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Baby Rabies

pregnancy & parenting

  • Start Here
    • About Baby Rabies
    • Baby Registry Top Picks
    • Favorite Pregnancy Apps
  • The Book
  • Pregnancy
    • Birth Stories
    • Perinatal Mood Disorders
  • Parenthood
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • School Age Kids
    • Parenting LOLZ
  • Photography
    • Photography

      6 Stunning Photos You Would Never Guess Were…

      February 11, 2019

      Photography

      Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your…

      December 13, 2018

      Photography

      I Wrote A Photography eBook And This Is…

      December 6, 2018

      Photography

      Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great…

      November 27, 2018

      Photography

      Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On…

      November 19, 2018

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      The Answer To Last Minute Holiday Gifting For…

      December 19, 2018

      Reviews

      I Was Never A Barbie Girl Until Now

      October 1, 2018

      Reviews

      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

      Reviews

      If Your Kid Loves Dump Trucks & Garbage…

      August 13, 2018

      Reviews

      Nobody Tell My Kids ABC Mouse Is Part…

      September 4, 2017

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baby photography

Photos Are A Life Treasure
ParenthoodPhotography

Moms, Direct Your Own Photos

by Jill April 24, 2018
written by Jill

Sometimes it’s like this, moms:

1. You hand the camera to someone else.

2. You say exactly what you want them to capture.

3. You ask nicely that they please try to capture a flattering angle.

4. But most of all, that they just take a TON OF SHOTS because you are more likely to love one if there are many to choose from.

You take control and you tell people, “Hey! I need a picture with the baby. So here’s the camera. And here’s what I want the picture to look like.” And you don’t delete the shots, even if you think you hate all of them, ok? Don’t look at them for a few months (or years!) if you must. I promise they will age beautifully.

Get the Picture Play eBook and Learn how to take and edited photos on your phone like a pro

It may feel weird in that moment, saying you want someone to take a picture of YOU. I think we stigmatize women wanting photos of themselves in a moment, especially when that moment isn’t a major milestone.

And I think a lot of us have a real barrier up when it comes to asking for this. I know I do! We wish and hope our partners will finally just pick up the camera, and there are tons of posts and articles advising people to take pictures of moms when they don’t ask.

But I’m here to tell you- ASK. And try not to be mad that you had to ask. Don’t just ask, DIRECT. Tell them the picture you wish to have.

Related: Moms, If This Father Is Your Partner, Wake The Hell Up

If your partner is anything like my husband, they will be 1. so glad you reminded them and 2. so glad you told them how to frame up the shot and what you really want.

You can’t rely on someone else to give this gift to you. You give it to yourself. And you give it to your baby. You both deserve it.

Photos are a life treasure, and they are guaranteed to appreciate in value as time goes on. Think about it! They are the most sound investment you can ever make.

So invest.

Be intentional.

April 24, 2018 1 comment
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Get Inspired By These Baby Photo Ideas- Birth to 6 Months
BabiesParenthoodPhotography

Get Inspired By These Baby Photo Ideas- Birth to 6 Months

by Jill July 6, 2017
written by Jill

Babies are my favorite photo subjects- well, up until they can move fast. I think I’d have more success photographing bird poop than a mobile toddler.

Continue Reading
July 6, 2017 1 comment
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Playgroup Week 5: Smartphone Photography Tips
ParenthoodPlaygroupVideos

Playgroup Week 5: Smartphone Photography Tips

by Désirée February 28, 2017
written by Désirée

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This week’s episode of the Baby Rabies Playgroup is all about getting the best results from your smartphone camera. I love my DSLR, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sure you guys can relate to using your iPhone WAY more for taking pics of your kids.

It’s handy. It’s simple. And in today’s episode and I’m going to show you some of my favorite tips and tricks for taking and editing photos with your phone.

