photographing babes

photograph of newborn taken by my very talented cousin-in-law Camilla! 

Digital photography has opened up endless possibilities for capturing moments in a child's life. The medium means that no flash is needed, there are multiple chances at getting the 'right' shot, images are easily manipulated, and sharing can be instant. 

photographs by Anne Geddes

I can only imagine the trials Anne Geddes needed to go through to create her brilliant images. Shooting long before digital photography was available, Geddes was a trailblazer of baby photography and completely changed the way people looked at portraiture. The setup time required, the creation of props, the unlikeliness of having cooperative subjects... then the angst prior to developing the film must have been considerable. Geddes greeting cards, calendars and books have been sought after since the early 1990's. Geddes still shoots and devotes much time and effort to philanthropic causes. 

Small babies are ideal still life subjects - when they are asleep: posable, not likely to move, and asleep for extended periods! This has negated all the problems associated trying to get a newborn to smile for a camera - or at least to look a little bit awake. Some people have been having a lot of fun and results are very creative. I love the simplicity of the Blackboard Adventures shot by Anna of Cute Moments Photography.

photo from cutemomentsphotography.com

A couple of mothers have turned their passions into lucrative careers, popular blogs, collections and even book contracts. Queenie Liao created Wengenn in Wonderland using her son as the subject in elaborate scenarios.

photo from facebook.com/Wengenn.wonderland

Adele Enersen started a blog posing her sleeping daughter in various poses entitled Mila's Daydreams. The collection later published in the book When My Baby Dreams.

photo by adele enersen, found at fashionisintheair.com/2011/01/milas-daydreams-adele-enersen

photo from: harpercollinschildrens.com/books

Action Movie Kid is taking all of this digital fun to an extreme. With a dad employed by Dreamworks, this toddler has the most awesomely documented (!) life. My children couldn't stop laughing at the short (mostly around 10 second) movies made by James' father Daniel Hashimoto.

video still from youtube.com/user/theActionMovieKid

believe dream inspire

I LOVE when the kids pull on their creativity hats. It has become somewhat of a tradition for the kids to submit an artwork to the Reflections Art Competition. This year was Luc's 5th submission, Nic's 3rd and Mietta's 1st. Run by each school's PTA, Reflections is a national competition that has a 40+ year history.

The process was a little painful this year. I had given the kids the WHOLE summer to give their submission some thought. This year's theme was "Believe, Dream, Inspire". Nothing like a firm (and close) deadline to inspire and motivate. 

Luc had wanted to make a movie about going to Mars. He had completed a series of storyboard cards and some test shots... but this is where his project stalled. As Paul and I were madly finishing his Halloween costume at the same time his Reflections submission was due, we suggested that Luc somehow document the costume-making process. This challenge he took up with enthusiasm - and did an admirable job. I figured he would use some Doctor Who music for his soundtrack, but ended up using Beethovan's Moonlight Sonata - which worked brilliantly with the frenetic pace of his movie. 

Mietta has been making many Healthy/Unhealthy eating charts - madly cutting and gluing images found in supermarket flyers and catalogues. Healthy eating and Happiness became her theme. I helped with the cutting of cardboard while Mietta directed (!)

Nic's preferred media became apparent after finding many interesting images appear on my iPad (via Photobooth and other photo-manipulating programs). His brother and sister became his willing (if somewhat silly) models. 

We were thrilled to hear that each child won first prize in each of their respective categories. Perhaps the submissions were somewhat slim this year? Regardless, we look forward to seeing how their submissions do at County level. 

Great Train Race

I'm proud of the kids. They completed their third Great Train Race! ...well, third year as Nic and Mietta ran the Caboose (400m) race for the first year. This race is one mile in length and is for children only. It is very well organized, punctual with an emphasis on fun and participation. There are separate heats for each age group and for each gender. There are some very fast kids - the fastest this year was a local 16yo, completing the mile in 4:41! In fact there were five boys completing the race in under 5 minutes. 
All children bettered their times from last year. Luc beat his last year's time by 23 seconds, Mietta by 1min 8 sec and Nic by 1min 54 seconds!
After finishing the race, we went to Carl's for an ice-cream or shake... as this seems to have become our GTR day tradition! 

Play Dough

Master 5 is constructing an artwork at the moment using the theme 'beauty is'. I asked him to brainstorm ideas for what 'beauty is'... he came up with a list, including "hundreds of colors of play dough mixed together". I thought he might somehow be able to incorporate play dough in his artwork - so went in search of a recipe - so we could mix up a variety of colors (but not necessarily hundreds!)

I have been put off by play dough recipes in the past - due to the vast quantities produced, or the massive amounts of cream of tatar required (an expensive addition when all one can buy are small containers at high prices).

I found the following recipe over at Moms who think blog. This blog also includes a number of edible dough recipes!

Here is the recipe.

PLAY DOUGH

Ingredients

1 cup flour

½ cup salt

1 cup water

1 tblsp oil

2 tsp cream of tatar

Food coloring

Directions

Place all ingredients except food coloring) into saucepan. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, until a ball forms (ingredients form a stiff dough).

Divide dough into several balls. Carefully mix color gel through each ball of dough until desired color is reached.

Store in a ziploc bag or covered container.

Notes

I have been using the Wilton color gel food coloring. I was recommended this brand by my friend Jo - who always came up with 'dramatic' looking cakes - the colors of which I could never obtain with the supermarket food dyes I had been using. These gel colors have been a good investment as they have lasted a number of cake and cookie events.

In the future I will buy bleached, cheap flour - it seemed a little extravagant using organic, unbleached and unbromated flour for this purpose ;-)

Apparently, cream or tatar is a by-product of wine-making.... so if you have a vineyard handy, this might be able to be purchased it in large quantities for a reasonable price.

This is the artwork produced by Master 5. He won first prize at his school and at County level. He won a Highly Commended at District level.