Snappin’ | Baby Rabies

In Their Natural Habitat

Posted by Jill on February 18, 2012 7 Comments

Watch as the young male builds shelter to protect him from wild dogs, crazy cats and unleashed little sisters…

Now observe the tiny female as she steadies herself on her feet and explores her surroundings by shoving every bright piece of plastic into her mouth. She then scatters her stockpile of toys to take daily inventory, pretending not to hear the calls of the older male sibling baiting her to his shelter, where he would likely trap her and leave her for the dogs…

My house, my kids, National Geographic style.

Kendall is 3 years 9 months and Leyna is nearly 14 months old

Filed Under: Round 2, Snappin', Terrifying Threes |Tagged With: daily life, lifestyle photography, National geographic, pictures |7 Comments

Dream Job: I Have One!

Posted by Jill on February 14, 2012 27 Comments

I remember being 25, in the midst of my quarter-life crisis, dreaming of the perfect job, doing what I love and getting paid for it. Only problem was I didn’t know what that job would be. I didn’t know what I really loved. You know, I was all quarter-lifey and conflicted and stuff.

So I would just whine to my friends who lived on my computer (since I found myself half way across the country from “in real life” friends and family) about how I didn’t think I’d ever find my path in life. Oh, so dark and twisty. I was all emo dressed in Ann Taylor LOFT with a few too many first world problems.

6ish years later, and I’ve just secured 2 jobs in the last month that spurred from all those online relationships I started years ago, and from this blog, and mainly from my love for all things that have grown from my accidental induction into the world of social media.

I’m officially doing what I love AND getting paid for it. Take THAT, quarter-life crisis.

Granted, I’m sure that money will go toward paying for my social media/photography/blogging addiction that got me in this mess in the first place, but at least this “hobby” is finally paying for itself.

I’m so excited to announce that I’m now in charge of Blog Relations for Clickin’ Moms! I’ve seen so many of the friends I’ve grown up with online blossom as phenomenal photographers over the last few years (like Ariana, Megan and Mollie), and many have gone on to work with CM. It’s serendipitous that I am joining them in this way, and it feels like a perfect fit.

I’m coordinating an awesome new Blogger Ambassador Panel for them, consisting of some AMAZING bloggers who are well on their way with their photography journey, and I know they will thrive with the help of all the Clickin’ Moms resources.

Casey from Moosh In Indy
Jacinda from Prudent Baby
Mandy from The Haps
Beth from I Should Be Folding Laundry
Jessica from Momma’s Gone City

You should definitely check them all out and follow them to see the progress they’ll make in their photography over the next few months. Our goal is to make the blogosphere a little bit prettier by mastering our fancy cameras and using them to help us tell heartfelt stories, and we want to teach you great things with visually inspiring tutorials.

And, we want you to learn with us! We’ll be sharing our aha! moments and any tricks we learn along the way, but we’d also LOVE to get to know you more over on the Clickin’ Moms forums. They’re not just for aspiring professional photographers. They’re for moms and non-moms, hobbyists and bloggers, and anyone who wants to enhance the way they document their lives.

Want to see what it’s all about before you commit to a membership? Try it out for FREE for 7 days with the code BABYRABIES. Ready to jump in? Save 20% off your membership with code BABYRABIES20 (starting at $30 for 6 months or $50 for a year). In my opinion, the cost of membership is worth it based on the free tutorials, alone.

And, and, AND… I get to go to Blissdom in Nashville next week on behalf of Clickin’ Moms! So if you’re going to be there, find me, let’s talk pictures! And probably kids and sleep and wine while we’re at it, not gonna lie. I’m happy to take you on a little laptop tour of the forums and answer any questions you have.

Hooray for getting paid to play on the internet and take pictures! What more could a girl hope for? Well, I mean, I would also love this job…

… just, you know, in case anyone you know is looking to hire a professional, wine-drinking pinner. I’m happy to add that to my growing list of responsibilities. I’ll even work for minimum wage with no benefits.

Filed Under: Blogging, Snappin' |Tagged With: blissdom, clickin moms, photography forums, social media job |27 Comments

Rainy Day Paint Tape Town

Posted by Jill on February 13, 2012 13 Comments

My friend Sarah posted this pin on Pinterest this weekend, and it made the Popular page- for good reason!

Source: Uploaded by user via Sarah on Pinterest

It’s funny how we spend all this money on toys and entertainment for our kids, and it’s the $3 roll of painters tape in the garage that keeps them occupied the longest.

It’s a rainy, cold day here and I neglected to plan a play date, so that means all the conditions are perfectly brewing for maximum whining and big headaches. I remembered Sarah’s super idea, so I busted out a half roll of painters tape and randomly taped some shapes on our floor. It started out as an obstacle course, and then it turned into a town.

Paint Tape Town

We built buildings, drove cars and trucks down the blue streets, and even put some fields of grass and parking lots in (thanks to some FLOR carpet tile samples I’ve been hanging on to).

For all the attitude and the tantrums, I love this age. His imagination inspires me and his persistence amazes me. That log cabin fell down at least 4 times before he got it built exactly how he envisioned, windows and all. It’s “the office where daddy works, very far away.”

