matoka but I still can’t help spending all my morning with them! I look for any excuse to extend our time together a little more than necessary! You can ask any of my clients, most of our sessions are spent exchanging funny jokes that the little ones thankfully don’t understand or telling stories of something ridiculously stupid that happened to us ‘not to long ago’. I don’t run a lot anymore but my mouth sure does! (If only that burned calories) .
There’s never a down time, especially with this couple & I love it. I’ve absolutely loved getting to know this family over the last six months & I’m so incredibly thankful that they’ve tolerated my shenanigans throughout the time! Hopefully there will be lots more oatmeal cream pies & root beer floats in the near future!
Behind the Scenes!
People always ask me how to keep a baby happy through the session & how I get them to stay on their best behavior the whole time! I think people assume that because I always post pictures of such happy babies that I have some magical power over the little ones (which I try & convince myself that I do sometimes) & that all the happy giggling photos you see throughout our session is what it is in real life! One thing I love about working with babies is that they’re unpredictable & take no direction! Babies never do what you truly want them to so sometimes it takes lots of fart noises & lots of patience!
Thankfully I always have a mommy or daddy that’s willing to help!
