When I was a little girl (too young to remember but I’ve heard the stories) my Grandma (Dad’s mom) made me my very own popcorn tree. She used plaster of paris in a soup can for the base and she hot-glued popcorn to the branches. I loved my popcorn tree and decided to make one for my kids this year.
Next is a pullback shot of the first photo. I hung the diffuser in front of the window so I could get nice light on my popcorn and flower pot.
I thought about making the popcorn tree when my kids and I were out photographing the blossoms. My friend was passing by and asked if we were singing the song. The song reminded me of the tree I had when I was younger (sorry, no pictures were taken of that tree).
For those of you who don’t know the song, here are the lyrics:
I looked out the window and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!
Spring had brought me such a nice surprise, Blossoms popping right before my eyes.
I could take an armful and make a treat, a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn’t really so, but it seemed to be Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.
My kids and I took a walk down our street today to photograph the blossoms. The three of them had to share my old Canon Digital Rebel 300D with 50mm 1.8 lens (put into Aperture mode and left at 1.8, oops) and my iPhone. I haven’t looked at the iPhone pictures yet. First I’ll post their pictures in order of youngest to oldest — 2 pictures each:
I didn’t give them direction (aside from keep the camera strap around your neck); I let them shoot away. They helped narrow down their pictures. That was an interesting process. My middle child didn’t take many pictures and she had an easy time narrowing it down. My youngest took a moderate amount of pictures and he had a hard time narrowing it down but it wasn’t a painful process. My oldest took more pictures than the other two combined and she LOVED every single picture! Oh it was so difficult to get her to say no to any of them. She made me promise I’ll print every single one.
And here are my pictures
We attended the funeral service for my Grandma today. It was lovely and I was very glad I could share the experience with my kids. And before you even start to offer your condolences, keep in mind I am very happy for her — She is with Grandpa! This is my corsage (the special granddaughter corsage). ‘Till we meet again, Grandma. I love you.
(and btw, I put the corsage on top of the car to photograph it. I think I might use cars for detail shots like this more often)
I grabbed a few pictures of my daughter before school today. She did a report on Wilma Rudolph, 1960 Olympic Gold Medalist. My daughter loves to run with her dad so she really enjoyed the biography. Every day she asks dad if they can go running. They were supposed to dress up like their person today to do a wax museum so she is wearing my running gear. She fits my shorts better than I do, she almost fits my shoes, and she was very excited to wear my hula girl running socks. She is wearing a medal from the Bull Dog Jog that my husband won when she was a toddler. He pushed her in a the jogger and still came in second place.
By the way, taking pictures of your child’s school projects is a great way to preserve them. We would need to dedicate an entire room to school projects if we kept them all. Even better is getting your child in the picture.
Weeds and early blooming flowers are popping up, the Aspen trees in my yard have fuzzy buds, and the kids have been playing outside until after the sun sets (even on school nights). I’m just waiting for the green grass and green trees. I love this time of year!
Why don’t we photograph blessing dresses? We do it for wedding dresses! While baby was nursing I photographed random toys and decorations around the nursery. The dress was draped over the chair and I decided to hang it in the window and grab a few shots. I plan on doing this for all future newborn sessions.
The photos with Winnie the Pooh are some of Mom’s favorite. Pooh Bear was a gift from Grandpa, and Mom wanted some pictures. I didn’t know how to pull it off so we put him right next to her and she put her arm around his.
Ideally, you want to do newborn photos before your baby is two weeks old. After that your baby is more alert and less curly. If you miss the two week mark and are pushing one month you can still get great photos with eyes open and the occasional grin. I had a lot of fun with this sweet family.
Last Leap Day we took pictures of the kids jumping off my bed into a pile of pillows. This year we were going to go outside but it was windy and snowing so we jumped off the couch onto the beanbag. My son wants to jump off the girls bunkbed for the next leap day. Hmmmmm. I’m sure we’ll think of something. Happy Leap Day!
On top of being incredibly cute, this little girl is part of a very special and loving family. She has two big brothers who steal my heart every time I’m around them. They will be great role models for their sister, and I look forward to watching her personality develop.
I have a lot of personal pictures from last year that I haven’t had a chance to edit, let alone blog. This time of year is a great time to look back and catch up.
I had a great time at the Leonardo Museum with the Photowalking Utah group this morning! BTW, both the museum and Photowalking Utah are awesome and worth checking out.
