I have become one of those people. I thought I'd just do it the first year, the cheesy Christmas photo of the babies (lets face it that will always happen) made into a Christmas card. I just can't resist though and I love trying to get that perfect photo! (The enjoyment is in equal parts to the stress!)
Anyway, it's happening and this year was actually a bit easier than last year. Last year we were trying to get the babies to sleep and look all cute next to each other, on top of my old baby blanket placed over some fairy lights. At 5 weeks, it just wasn't happening - had I not found my recovery and those first couple of weeks getting to grips with twins and breastfeeding so difficult, I would have tried to get some decent photos of the twins in those first sleepy weeks after they were born.
This year, I was prepared. During their morning/midday nap, I got the 'stage' set, practised settings using stand in 'models' and made sure it looked right in the camera before we tried putting the babies anywhere near. I also had props on standby to keep them occupied/entertained/in one place!
I settled on Christmas jumpers with jeans for their outfits, with the back up of their Christmas day outfits for if we needed/had cooperation for a change. I had a couple of plastic star baubles and a couple of pine cones to give them in the hopes they'd stay put and I had my own headpiece to try to get them looking in my direction! (More on that little DIY Pin It Do It project on the blog soon!)
My set up this year was to put a lot of fairy lights all over our headboard, cover them with a sheet to hide the wires and let the lights shine through. I put a white sheet on our mattress to hopefully blend into the background. Unfortunately only a few lights were shining through as the sheet was billowing forward due to the lights pushing so I had to try to stretch it as tight as possible to show all the lights. Pegs helped but keeping it taut at the top was tricky so I stuffed some jumpers down the back which pulled the sheet tight and held against the wall.
Nothing is ever simple though of course and when the babies woke, the sun had come out and was shining full force onto the bed. Nightmare! Shadows, harsh light, not what I wanted! I hastily pegged up a sheet in front of the window as closing the blind would make it too dark.
Finally having my diffused light, stage set and models ready, rested and not too hungry, my two fabulous assistants (Nik and Mum) plonked them down and we hoped for magic! I'll share my favourites closer to Christmas, once I've actually sent out my cards, but for now, here are a few out-takes!
Later in the day, I happened to go back into our bedroom to find we'd left the fairy lights on and they were much more noticeable. I hadn't wanted to leave it so late as I thought the dark light would be difficult (blurring moving babies and all) but tried another test shot on the bears and liked the result so thought it was worth a try. It was! The lights showed up so much better without so much light shining into the room and I managed a few shots with the ISO cranked right up. There were still a lot of blurry ones though.
And the lights being more obvious meant Kalyan was a little too interested in them ;)
I also tried a few with the big Santa hats I bought for a different idea which needs to be done in the dark. I have to say, those shots were mostly of the hat in the process of being removed! Priya especially did NOT want to wear a hat today, lol. Cue even more blurry ones as I frantically tried to focus before the hat was removed!
It soon got to late afternoon nap time and they started losing it so we had to give up but I'm pleased with quite a few of the hundreds I took! :)
Anyway, it's happening and this year was actually a bit easier than last year. Last year we were trying to get the babies to sleep and look all cute next to each other, on top of my old baby blanket placed over some fairy lights. At 5 weeks, it just wasn't happening - had I not found my recovery and those first couple of weeks getting to grips with twins and breastfeeding so difficult, I would have tried to get some decent photos of the twins in those first sleepy weeks after they were born.
This year, I was prepared. During their morning/midday nap, I got the 'stage' set, practised settings using stand in 'models' and made sure it looked right in the camera before we tried putting the babies anywhere near. I also had props on standby to keep them occupied/entertained/in one place!
I settled on Christmas jumpers with jeans for their outfits, with the back up of their Christmas day outfits for if we needed/had cooperation for a change. I had a couple of plastic star baubles and a couple of pine cones to give them in the hopes they'd stay put and I had my own headpiece to try to get them looking in my direction! (More on that little DIY Pin It Do It project on the blog soon!)
My set up this year was to put a lot of fairy lights all over our headboard, cover them with a sheet to hide the wires and let the lights shine through. I put a white sheet on our mattress to hopefully blend into the background. Unfortunately only a few lights were shining through as the sheet was billowing forward due to the lights pushing so I had to try to stretch it as tight as possible to show all the lights. Pegs helped but keeping it taut at the top was tricky so I stuffed some jumpers down the back which pulled the sheet tight and held against the wall.
Nothing is ever simple though of course and when the babies woke, the sun had come out and was shining full force onto the bed. Nightmare! Shadows, harsh light, not what I wanted! I hastily pegged up a sheet in front of the window as closing the blind would make it too dark.
Finally having my diffused light, stage set and models ready, rested and not too hungry, my two fabulous assistants (Nik and Mum) plonked them down and we hoped for magic! I'll share my favourites closer to Christmas, once I've actually sent out my cards, but for now, here are a few out-takes!
 |
| Priya liked the pine cones a little too much! Munch munch munch. |
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| Kalyan trying to escape from Priya's kisses! |
Later in the day, I happened to go back into our bedroom to find we'd left the fairy lights on and they were much more noticeable. I hadn't wanted to leave it so late as I thought the dark light would be difficult (blurring moving babies and all) but tried another test shot on the bears and liked the result so thought it was worth a try. It was! The lights showed up so much better without so much light shining into the room and I managed a few shots with the ISO cranked right up. There were still a lot of blurry ones though.
 |
| Fighting over pine cones. |
And the lights being more obvious meant Kalyan was a little too interested in them ;)
I also tried a few with the big Santa hats I bought for a different idea which needs to be done in the dark. I have to say, those shots were mostly of the hat in the process of being removed! Priya especially did NOT want to wear a hat today, lol. Cue even more blurry ones as I frantically tried to focus before the hat was removed!
 |
| She even helped to release Kalyan from the evil of the hat! lol |
1 comment:
Love this Bex! Can't wait to see the faves.
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