Asher's Weekly Photo How-To

Every Saturday is Asher's weekly "birthday", so every Saturday morning we take his picture. Check out Sweet Pea Weekly to see his latest shots. I've seen some other folks do this and it's such a neat idea! I combined a couple of elements that I'd seen done elsewhere; using a fun fabric background, having a prop for weekly growth comparison (the sweet pea), and using a labeled onesie to track his number of weeks (more on this below).

For the background, I've been using leftover pieces of fabric from his nursery bedding and decor (the Joel Dewberry Aviary "Sparrows in Almond" collection). He's starting to outgrow some of the scraps, so I'll have to get creative and find other backgrounds to use. I've already branched out a little; for instance, week 5 is a crib sheet, week 10 is a receiving blanket, and week 11 is a beautiful quilt that his Aunty Joell made. Yes, I'm tempted to buy more yards of JD fabric, but at $10 a pop I think I'll have to pass.

The sweet pea, again, is for size comparison. See how big the pea looks next to him on his first week photo, and then compare to the most recent- amazing!

               

And no, I don't own a separate onesie for each week. It's the same one, just photoshop'ed! If anybody wants to try this, let me know and I'll either show you how to do it or help you out if you don't own Photoshop.

When Saturday morning rolls around, I get prepped early so that it all goes as smoothly as possible. We don't want an unhappy Asher when it's photo time, so here's the formula for a smiley photo shoot;

Have daddy or a friend help in the "happy" department if possible- thanks Evelyn!

• Before his mid-morning feeding I iron and lay out the fabric background & pea prop, plus have his hair brush on hand.
• I make sure my camera has plenty of battery charge, if not, I plug it in while nursing.
• Check out lighting. I open all window shades and turn on all lamps, and make sure I'm not going to cast a big shadow over him during the pictures. (If so, I move a lamp so that there's no light source coming from behind where I'll be standing).
• Right before Asher's "brunch", I dress him in a onesie and put a disposable diaper on him (it's less bulky and looks better in the picture).
• Feed him, burp him. He's got a full belly and is totally satisfied at this point.
• Lay him down on the background fabric, and shoot away! Plenty of smiles at him + goo-goos and ga-gas help also. The "action" setting on my camera does the best, since he's often moving his little arms and legs.

So there it is, our weekly photo tradition. We'll see how long we can keep this up... Does anybody do this? If so, show me your photos! Do you have any other methods that work well?

Check back in every week for his latest photo and enjoy watching him grow up with us! (Sad face, sniffle sniffle...it's going too fast!)