And...They're Back!

Back to School, that is!!

So we decided to try out a few photography ideas.  My husband is not only a great & involved dad and hard worker at a real day job, he also manages to squeeze in being a photographer and yes, we experiment for session ideas with our own children.  Better to practice on them than on a paying client, no?  We have a lot of fun with shadow pics and we wondered what would happen with silhouette cut-outs.  Now we know.  I think this will come in extra handy in the future.  It's easy to do.  I just grabbed poster board and printed out the letters I wanted using my printer.  The BTS (for back to school) was sized 6x8 each and the 2011 was sized at 5x7 each.  I printed, cut them out, then arranged them onto the poster board.  I taped them down, traced around them and cut them out with an exacto knife.  Then, we handed it over to the kids to hold and hubby snapped away! You have to practice with flipping the poster around properly. I believe it was upside and backwards...that's what made it "read-able" left to right once the pic was snapped.  The possibilities are endless and I'd to see any examples if some readers give it a try!

Then, we grabbed an apple (the most needed accessory for back to school, of course).  We also grabbed books that the kids are really into now, and some chalkboards.  The idea is to "remember" through photos what they were reading at the time.  For my daughter, it's Barbie, Barbie, Barbie and more Barbie.  So, her books were...you guessed it, Barbie!  My son's tastes are a little more eclectic, and he's very into series books right now.  His favorites are Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  We wanted to remember this years from now, so we included it in the shot.  We sat them on a bench and hubby snapped away.  I love how it turned out.  It's the perfect little "scrapbook page" to remember the start of kindergarten and 4th grade!

The chalkboards were included to remember what year we snapped these.  It's also a great way to see what their handwriting looks like each year.  For example, 4th grade is an "all-cursive" year and he's been practicing all summer his best John Hancock.  I know my kindergarten's signature will lose it's baby look in a year or two and I want to remember how cute it is that her dotted i's are still sticks with swirly circles.  I'm not a big fan of keeping every little scrap of paper they've ever written on, so this was a great way in one shot to capture everything I want to remember about this year!

Oh...and we totally gave ourselves permission NOT to try and capture the back to school shots ON the first day of school.  We did this the day before.  If I've learned anything by having a 4th grader, it's to forget getting great shots on the first morning of school.  It's just too hectic and crazy.  We still took the camera in hand on the first day to make sure the moment was captured for their scrapbooks...but these shots!?  These were for mama's scrapbook, and I know I'll treasure them.

I hope you have a chance to capture some nice BTS photos of your kiddos too!  And go ahead, I give you permission to snap them a week late!

Happy Snapping & Happy Learning!

PS - If you'd like to see more of hubby's passion for photography, you can do so over at www.eidenphotography.com.  Be sure to come say "hi" on Facebook, too!

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