I think we’ll be buying more painters tape soon. Heck, I think I’ll be giving a roll of it at every birthday this year. Thanks for the inspiration, Sarah!

Kendall is 3 years 9 months old

Filed Under: Snappin', Terrifying Threes |Tagged With: paint tape town, painters tape, rainy day, toddler activities |13 Comments

Don’t Be Hanging Babies From Trees- A Newborn Photography Safety Lesson from Jennifer Dell

Posted by Jill on February 3, 2012 28 Comments

I’m excited to have a very informative, important guest post for you all today from Jennifer Dell, a photographer located in Tomball, TX (near Houston). If you are pregnant or have a newborn photo shoot coming up, or even if you are a beginning photographer who’s planning to take pictures of newborns, this is all really valuable information. Jennifer covers everything, so I’m just going to turn it over to her.

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We’ve all seen the super cute newborn photos of baby with her head in her hands or of baby hanging from a tree branch or in an awesome wood basket. What a lot of parents and even new photographers, might not know is that these images are composites. A composite is when you take two, or more, images and combine them very carefully in photoshop in order to create the look that the photographer wanted as an end result. Safety during newborn sessions is becoming a rather hot topic at the moment and when you hire a photographer to help you capture your sweet new baby please be sure that they are taking all the safety precautions to ensure that your baby, and their well-being, are top priority.

This is an example of a composite image is of just the prop set up. The second shot is of the prop set up alone. The first is of baby in the large wooden basket with my assistant helping to brace his head even though it was mainly resting on the edge of the basket (and blanket). She was in constant contact with him at all times while he was in the basket.

Sometimes there is an older sibling that is excited about the new baby and of course we all want to capture that excitement. I have always found that it is best when the older child is surrounded by mom and dad to ensure that baby is safe incase the older child gets too excited.

Even when baby is just on a beanbag posing ottoman it is essential that either an assistant or mom and dad be very close by incase baby rolls over (yes it can happen, I’ve seen some very strong newborns!). Even if baby seems to be comfortable and able to hold the position fine on their own it is always good to have a helpful hand to help brace their sweet little heads as most do not have the proper neck strength to keep their heads from bobbling over to the side. In this image I just cloned out my assistants hands in photoshop.

I know that I have been mainly referring to newborns in this article, however proper safety precautions should always be taken with children and babies. In this image, I had my assistant ducked down just below the frame in front of the girls, their mom behind them ducked down just below the counter and their grandma off to the camera’s left just out of the frame in case one of the girls decided it was time to jump down.

Below are a couple more examples of composites or where I cropped mom/dad out or even cloned them out! The main goal of a photo session for your new baby is safety, while we all love those squishy sweet photos, we need to remember that they are little lives, not dolls and that their health and well being should come first at all times. Here are a few do’s and don’ts to remember for your newborns first photo shoot…

Do’s…

Do remember that they have very fragile bodies and they need support in those popular poses.

Do remember to take baby’s cues seriously… if he/she starts to become uncomfortable at any point. STOP. No pose is worth injuring your child or causing them to be uncomfortable.

Do make sure that the temperature in the home or studio is appropriate for a little baby… as they cannot regulate their body temperatures.

Do keep baby’s safety the top priority.

Do make sure that you are taking time to stop and feed baby or comfort them, bonding is very important in these first few weeks (and beyond) and should be continued even if there is a photo shoot. Newborn shoots can be quite long so take frequent breaks.

Do talk with your photographer about your concerns and their training with photographing newborns.

Do speak up and take an active roll during the shoot. If you are uncomfortable with a pose, just say so, your photographer is there to help you capture memories of your baby and family and will be happy to listen and stop if you wish.

Do try to capture lots of lifestyle images of you with your new baby, as these will be the most treasured when your child is growing.

Do find a professional photographer that has experience photographing newborns.

Don’ts

Don’t literally hang a baby from anything without the proper set up and assistance and even then think twice as most of the “hanging” images are actually composites where they have photoshopped baby into the image.

Don’t leave baby unattended, at any time.

Don’t try to recreate an image if you (or your photographer) do not have the proper training or knowledge.

Don’t try to force a pose.

Don’t treat baby as an object, but remember that he/she is a human life and needs to be treated as such.

Don’t use heavy materials around baby’s face due to suffocation hazards.

Don’t place a space heater directly in front of baby but keep it a little further away.

If you keep safety a top priority you will, no doubt, end up with beautiful photos and a happy, healthy, baby.

*Disclaimer, these are merely my observations, tips and knowledge, (I am not a doctor). Please consult with your pediatrician and photographer for their recommendations prior to a newborn shoot.

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A huge thanks to Jennifer for addressing this topic here. Please spread the word with any new or expecting moms you know. I confess that up until recently I thought many of these poses were achieved by magically posing the baby in these positions and then stepping away to take the picture. It boggled my mind, but I figured I just didn’t have enough talent to pull it off (though I never tried). It’s easy to look at a beautiful picture and not realize all the technical/not magical steps involved in creating it.

Jennifer is obviously very generous and talented. You can find her on Facebook and over on her blog if you’d like to see more of her gorgeous work.