Two new tutu sets arrived in February from my favorite Etsy seller. I received them in exchange for some amazing product images for her Etsy site, and I've been SOOOO excited to shoot Cora in them. They are just gorgeous. The craftsmanship is spectacular, which the images really don't show unfortunately. We waited and waited and waited for it to get warm enough for us to venture outside to take them....
And it did. And I began to try. And I failed. And failed. And failed.
"I", as the mom, can NOT take 'for real' images of my kids. Period. I've done this a few times for a few things, and I find it BEYOND frustrating. I totally, totally loose my cool. They refuse to cooperate. It's a horrible experience. For everybody.
I love to capture life. I personally dislike posed images, and I hate trying to take them even more. "I" can't. It is NOT my gift.
So I TRIED to merge capturing life with getting the right kind of product shots for her Etsy shop. And try after try after try -- fail fail fail. I even had Shawn try to help me one time, and it was still a big bust. Cora and all her strong willed issues meant she was NOT going to do it. Period. Ripping the wings off. Snapping the wands in two. yanking the head piece off before my hand left her head. HORRIBLE. And I was SO angry. And so ugly.
But because I'd accepted the products, I felt PRESSURE to do it. I had toyed with the idea of asking a friend's slightly older (and significantly more submissive) child to come over and let me get them with her. But then, I'd have to compensate her in some way and it got all complicated in my head. And I just decided... forget it. I'll just email Etsy seller friend, let her know I tried but I failed and I'm a hack, and offer her twice what the tutus would have cost her due to the lost time in having the images so she could get them on her site.
I hadn't sent the email yet. I had decided the day or two before this. It was after dinner and I was almost finished cleaning up. It had been a dreary day all day. Shawn looked out the window and says "it looks like gorgeous light outside... looks like a good time to try to get some tutu pictures."
Against everything inside me -- because I'm an ultra planner and I wasn't expecting this -- I RAN with it. And because I'd decided I was done with it already anyway, the pressure was off. Shawn had some AWESOME ideas on basically how to trick Cora into cooperating so she didn't think she was doing what we wanted. I had the great idea to let Nathan have his wish to wear the wings (he's entered the dress up phase and we NEED to get some BOY dress up gear), which means that Cora then decided they were a hot ticket item. She wore the head pieces the ENTIRE TIME WE WERE OUTSIDE. It was just incredible. I'm so glad I didn't give up and I'm so glad I was able to let the PRESSURE on myself subside. I think that was probably a big part of the problem -- fear of failing, which only made me fail.
Through it all I learned some really valuable artistic lessons about myself. And I got these priceless, priceless images of my princess. Today I'll share my favorites from tutu set one.
one of my favorite shots of her ever. I am in love with the expression on her face here.
I love Shawn's smiling face in the background of this one.
I shot these with my D90 and the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 lens.