Each week we’ve had some amazing brands to share giveaways with you, and this week is no different. One lucky winner is going to get an awesome prize back from our friends at Bebe au Lait, including:

  • Bebe au Lait Classic Muslin Snuggle Blanket
  • Bebe au Lait Classic Muslin Bedtime Sleeper
  • Bebe au Lait Hooded Towel

I’ll also be taking over the @bebeaulait Instagram TOMORROW (March 1st) to share our day, so get ready for lots of Wallace snapshots 😉

Enter below for your chance to win!

Playgroup Week 5: Smartphone Photography Tips

Playgroup #5 Giveaway: Bebe au Lait

February 28, 2017 0 comment
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5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know
BabiesPhotographyPregnancyReviews

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know

by Jill June 1, 2015
written by Jill


I’ve been shooting with a Canon camera and lenses for almost 5 years now, so naturally I was pumped to work with them on a post to encourage new and expecting parents to get behind a camera and document life with baby. Thanks to Canon for sponsoring this post.

I have pictures of my first baby with us in the hospital after he was born. Good friends of ours, photographers, took them.

I cherish them. Not only because they capture those first 24 hours so perfectly with my first squishy newborn, but because I have maybe 2 or 3 more with him from the time we brought him home from the hospital until he was 4 weeks old.

4 weeks may not seem like a long time to go without taking pictures with someone you love, but 4 weeks is an eternity in newborn years. It was also an eternity in new-mom years, and that eternity was full of mastitis, colic, and anxiety.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

It wasn’t that loving, bonding, happy time I thought life with a newborn should be. And so it went undocumented.

By the time I had my 2nd baby 2.5 years later, I regretted that so much that I purchased my first DSLR- a Canon Rebel camera and a Canon EF 50 f/1.4 lens– the month before she was born. I know the saying goes that poor 2nd babies end up with no pictures of their childhood, especially compared to the first, but that’s far from the truth in this house.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

Family photo taken, days before I had Leyna, with my brand new Canon Rebel DSLR camera (on Auto because, wow, it’s overwhelming when you get your first fancy camera!).

By the time I had my 3rd baby another 2.5 years later, I mastered and embraced documenting ALL the baby emotions and moments.

The good..

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

And the kinda rough…

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

If I could pass on 5 bits of wisdom to new and expecting parents when it comes to documenting all the first family moments, they would be:

1. Both parents should be familiar with how to work the camera!

I never even bothered asking my husband to take pictures for me with my first son because he was clueless about lighting and settings. He didn’t even know where the camera was half the time. By the time we had Leyna, our 2nd, he was much more proactive, taking pictures of me even when I was convinced I looked terrible and didn’t want to be in the shot. (More on that later)

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

In the hospital with Leyna, 1 day old

This becomes an even bigger problem when one parent is using a DSLR camera and manually adjusting the settings. My husband still doesn’t know what aperture is or how to adjust the ISO.

So what I like to do for him is to put the camera on AV (aperture priority) mode, and set the aperture relatively wide (small number), like a 3.0, and adjust the ISO accordingly (higher if indoors, lower if outdoors). Then I send him on his merry way, and he mostly gets amazing shots for me.

2. Know where the light lives in your home.

You’ll be spending a lot of time inside with baby those early weeks/months. If you can, try to scope out where the natural light comes pouring in your house and at what time of day before baby comes. Natural light is a million times more flattering (especially on newborn skin!) than a flash from your camera.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

 

Take advantage of those sleepy afternoon naps. I loved putting my 3rd baby in his Rock & Play, with a pretty muslin blanket under him, and getting pictures in the sun.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

As he got older I used the same spot in the living room and tossed him in a beanbag!

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

I also highly recommend getting a different lens for your DSLR camera that has a wide (low number) aperture, like 1.4 or 1.8. This makes shooting indoors with low light so much easier, and produces beautiful shallow depth of field.

