Baby Activities Review... BOO BOO RECORDS

If you have a little person, and you haven't taken them to the morning music session at Boo Boo Records, you're missing out.  Elliott and I have tooootally been missing out.  For $2 (discount cards available too) we shimmied, sang, shook, and grooved out with a couple dozen other teensies and their mamas, to pre-school pop led by Miss Heidi (FYI, that woman is a ROCK STAR to the three and under set).  Like any good venue, the stage was where the magic happened, and Elliott wasted no time ditching me to work his way to the front.  We only experienced a few mishaps throughout the 30 minute show- like... when he stole someone else's Hot Wheels, when he took an involuntary stage-dive, and when he "accidentally" turned off the music smack dab in the middle of a big dance number.  But all in all, it was tremendous fun.  Great deal.  Ample stroller parking.  Awesome mini-socializing.  We will definitely be back.  Two (teensy) thumbs way up.

Beautiful babies...

Years ago, when James was very little, I bought the cheesiest how-to book for photographing babies.  Up until then, I had never (not EVER) photographed a baby (or children, for that matter), and it was a whole new world.  And (not gonna lie) a big challenge.  The classic "portrait" formula does you no good here.  Babies are squishy, floppy, wiggly, uncooperative, and their edges are so soft and round, that shadows and light seem oblivious to the subtle little curves.  The book had a few helpful insights, like:  "Get close", and "take full advantage of the month or two when they're able to sit, but not yet crawl".  I took an absurd amount of baby pictures.  I learned a lot.  Now with Elliott (and digital, and apps, and editing), I've learned even more!  A lot of it is common sense, but I've had several inquiries about the baby photos I post, so I thought I'd share a few tips with you here:  

1. They're tiny - get DOWN.  I lay on the floor to photograph him all the time.  When he was even tinier, I would lay him on the bed, and crouch on the floor in front of him so that we were eye-to-eye.  

2. Think you're close enough?  GET CLOSER!  Babies don't have that same sense of personal space that adults do.  In fact, they have an utter disregard for personal space.  I like to take advantage of this.  Some of my very favorite photos of Elliott have been from just inches away.  

3. There is a purpose, a time and a place for flash photography, but if your goal is to capture a beautiful, bright, and natural portrait of your baby, the FLASH is your enemy.  This was one of the very first instructions my photography teacher gave us in my very first photography class, and (in my opinion) it is the single most significant difference between a snapshot and a photograph.  For this picture of Jeffrey and Elliott, I walked into our room, noticed the sunlight dappled all over our bed from a big tree just outside the window, and hurried to  lay the baby down in the glow.  Jeff kneeled in front of him- trying to coax a smile for me, and I loved how their faces profiled together. 

4. NATURAL LIGHT is a gift.  There is nothing more gorgeous than the light from a bright, open, window on luminous baby skin.  Use your curtains or shades to control how little or how much light you'd like.  Study the light in your bedroom, living room, or kitchen.  Do you prefer it in the morning, or as the sun is going down?  The photo above was lit with an open window to the right side.  Late morning.  Another of my first lessons in photography was to avoid backlighting, unless you were trying to capture your subject in silhouette.  But lately, I've been really intrigued by backlit photos, light flares, and light manipulation.  I feel more confident experimenting, and some of the results are so dramatic and fun.  

5. DON'T SKIMP ON THE PHOTOS!  Ok, if you take away anything from this...  it should be to shoot, shoot, shoot.  I can't emphasize it enough.  Babies move constantly, you have to SHOOT CONSTANTLY.  Unless they're sleeping (and sometimes even then) you're guaranteed to get blurred, wiggly, shots.  So whether it's with a camera or a phone, I'll do 10, 20, 30 shots at a time.  It takes a fraction of a second to delete unwanted photos, and if it helps me to capture exactly what I was hoping for...  perfect alignment, a sun ray, a smile, a twinkle, a laugh, a kiss, a hug...  well, then it's priceless.

So that's it.  That's my little mini photo-tutorial for photographing mini people.  I'm not an expert, but I hope you'll find something useful in it.  ♥

Bringing Up Bébé...

How sick are you of hearing about this book?

It's been reviewed, revered, and reviled everywhere from the New York Times, and Forbes, to the Wall Street Journal, and the Huffington Post - not to mention every mommy blog in-between...

I bought it last week.  

I'll spare you another in-depth review, but I'll give you my brief opinion of it.  First, you should know that I had pretty low expectations.  I read all of the above, and about 300 reader comments about the book, many of whom came from French mother's themselves, who really couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.  Many were offended by the notion that even their parenting could be reduced to a fad by an American author.  Most of them couldn't grasp the idea that these common sense ideals could be a revelation in motherhood.  In the first chapter Druckerman addresses this, by stating outright that the French mothers she interviewed insisted that they weren't doing anything special.  I realized in reading this that one mother's/country's/culture's common sense is another's  epiphany!  As an American, living and raising children in France, Druckerman found herself in a unique perspective- with the opportunity to observe both her American and French friends with their children and she found remarkable disparities in their parenting styles and focus, and these are the observations she shares with us in Bringing Up Bébé.  

   

You guys, I LOVE THIS BOOK!  

I had every intention of flipping through it, reading a chapter or two over a cup of cocoa in the Barnes & Noble Cafe, and promptly returning it to the shelf.  I was prepared to dismiss it with a super ambivalent "Yeah, I started to read it- it was crap".  But it's fantastic!  I found it really informative and objective; more anthropological than instructional.  Take what you want from it, but this is what she learned.  What works for one mother may not work for another, but I fully appreciate the idea of a woman sharing something that worked well for her, and spreading the word.  Plus, this all plays out in Paris!  The exact same parenting methods might be happening in Japan, Africa, Argentina...  but oh, Paris.  Paris just makes it all that much more intriguing, doesn't it?  

Tonight I fed my baby braised leeks for dinner- because of this book.  He loved them! Braised leeks for my 8 month old boy wouldn't even have occurred to me last week. Voila!

Merci, Ms. Druckerman.