Photography by Sandra Howard
This photograph a photo of me, shot over 9 years ago at age 17 (2001) while churning through another portrait drawing. The photograph I am drawing from was an original portrait of a child from my Mom’s home daycare service. The camera used to take the shot was a Pentax MX film body. It took additional time to have your work processed the “old-fashioned” chemical way. Until I found this photograph, I had lost memory of ever having created this piece.
During the final photo-shoot, 7-month old Sophia appeared delighted being set into a brown bum-sized bucket, especially upon our offering her a gorgeous single pink rose to hold. While having the opportunity to be so close to such a beautiful flower, Sophia never took her eyes off it. Judging by the expression in her eyes, Sophia had fallen in love.
As their baby photographer for this and the previous few sets, I want to leave warm thank you to Sophia’s parents and especially the adorable Miss Sophia herself.
Following the bathing of 7-month old Sophia, I bundled her up into one of her Daddy’s favourite brown blankets for the first set of photographs, followed by one of my favourite multi-coloured wool blankets for the second set. I am pleased with the series, especially the way the girl kept looking up into my camera with those perfect, glass-like, doll-like eyes for the entire shoot.
Sophia quickly became comfortable with the camera in her face, eventually reaching to grab my lens! I managed to sneak in silly faces while photographing Sophia to keep those beautiful smiles glowing over and over again. I’m delighted with the results of the beautiful set.
A mid baby photo-shoot nap is one of the best pieces of advice I would give any baby photographer. During this sessions our baby model, Sophia, became clingy to her parents. This is where my advice kicks in… the following shots were taken after setting Sophia down for a quick 30-minute nap. Upon awakening, Sophia was the happiest I had ever seen!
I love the purple and black striped background in this shots as they suggest a fun, magical and castle-like atmosphere.
Imagine the smell of fresh blossoms peaking through the tired winter soil early into each spring season. 7-month old Sophia has yet to experience the season’s true beauties. Don’t worry though because Mom has her ready to play in this gorgeous new polka-dot dress. This dress was so adorable that I wanted one on my size! In the final shots, Mom changed Sophia into an Easter Buddy outfit, complete with a bunny tail!
During this session, Sophia kept tilting her head up at me, almost as if she knew exactly was was going on in each tiny pose she managed to wiggle herself into.
