Challenge Orange {iheartfaces}

My little man is truly Mama's Big Boy.  No more baby.  No more an unknown actor in a house full of characters.

He's got "Personality. Style. Flair..."  And we love every minute he's on stage! 

And so, no experimental session in photography is lacking in laughs, in improvisation, or in memories.  iheartfaces is great for giving some inspiration to creativity, and when I have time to stop and imagine what could be, the resulting shoot with Ya is something I relish in.

For challenge orange (which happens to be my favorite color of the moment), I instantly thought about painting.  Can't you envision the orange smudges on his cheeks, his hands, the paper? It would've been stunning. Did you know there is no orange in our watercolor ink kit?  The closest was a mixture of red and ochre, and what two year old knows how to mix his colors?  We did get two pretty impressive paintings, but no challenge photo.

Next idea?  Well, get Ya to carry baskets of leaves, collect leaves, or throw leaves.  Like his sister, this model does not do well with directives!  Nope, he's got to do what feels natural regardless of what the photographer and artistic director have planned.  So, he played peek a boo.  He knocked down my props. (He did pick them up.)  He ran away laughing.  Great photos for our album, but you guessed it, no challenge photo.

Alright.  Do what he insists on doing.  Play peek a boo.  Suggest what he can hide behind. Ensure it is orange.  Set the camera at the fastest shutter speed possible and wear running shoes! Try not to show frustration when the vision and the results don't mesh.  You ever counted how many peekaboos a toddler can utter in a minute while rocking back and forth behind a tree? Ahhhh!

No challenge photo... but, again, great pictures of Ya antics.

So I bet it's a bit of a wonder why I chose an image where my bolt of excitement is being contained in a basket... Or, maybe after all of the botched attempts, it's not...

I thought about isolating his hat in a few photos to highlight his orange button by shooting down toward him.  And while I liked the results, the pictures didn't speak to me.  Finally I decided it's all about his expression. He was totally skeptical when I suggested he climb into the basket and hide in the leaves.  Without saying anything, he gave me enough huffs and raised eyebrow to show this what not his idea of an optimal peek-a-boo position.  And this shot, with his mouth set in a "you gotta be kidding me" smirk is totally him.

And after he got out of the basket?  Well, he insisted I get in it and be covered in leaves.  It's only fair, right?