"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

(The Making of) The Christmas Card

Having a third child forever changed my family picture photo ops. They NEVER can look at one place at the same time. EVER. Add to that, Caden has been ignoring my lens since he was four months old and I am not kidding. So for your viewing pleasure, I will walk you through what it took to get the final product *this* year...
This was the only shot that Caden was looking at me but alas, he's squinty and the other two are bad.This was my favorite of Caden but now Simone is making a slightly fake smile along with Gabe's "I'm-showing-my-missing-tooth" smile which drives me batty.This one was almost good enough for me but I decided I just couldn't take Gabriel's lower-jaw-jutting-out smile. But I loved Simone here the best... Shame.So, I compromised and used this picture where Gabe's smile was much more natural and Simone had a nice laugh though not looking at the camera (errr). However Caden's face was just unacceptable.But with the magic of PhotoShop and weilding my latest tricks in head swapping (or in this case, full body swapping), I cut Caden out of photo #2 and pulled him into this one. And voila! A Christmas card is born. Phew.Those little stinkers really make me work for it. Oh and look! They ARE all looking at me. I lied. It happens. So long as tongues are involved...Happily I was also able to get new head shots that I adore...I so wish this one was in focus... :(And lookie here! All eyes on me again! I believe a retraction is in order.
Merry Christmas!!

Posted by Jessica at 10:28 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now I feel a little less bad about the amount of pictures I take to get 2 looking at me. Love all the pictures. The final product is awesome. I was so excited to receive it in the mail. Our card is going to be a happy new year card, I promise you'll get one this year ;)

7:30 PM
Kandee said...

Oh I love them...the whole series.

I find trying to get a decent photo of my kids all together is like herding cats.

7:07 PM

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"By nature people are learning animals. Birds fly; fish swim; humans think and learn. Therefore, we do not need to motivate children into learning by wheedling, bribing, or bullying. We do not need to keep picking away at their minds to make sure they are learning. What we need to do - and all we need to do - is to give children as much help and guidance as they need and ask for, listen respectfully when they feel like talking, and then get out of the way. We can trust them to do the rest."
John Holt
"In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it...and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself." -Grace Llewellyn
"What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
George Bernard Shaw
Real, natural learning is in the living. It's in the observing, the questioning, the examining, the pondering, the analyzing, the watching, the reading, the DO-ing, the living, the breathing, the loving, the JOY. It's in the joy. ~Anne Ohman
"How could youth better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?" -Henry D. Thoreau