On my
other blog about all the stuff I make, I talk a lot about my Etsy shop,
Attack Rabbit. The shop is still very new and I have been spending most of my creative energies lately working on items to sell. The focus of the shop is children's clothing in sizes 2t-5, and since I happen to have both a boy and a girl in those sizes, I make them model items for me. The clothes just look better on a child than on a hanger, and I know as a buyer, I like to see how the clothes fit and lay on a real person.
Sometimes, the kids are willing to be my guinea pigs and other times they run away. Last week, was a great example of how different a quick picture taking session can go. I had a willing five year old who was very excited to model a
new sweatshirt for me and a very uncooperative two year old who wanted nothing to with me or the
dress she was wearing.
Here are a few examples:
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| Exhibit A |
See this nice photo? I had about 10 others very similar to it. He took direction, looked at the camera, smiled, and was very pleasant to work with. He even followed my directions when I was trying to figure out the best way to keep the ketchup and mustard from being covered by his arm. (Here's a hint: putting his hand in his back pocket was the only one that looked remotely natural. Putting his hand on his hip/back was awkward and behind his head it looked like he was posing for a pin-up calendar.) He was patient when things were not working on my end and happily moved to a new location when I wanted different lighting. I'm not a great photographer, so I can can be difficult to work with. This was a very positive experience for both of us and he really wants me to make him a sweatshirt just like this for him.
Then there was Dorothy. Have you ever tried to just push through with a two year old who has no interest in doing what you want them to do? When will I learn?
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| We started off OK. I don't know what she is doing with her arms, but she is attempting to smile for me. Too bad it is that weird toddler smile that is strained and she never looks at the camera. |
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| The overly dramatic. I did end up using this one since you can see the dress and her facial expression isn't too terrible. |
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| She is starting to question my sanity, or perhaps my commitment to Sparkle Motion. |
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| Cute, but it makes the dress look a little funky. |
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| Now, we are into goofy mode and she is no longer even pretending to listen to me. |
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| I took her off of the chair to show how the dress hangs, but it was too late, she was D.O.N.E. I did end up using this one too, but only because I couldn't stand the thought of trying to do this again to get more pictures. |
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| Giving me the side-eye and announcing that this photo session is OVER! |
I'm not posting any of the millions of other shots I took because most of them include her holding the dress up over her head or being upside-down. We could have been done with pictures in about 5-6 minutes if she would cooperate, but that is just not in the cards when tying to get pictures of an uncooperative two year old.