3. Put white sheets on your bed, or keep a white cover nearby. This is especially great for those newborn days when you and baby spend a ton of time on your bed anyway. I got so many amazing pictures of my 3rd on our bed. The white was a natural reflector and a neutral, simple backdrop.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

4. As baby grows, get creative with containment.

Trying to get a mobile baby to sit still for a picture is pretty close to the definition of insanity. Try the beanbag trick like I mentioned above (always keeping a very close eye and never leaving baby alone in it), but also experiment with angles around their crib and their highchair.

I liked to keep the highchair next to our big window in the kitchen, and tried to keep the background and surrounding walls clutter free.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

Get in close for those happy crib shots post nap or first thing in the morning.

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

5. Take more pictures. Don’t delete the ones you think you look bad in.

I will never apologize for taking too many pictures of and with my kids. I can never get back those first 4 weeks of my first baby’s life, and I hate that I have very little to look back and remember it with.

That said, I am just as guilty as anyone when it comes to not liking pictures of myself. I’m quick to delete ones that I don’t feel are flattering.

But then I stumble across ones like this…

5 Photography Tips All New & Expecting Parents Need to Know | BabyRabies.com

And I’m just so dang happy to have that moment now.

At the time, I remember looking at the back of the camera and wanting to cry. I was close to deleting it when Scott took the camera from my hands. I recall pretty vividly that I was feeling the frump on that vacation. None of my pre-baby clothes fit. Maternity clothes looked ridiculous. My hair was falling out in clumps. My skin was breaking out.

But now I look at it and see beyond all of that. THAT is a picture of life with a newborn and toddler. The fact that I even managed to put on makeup that day is a triumph. And look at my happy little boy?

It’s perfect.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to capturing all those sweet family moments after you have a baby is to give yourself room to grow! Put more emphasis on the picture capturing the moment and the emotion than it being technically perfect.

10 years from now, you won’t care if a picture of your newborn is a little blurry, or you had a big pimple on your cheek. You’ll be happy to just have the moment captured.

June 1, 2015 5 comments
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BabiesPhotographyThe Story

This Is 6 Months

by Jill February 19, 2014
written by Jill

Half a year with this guy. Unbelievable.

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Pics taken with my Canon 6D and Sigma 35 1.4 lens. 

February 19, 2014 11 comments
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BabiesPhotographySchool Age DaysThe Story

Pictures of Our Week 2

by Jill September 16, 2013
written by Jill

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First, let’s lead with THAT up there.

My cousin sent Lowell this freaking ADORABLE outfit over the weekend. It morphed him into the old man from Up.

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It is from this Etsy shop.

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It was the cherry on top of this past week, which actually turned out to be not so bad, despite Scott being out of town for the first time since I became responsible for keeping 3 kids alive.

That’s largely thanks to this girl.

IMG_5588My sister.

Bless her heart for coming up from Austin to play supplemental parent with me. SO MUCH ENVIRONMENTAL BIRTH CONTROL FOR HER. I think she drove back to Austin and immediately had her ovaries removed.

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This guy turned 6 weeks old, the age at which it seems my children all morph from snuggly newborns into beastly infants (with giant, real smiles).

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That meant a 6 week postpartum checkup for me, where he got this adorable (snug) shirt from the midwife who delivered him, Jeanean Carter at Adriatica Womens Health in McKinney, TX. (Highly recommend!)

This next nugget of news does not have a picture to go with it (you’re welcome), but I’m happy to report the “cystical” is completely gone. It disappeared all on it’s own, making it one of the most effed up pregnancy side effects ever.

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Lowell is fascinated by anything that hangs above him. Kendall is fascinated by Lowell.

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White bed linens are one of the best things I’ve invested in. They look amazing in pictures, and have been surprisingly easy to keep clean. Lowell spends a lot of time on our bed. It’s the safest place to keep him up and away from his wild siblings that are chasing each other around the house at any given moment.

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Scott realized his dream of seeing his son in a Cardinals baseball uniform, intentionally signing him up for the Cardinals little league fall team. He promises he’ll sign him up for the Rangers again in the spring.

