Beach Baby Wrangling - Round 2

So this time, my sister wanted to try the beach with both kiddos - for portraits of year 1 and 4.  And if you think getting one kid to smile is hard, getting two to smile at the same time and look at the camera?  Good luck!

Awesome shot: both looking at mom, and non-smiling expressions - priceless!

Tiny didn't have any issues with the texture of the sand - in fact, she was fascinated that it stuck to her feet, and she even tried tasting it, yum!

Bubba happy & Tiny tasting sand

Look - sand!

Tiny happy & Bubba not looking...

We had much better luck getting each to smile individually:

Money shot - Bubba

Playing in the sand

Enjoy the toy, we forgot it!

Smiling alone

Model shot

Happy Tiny

Pretty Bubba

Who can resist that face?!

And then Tiny discovered something infinitely more fun than the beach we were trying to keep her on.  Yay for some random stairs as the new backdrop - with kids ya gotta be flexible.

Forget the beach, I found more fun!

Tiny loves her sissy's shoes

Hand holding - precious

As close at we're gonna get to both smiling!

Photo shoot done, time to play at the beach and hit the Boardwalk rides before they closed!

Tiny & her footprints

Playtime after

 Tiny was a trooper, got totally drenched in a wave, and it didn't phase her in the slightest.  She tried to walk back on her own (neither of us wanted to carry the sweet mess).  But eventually the sandy soaked jeans were too much and she couldn't go on.  So, I finally took pity on her and carried her at arms length back to the Boardwalk to get hosed off.

Tiny caught by a wave

Sand too heavy to walk

Cleaned up, all better!

Beach Baby Wrangling - Round 1

As a photographer, I've seen countless portraits on the beach of people in denim and white - and they usually look fabulous.  So for Bubba's second birthday portraits (a couple years ago), I decided to give it a shot.  I was wise enough to bring along a helper, so my mom and I took Bubba out on an adventure.

Here's the thing - it was cold, the sun was setting, the clothes were too small (note the shorts I put on her that are visible in some of the shots), and Bubba didn't want to touch the sand (she was never a big fan of new textures).  Haha, with all that against me, it was still a success.  The brilliant thing about still photography is that the subject doesn't actually have to be happy or smiling, they just have to look like they are for a fraction of a second.  And for kids sometimes crying looks like smiling.  Bingo.  Kudos to my mom who did a fantastic job trying everything to elicit a smile, and wiping the temperature induced running baby nose in between shots.

Eventually kiddo did get over her dislike of the sand, and started chasing birds down the beach.  First attempt at baby beach photos, went remarkably well!