Underwater photo shoot with Little Dolphin

by Bex

I mentioned in my post with my underwater snaps of the twins that we had a professional shoot booked at Oaklands pool where we take the babies for swimming lessons.  We had a great time with Zac, the photographer from Little Dolphin Images and the 'baby handler' for the day, Roz from Swim2me.

Obviously the set up was much better than when I hired the pool with Mum & Dad to assist me with the babies and my little G11 compact in it's housing.  Zac had a blue backdrop to hide the tiles on the side of the pool and of course the full underwater set up with an SLR housing and two strobes as well as off camera lighting.  My Dad took some photos of the shoot, (with permission from Zac) since we were the only ones in that time slot, so we got some behind the scenes pictures of us in the pool too.

We saw some of the photos as the shoot progressed and we loved them!  I was so excited to see them all and select the ones we wanted to buy.  They are fantastic and we ended up with a great selection!

It was very relaxed and went so quickly as we had fun trying a few different shots including a surprisingly successful attempt to capture both twins together underwater!

Luckily the babies are quite relaxed underwater (particularly Priya) thanks to our fantastic lessons with Rebecca from Love Baby Swim School.  We've now completed two terms over the last 3 months and the babies have made some great progress.

We also got some with flowing fabric, I think the one of Priya looks like she has wings:

And we got a family shot (where I was more of an issue as I hate opening my eyes underwater and water going up my nose but I managed to suffer for the art and put on a smile!)

As far as professional photography goes, Zac's prices are very reasonable, especially for a specialist shoot like underwater.  The shoot itself was £40 (per child so pricier for us with the twins at £80) and there was a choice afterwards of how many images you want instead of having to buy a package.  For just one image it was £69 but we opted for the package of 10 for £119 and paid an extra £10 for black & white conversions.  I thought about doing that part myself as we get high res digital images but given I am already struggling to find time to edit my own images of the twins and it was only £10 extra, we thought it was worth it, plus Zac does a better job than I could anyway!

In total it cost £210 which is about the same as our other professional shoots of the bump and newborn images we had done by Lauren, Laura and Jude.  Again, this was something I would have regretted if we didn't do it, plus I picked up some tips for having another go myself too ;)  It's just as well we're good at finding bargains for everything else since I keep spending so much on photos!

Pin it do it - Baby collage

by Bex

I always liked the idea of taking lots of close up pictures of the twins to keep a record of all those little details.  I saw these collages on Pinterest (one 3 years ago and one 5 weeks ago) and wanted to make one myself for each baby.  I think they look great in classic black & white and will be great to look back on as my babies grow up, it's happening so fast!  I'm having trouble keeping up with my own photos, editing and printing, never mind plans such as photo books!  This is a small, easy project I could manage with fewer precious hours.

I've finally managed it after almost 7 months ;)  I took most of the photos when Priya took a nap the other day while I had 3 grandparents around helping out which let me finally find my macro lens and get arty.  I plan to try to get more photos (e.g. of her belly button and teeth) but for now, I've just used what I have.  I made it without looking back at Pinterest first and didn't think to get a shot of her fluffy hair as well so I'll be adding that in too.

Here is Priya's:

Kalyan's is still unfinished as I had even fewer suitable ones of him since he napped in a more tricky position.  I need to get some of his hands as well as his belly button (they were both dressed).  Naps are useful for this project since they are SO active now and apparently hate to keep still for even a second!  It would definitely be easier to do for a newborn but then there wouldn't be the fun expressive pictures in the centre.

Lash Envy!

by Bex

 

Kalyan & Priya's Naming Ceremony - The Film

by Bex

I have some photos to share of the twins' naming day but what I'm most excited to share is this absolutely gorgeous film which the lovely and talented Anna made for us!

I was thrilled to receive an email from Anna offering to film the day as she is setting up her new business, August Film Company.  And even more thrilled when she sent me through first the mini instagram clip and then the full video complete with the most perfect soundtrack!

Kalyan and Priya from August Film on Vimeo.

Thank you SO much Anna, we love it!  It's such a great way to remember what was such a wonderful day celebrating the twins with our friends and family.  x

My waterbabies

by Bex

Half term means no swimming lessons so the private pool, which is hired out to swimming teachers, is available for private hire.  Mum, Dad and I went on Wednesday with the twins.  For the 3 of us plus babies it cost just £20 for an hour (although she said we could take as long as we needed as no one had booked after us so we had a full hour in the pool before getting out to dry and change everyone)!

