Babies in a Box? Babies in a Box! | Austin, TX Child Photography
How many times have you said, ‘Why do we buy them toys when all they want to do is play in the box’?
Well, my latest obsession is letting them do just that…play in a box…and get adorable photos along the way and then put them together in an epic collage. These are so much fun to shoot and to edit! And the kids think it’s the coolest thing ever. I love all of the expressions we capture, really showing off their little personalities.
These sessions are a little tricky to shoot. I need to set up my tripod (which I hate using!!) and make sure it’s centered properly, which is damn near impossible to do…at least for me. I’m pretty sure I am permanently crooked. 🙄But once that’s all set up it’s good to go for the rest of the session. Then we just stick the baby in the box and let them do their thing! The photographing part goes by pretty quickly. You’d be surprised how many shots you can get in just a few minutes. And shooting a lot so quickly insures we capture the most variety in adorable expressions!
The hard part is the editing. I think I make it extra hard because of my crookedness. 🤦♀️ I usually have to edit each picture to warp into a perfect square on top of the regular editing that needs to be done to each photo. Then it’s time to put the collage together. It takes a lot of time and patience to edit, especially with the images where things are outside of the box (legs, tiny fingers, balloons, whatever.).
Using perspective warp in Photoshop to fix my wonkiness.
One of the fun parts is choosing which images to use and where to place them in the collage. What are they doing; where are they looking, what’s hanging out of the box, etc. I tend to have to rearrange them a few times along the way until I get the overall look and balance that I want. But it’s fun to use those creative juices.
I love the authenticity of playing in an actual cardboard box, because we all know every kid LOVES to do that. But I also love the clean crispness of the all white box. I have an even bigger box being built so that I can fit grown-ups in it. Tell me THAT’S not going to be fun! 😆
Because these sessions are so time-consuming for me (the editing, not the actual session) I have only opened up a limited number of In the Box sessions for September 15th. I want to do a small number so I don’t overwhelm myself, especially with the busy fall/holiday season coming up. Hopefully I’ll be able to streamline my editing system during this process too. If you are reading this before September 15th you can find more information and sign up HERE.
These collages are perfect for milestone sessions, birthdays, holidays, or any other special occasion. Or just because your kids are the cutest kids ever and you want to stick them in a box! 😂
I’m still trying to come up with a more creative and fun name for this type of session. My husband thought of ‘Box of Tots’ or ‘Tots in a Box’ which is pretty freakin’ cute. But let me know if you have any other ideas. I’d love to hear them!!
