DIY Newborn Photoshoot

Similarly, to the photos we took of our boys and "the belly" before #3 arrived, I turned to Pinterest for some newborn photo inspiration (or "Pinspiration"). I knew I didn't have the time, money or desire to have a professional capture some of these moments, but I knew I wanted to have plenty of memories of when our last little one was arrived fresh from God, so tiny and precious.

The hospital offered a photography service whilst we were there to capture those early days, but with someone bringing me food, making my bed, no other children underfoot, and a baby who loved to sleep, I took the opportunity to take some hospital shots with some Pinterest photos for inspiration.

Pinspiration

My Shots

I had seen lots of the bump-baby-name photos below on Pinterest but since we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, nor were we 100% set on either a girl or a boy name, we ended up taking photos of "the belly" with the blocks spelling out boy, girl, baby and about 5 different names for each! These are the shots that didn't get deleted after our baby girl, Kyah arrived.

Pinspiration

In those early days home there seemed to be a lot of time to take photos - maybe because my husband was home and wrangling the boys. Poor Kyah was posed for a new photo every time the poor little girl went to sleep. My photos are on the right. (Note: I knitted the hat!)

Sibling shots were high on my agenda and there were many that I wanted to capture in those first few days. Sometimes they worked out and sometimes not so much. Everyone was tired and adjusting to a new little person in the house and not always wanting to cooperate for Mumma taking photos. These next photos were taken just on my iPhone (because sometimes I just couldn't be bothered with the full kit-and-kaboodle of the DSLR. As you can see the "stacked-siblings" shot was far more successful on attempt #2 when Kyah was a few months old and not a few days old.

Pinspiration

My shots

There were so many cute sibling photos to try to emulate.

Pinspiration

My shots

And I just had to try for the train-heart shot. I found it difficult to get the complete heart in the shot with my portrait lens, and my #2 boy wouldn't cooperate for the photos. But I still got some cute shots of Kyah and her biggest brother.

Pinspiration

My shots

A dad shot was also high on my priority list and one random afternoon I shuffled the family outside to re-create this Dad-Children-Tower shot. Of course, I loved so many of the photos I took that day, I had to include 3 of my favourites below. I just love the changing expressions on the boys faces.

Pinspiration

My shots

The photo taking may have slowed down now but I am still looking for adorable photo inspiration (or "Pinspiration") and trying to emulate them. I don't always have my beautiful Nikon DSLR and sexy lens handy, and sometime I just have to seize the moment with my iPhone. Sometimes with a little post processing and editing it turns out magic.

Pinspiration

My Shots (via iPhone)

I hope this has inspired you to get snapping some pictures of your kids - they may not be professional and polished, but they still form beautiful memories of these years that are just flying by.

DIY Maternity Photoshoot

If you haven't guessed from some of my previous posts, I like to dabble and tinker in photography. I especially like taking photos of my kids. When I fell pregnant with my third, I knew I wanted to capture some special moments with my boys and "the belly", especially as we are planning this to be the last baby. I wanted something a little more special than this...

35 Weeks

...which is barely what I managed for Baby #2 (poor neglected middle child - even when in-utero).

Of course, Pinterest provided much inspiration. I was initially thinking we would get some shots done professionally (like we had for Baby #1 - Oh the attention paid to #1 - even in-utero), but as time ticked away I began to realise that wasn't going to happen. So with a Pin-Board full of maternity shots to direct my hubby what I wanted from the photos and pockets full of chocolate to bribe the boys we set out to take some "copy-cat" shots for our family maternity shoot.

Our photos are a little less polished than those that provided the inspiration and the post-shoot processing is fairly scrappy because it was all done in iPhoto. But I still have some great shots of my boys and "the belly". So, here are the inspiration shots next to our shots.

Belly-Hug Inspiration:

Our Version:

Belly-Heart-Hands Inspiration:

Our Versions:

Belly-Peek-A-Boo Inspiration: 

Our Versions:

 

Not too shabby I think. 

And here are a couple of the others, of our own artistic creation - and some of my favorites - maybe because they were just beautiful moments and not me trying to control a 4 year old and a 2 year old to hold a certain pose for just one more shot and not trying to dictate to my husband what he should or shouldn't be doing behind the lens.

Stay tuned for DIY Newborn shots (even cuter!)