This past week Caleigh and I worked on glitter pumpkins, and by "Caleigh and I," I mean I glittered and Caleigh hung around the kitchen. I got the idea from our friend Kristin. I think hers turned out better. Mainly because she used pink glitter. You can't go wrong with pink glitter.
I bought fake pumpkins so that we could use them for years to come. We used bronze, gold and silver glitter. I plan on leaving them out until Thanksgiving.
I haven't quite figured out how to store them. They are a mess. A beautiful mess. I'm finding glitter all over the house.
We also made it to a small pumpkin patch last weekend. It was super sunny and warm. Caleigh wasn't loving the sun in her face, but she didn't complain.
Which leads me to this photo. I think it's great. Caleigh's beautiful.
My entire college education revolved around photographs and their artful content. I worked for several portrait photographers during those years as well. Portrait photographers are an interesting breed or maybe it is their clients? Everyone wants their child, husband, sister, aunt and dog looking at the camera and smiling. Everyone. All at the same time. The majority want to look cosmopolitan flawless as well. Retouching for years, there are several tricks of the trade. Head swapping, mouth swapping. Are the eyes closed....no problem. Acne...forget about it. This is all fine with me and the way things are done these days. It's the standard, but definitely not reality.
Getting over these terms and conditions of a "good" photograph is hard when you have a child with special circumstances. Even harder for me is overlooking the training that I've had for years. I love Caleigh's smile. She's smiling 95% of the time when her favorite music is playing. If you want her to smile you either play music or tickle her senseless. Sure, she smiles when she recognizes us and likes certain things, but she isn't a smile on command kinda kid. I've come to love the other photos too. The ones where she isn't looking at the camera and her positioning isn't great. The serious, wise and endearing stares off to the side. The moment how it really is. Just Caleigh. Exactly like the picture above...it's perfect to me.
9 comments:
you little copycat!!! haha jk. they look good! i put mine outside b/c of alllll the glitter and i came home one nite to find the neighbors cat hanging outside my apt, w/ glitter all over his face! ha! that little dumb dumb.
Beautiful photo of Caleigh, just the way she is.
yep. beautiful as is. and even better in person :)
I think your pumpkins turned out great. You are brave to do glitter pumpkins - I think it would drive me crazy to have glitter everywhere. Yesterday at school, Emily helped to pull seeds out of a pumpkin and loved it. I wasn't sure she would go for it, but she was very excited.
I love the photo of Caleigh. She is a doll! Emily does not smile on command either. I consider a photograph a good one if her eyes are open! But I also love the ones when here eyes are closed because she is smiling about our singing or whatever stupid thing we are doing to get her to look at the camera. I love to capture her - just as she is.
oh hey! i forgot to tell you, the guy at work's stepmom sprayed hers w/ an adhesive. maybe that will seal in the glitter better? i didn't spray mine b/c i knew i wouldn't keep them more than a couple of months.
You're right, Caleigh is beautiful, I would love to be her teacher, she is an amazing child.
Lisa
I love the photo and like to see just how Caleigh is....no pretense, just pure loveable little girl!
Sounds like you've been having fun with the season. I love doing things with my girls in the Fall. One thing we've been doing with Emma each year is having her help us make apple tart or crisp or whatever after we take her apple picking. I have a apple corer/slicer thingy (i'm sure you've seen them!) that attached to the counter and makes a huge mess, but Emma stays in her stander and helps me turn the handle to make the stick messy apple slices and she loves it. Each year she gets better at it :-) Caleigh might enjoy this, too, since she likes hanging out in the kitchen with you.
I LOVE the photo of Caleigh.
I love this post.
You are so right--after a while, all the faces and looks are cute. My favorite pictures are still the ones where Charlie is looking at the camera because it took almost three years to get there--never mind if he's smiling or not--he's looking! Hooray!
Mine doesn't smile on command either.
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