I celebrate every holiday, but Halloween is one that, for my entire childhood, we would go crazy. We're talking full Halloween party with haunted trails and houses, costume contests, games, dancing, all of it. Although when you have a newborn and a toddler, it can be difficult to indulge in all things spooky. When my son was born I wanted to find a creative way to celebrate Halloween with him, so I began doing my annual Halloween photoshoot
that I would edit to be as realistic as possible. Here's our first one, my baby as Batman and I as Cat Woman.
This was the spark of a family tradition that I absolutely LOVE doing. People asked me where we would go to take these and my response would shock them. This photo was taken on my deck with a self timer and a tripod. I then search the web for images that match the theme. Last step, is opening photoshop and working my magic. My husband wasn't a part of this one, but he felt left out and we made up for it the next year.
Second year, we were The Incredibles. My husband and I took our photos with our son
and then I let him run around and I snapped as many photos as I could. Then I found some key art online and went to work.
This concept was so fun. Finding all of the different powers Jack-Jack has and pairing them to the photos I took. The Incredibles is one of my favorite movies and I wanted a bright and fun theme for 2022. I was super proud of this one.
This year is my daughter's first Halloween and I immediately knew what I wanted to do. The Addams family.
After watching Wednesday on Netflix I was obsessed. Truthfully I had never watched the older show nor the movie. But the Wednesday show had me in a chokehold, it was so good. This shoot has to be my favorite photo to date, but to be fair, each new photo is my favorite photo. This time I wanted to incorporate my dog, Dea, my Italian Mastiff, and she fits the bill perfectly.
Here are my top tips for a perfect self shot family shoot:
Put your camera on video mode!! This makes getting the perfect shot easy and actually doable. All you need is one second of cooperation from your baby...just one.
TRY to have fun and lose control of the "perfect" shot. With babies, there's no such thing, but you can make it perfect. I love a candid shot.
Make sure they've napped and ate! My kids will display only rage if they're tired and hungry, so make sure you do your shoot after breakfast or after lunch and a good nap, try to take one yourself too!
Get yourself ready first. Makeup and hair take forever...so does getting your kids ready. Get yourself dont up for the occasion and once your kids are ready, get out the door. This leaves ZERO time for stains or any wardrobe issues before shooting.
My toddler will find any reason to not stand still, which for the image above, I needed him to be still and engaged. I shot my daughter and I first, then my son and husband separately and superimposed ourselves together. Listen, sometimes you do what you gotta do. Need a pro to do that for you, go on fivrr or download any of the new apps that make photo editing easy.
Happy Halloween! 🎃
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