Photo shoot

When Penelope was first born, despite the absence of eyebrows and the slight resemblance to a 70 year old man, she was adorable. And so we took a ridiculous amount of pictures of her. She was so incredibly sweet. You may remember The Many Faces of Penelope Part One. 

We just received the shots from our 9 month photo shoot with Lady P, which has quickly turned into Part Two. We were going to do a shoot when she was first born, and it just never happened. Then we thought we'd do it for her 6 month mark, but we procrastinated again. So we got the 9 month shoot. Which I'm in love with. She is so animated now and it was delightful to have some shots of her sitting on her own, and *yikes* standing up. 

The sweet and subdued musician

I know you want to just skip ahead to the photos ~ so let me give you a moment to view a few of the 9 month old faces of Penelope...

The rock star

The "hell yeah I can stand on my own now!!!"

The "just give it to me so I can put it in my mouth"

The giggly girl (her laughs are hilarious)

The "HA, really? You think THOSE faces will make me smile?"

Lovin' Mama

Oh the many faces of Penelope, how I love you!!! She's got such a personality. As I watch her suddenly turning into a toddler, I am so glad we did this shoot. (Unveiled Photography). There are somethings I didn't think of ahead of time that I wish I had of, like scoping out places in our house to use as cool backdrops. But, there's not much I can do about it now so I'll chalk it up to simply learning for the next one. Oh, come on - you know it's going to happen again.

Another photo shoot, not another baby. (Sorry grandmas)

If you're thinking of doing a photo shoot, a couple things to keep in mind:

1. Wear make up. There will be family shots too, so remember to cover the blemishes and line the eyes. ;)

2. Make sure all clutter is hidden away. If you don't want it as a back drop for your picture, tuck it out of the way. Steve, our photographer, noticed our stroller, but it did end up in our favorite family shot. 

Not a big deal, but notable. Thankfully there is Photoshop and we got a print of it sans stroller

3. If baby is older, make sure you just leave them to do his or her own thing - that way you'll end up with loads of shots of just them. The photo of her on the chair solo in the tutu is my absolute favorite!

4.  I guess when it comes down to it, it really doesn't matter what's the background - she's all we're looking at, but that lead's me to number 4. Take some time before the photographers arrive scope out places in and around your home to place the baby. It was after the shoot that I realized shots with our ceiling high bookshelf would have added some of our personality and life style to the shoot. Or shots of P with her rubber duckie by the vintage bath tub would have been darling. (I tried, but let's face it... I'm no professional.)

Oh -but in pretending I did end up with this hilarious shot:

Okay back to the tips...

5. Have a few outfits prepared for baby AND you. You are paying by the hour, not the outfit - and you never know when you'll end up with baby barf all over that pretty new dress.

Oh, and most importantly. Make sure you schedule the shoot AFTER baby's nap time. We did manage to do that and she was all smiles for hours!!!!

<3