A&Z Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot

I had a mini Valentine’s Day photo shoot with the kids this past weekend in our home.  Arielle loved getting her picture taken (as you can see), but my faves were the ones where her smile looked natural and not overly cheesy. Zavier, on the other hand, did not want anything to do with getting his picture taken or sitting still for that matter. I bribed him with a lollipop, stuck a heart on his shirt, and snapped away for any chance that at least one of them would turn out good! Here’s how they turned out:

I used my Canon Rebel T3i.  I’m still very new to taking photos of my kids, but here’s what really worked well for me:

1. Natural light. Jeffrey bought me an at-home photo studio for Christmas that we previously set up in the basement, but I hauled everything to the loft where natural light comes pouring in from the large windows.  This really left the guess-work out of how to configure the lighting, flash, ISO or shutter speed. I just shot in AV mode and set the aperture to the lowest setting possible.
2. Simple.  I know some people get crazy with the outfits, backdrops, and props, but I kept it simple so that I could just focus on the kids.
3. Timing. I only took pictures for about half an hour, after they ate lunch and took their naps.  There’s a small window of time before they get crabby and stop following directions.  I made it a pleasant experience for all of us so that we could look forward to the next at-home photo shoot!  Weeheeeheeee!

I loved the way they turned out!  It’s already all over my Facebook and on my desktop wallpaper on my work computer 🙂  I have a few others of Zavier that are just hilarious because he’s totally in his own little world so I’ll share those, too.  Hope you all enjoyed!