I've just realised that I haven't actually managed to blog about our swimming lessons yet but I think we started them at around 12 weeks.  We've now done two terms and the twins are very happy in the water and not bothered at all about being splashed or completely dunked under the water.  It's great seeing them progress and actually reach for and hold the floating balls they previously ignored and they always hold on to the edge when we reach the side of the pool now too.  They also close their eyes on hearing the dunking command, ready to hit the water.  They've only cried once or twice the entire time we've been going and we suspect that was more down to tiredness as they've coped even if they've accidentally taken in some water and come up coughing!

We have actually booked a place at the 'official' underwater photo shoot this Sunday but I wanted to have a go myself with my little compact housing set up.  I planned on waiting until after the shoot to get a better idea of what to do (since babies are quite different to the sealife I'm used to photographing!) but we wanted to take advantage of the pool while Grampy is still here (and he goes home on Monday).  We just had some fun doing the usual dunking exercises we do in swimming class.  I showed Mum and Dad (who watched one of the classes too) how to handle the babies safely and this enabled me to get underwater with the camera and grab some snaps.  I'm not bothered about photoshopping out Mum or the edges of the pool (to be honest I'm not sure I'd be that good at it anyway) as I just wanted to record the underwater fun at this stage.  I do hope to try again and get some more professional looking shots after the shoot (I think I already know how to improve them next time), as well as the proper professional ones from the shoot as well!

Anyway, here are my best snaps from our hour in the pool:

And my favourite images of my underwater babies:

I love his hilarious underwater face!

It was a brilliant way to spend an afternoon, followed by a pub lunch in the sunshine!  :)

Bluebells & Buttercups

by Bex

Yesterday Mum, Dad and I took the twins to Sheffield Park, an absolutely gorgeous National Trust garden close to our new home here in Sussex.  Since the twins learned to sit up on their own just in time for bluebell season, I wanted to try to get some pictures of them sitting in a sea of blue florals.  Sadly most of them were already dying or dead so they weren't quite as prolific in the grounds as I'd hoped but we managed to find a hidden shady spot where there were still quite a few under a large Oak and later we made the most of the early evening light in another patch with much fewer bluebells but some lovely buttercups and a dandelion clock to add some colour and texture to the pictures.  As usual, I've had trouble editing my favourites down to just a few to share here.

It was tricky trying to get a good composition while also thinking about where the babies would be able to sit safely amongst undulating roots and weeds, trying to remove bits of tall grass from being in the way and then also trying to catch them looking in the right direction and with decent expressions, never mind with both of them at once, hence the lack of double pictures!

Mum and Dad were on standby to catch wobbly babes and prevent the nibbling of any flowers and plants which, once she got over the wonderment of where she was, was all Priya wanted to do!  (I have much to catch up on with the blog, including the twins' weaning, but needless to say, Priya LOVES food and seemed to think I had plonked her right into the middle of a huge yummy salad!!)

I loved Kalyan's almost constant look of wonder (confusion?) with his hands out feeling the tall grass & flowers while Priya was constantly stretching and gazing around to see what she could grab (and attempt to eat!)

Whenever we stayed still for a while, the ducks would find us - they were so tame and obviously looking for food, one was rather disappointed that my boot wasn't edible!

After lunch in the tearoom, Mum and I sat on a bench chilling in the sun with the twins while Dad explored more of the grounds.

And then we found the pretty patch of buttercups with much the same expressions (eating and wonderment/confusion) until Dad came back and got gorgeous smiles from Kalyan.

And here are the outtakes (and the reason for no picture of the twins together in the buttercups!):

Poor Priya was getting hungry and tired!  I love how it looks like Kalyan is trying to calm her in the one above and like he's shrugging in the one below!

I obviously swooped in and fed her right after this!  Dad took a few pictures of me breastfeeding while sat in the grass before we left.

Poor hubby was stuck in work while we were all out having fun in the sun!  We might go back to the gardens with MIL & FIL on the bank holiday so Nik can also join us.  I hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend and that we all get more sunshine!  :)