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Baseball isn’t just for brothers around here, either. Scott, continuing to prove what a sucker he is for his little girl, bought Leyna a “cat cat” bat (to match her Hello Kitty Crocs that she insists on wearing with everything). I must admit I was the sucker when it came to the tiny workout clothes (from the little girls section!) at Target.

Is there anything cuter than tiny gym shorts on a toddler? Okay, maybe the bowtie and cardigan on Lowell, but just by a smidge.

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The Rock N Play is my new favorite baby item. It doesn’t replace the bouncy seat set inside the cosleeper for long sleeps, but it’s a swell place to plop the baby when I have to pee, and he sure does like napping in it. Sometimes. When he’s not making me hold him.

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Final product shout out for the Aden & Anais Dream Blanket. Dreamy like whoa.

Those are some of our pics from the 2nd week of September.

September 16, 2013 21 comments
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BabiesPhotographySchool Age DaysThe StoryToddlers

Pictures Of Our Week

by Jill September 7, 2013
written by Jill

Another week has passed, and a million things I’ve wanted to tell you all about (okay, at least 27 on my to-write list) sit in my head, unblogged.  But what I’m lacking in words these days, I’m making up for in pictures. I’m pretty prolific on Instagram lately. I blame easy access to an iPhone while snuggling, rocking, feeding a baby. And boredom. I mean, there is only so much I can stare lovingly at my kid’s head. Even HE is starting to get creeped out by it.

So I take pictures of his head sometimes. And then play around with them in Snapseed.

a953b1ee0d2a11e3bf5922000a1f8cdc_7And then use apps like Snoopify and Cat Effects for more entertainment. Because I have a problem.

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One for the baby books!

Good thing I don’t make baby books.

I’ve also tried to make an effort to get more pictures with my “fancy” Canon 6D. I remember I tried to do a Photo 365 blog after Leyna was born. That was destined to be a failure, and proved to be so. This time, no pressure. No daily, weekly or monthly quotas. Just pictures when I can manage it.

I do well with no pressure.

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First, let’s just get this out of the way- THAT. SMIRK.

We are so fortunate that Scott can work from home often. Mainly, he’s able to help out more because he doesn’t have to commute to work. So he can do things like pack lunches before his work day starts, and take the kids to the park as soon as his day is over.

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But every now and then, I’m able to hand Lowell to him for a few minutes while I get dressed or make us both lunch. These were moments caught at the end of a workday this week.

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How lucky our kids are to grow up with a father who is so very present in their lives.

Sometimes, though, we are not very present. On purpose. Sometimes we are having grown up conversation about pressing matters like new kitchen counters and just what the hell the neighbor is doing in his garage all day with his shirt off.

Sometimes we ignore our children. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.

It forces them to, like, entertain themselves. Trust, they will ask us if they can use one of the 50 pieces of technology in this house to entertain them over and over and over again. We just keep ignoring them.

And then this happens.

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Kendall finds 2 blankets and some clothes pins. He pins one on the back of Leyna and ties another around him. They are suddenly super heroes.

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Super heroes that work double duty as dry mops. We’ve just unlocked level 151 of Parenthood with this achievement, I’m sure.

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Sometimes the price you pay for ignoring your kids and getting them to leave you alone is a toddler covered in markers and stickers.

And a super hero cape. It’s worth it.

To finish off the week, I spent  no less than 30 minutes taking pictures of my 5.5 week old’s belly button today.

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Because IT’S A SWIRL. Like a little cinnamon roll in the middle of his belly. A perfect spiral.

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I’m obsessed with the whole package, but had to stop everything I was doing today (which was nothing) to document and preserve that sweet little detail.

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And while I was at it, I photographed every other detail, too.

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So that’s some of the pictures of our week.

Maybe I’ll do this again next week. Maybe I won’t. No pressure.

 

September 7, 2013 16 comments
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