Professional Photos - 18 Months - Outtakes!!

And now for a peek behind the curtain to see how the magic was made . . .

As I stated in the last post, this is was by far (and by far, I mean by FAR) the most difficult shoot of the 6 to-date due to the fact that the boys just wanted no part of it. In looking at the 100 or so final pictures that Chad forwarded, there are no more than 5 where even one of the boys are smiling and absolutely none of just the two of them together due to the fact that one of them was screaming, eating or crying at all times.

We all kept good humor and relied on Chad to get the best pictures he could, but I must admit that we were as (or more) entertained by the outtakes he was able to get, some of which were hysterical . . .

First up, the "crying toddler" setup, combined with a crying Pai:

Secondly, the "can't sit still" setup, where the boys not only refused to situate into a set pose, Noel then decided to arbitrarily stuff his fist into Pai's mouth. Not sure what's going on with Ethan . . . seems like he's giving us a little "tough guy" with this look:

Next up, Noel's phooooooooooooooootobooooooooooooomb!!! At this point in the day, we'd thrown up the white flag with regards to involving the boys in the photos and thought we'd get a nice shot of the Knippa side with Dad. Noel then apparently had met his fill of Gramma, Papa and Shawna and decided to wander over and crash on the soft concrete . . . an odd, odd, funny shot:

Lastly, a super adorable shot of the boys giving us a clear non-verbal that they'd definitely had enough. This pic is definitely a keeper:

Professional Photos - 18 Months

We've been incredibly fortunate to have some very good friends, Chad and Marci Peters, with some incredible photography skills. It's hard to believe it, but this 18 month shoot was our sixth session with Chad and Marci and we were excited to include the expanded Brigade with us for this one, including Gramma & Papa, Avo, and Uncle David, who was visiting from Hong Kong. Chad found a great location for the shoot in a event rental warehouse near Fair Park - great space with interesting decor that provided a great backdrop for our shoot.

The shoot itself went a bit differently than we expected, as the boys were definitely not in the mood to sit still and we spent the majority of our time trying to distract them with toys, blankets, pacifiers, and food with the hopes of getting at least a few good pics. It is definitely a testament to Chad (and his fast camera!) that we ended up with a ton a great shots on what was definitely our toughest shoot to-date.

Up first, some great expanded family shots . . . it's definitely tough to get this group in the same city, much less the same room, so we took full advantage and took numerous pics of the expanded family:
























Next up, some great individual shots of each of the boys . . . Ethan with Uncle David's gifted soccer ball and Noel with his second best friend (after Ethan), his blanket:






















This shoot didn't provide many opportunities for a family shot of the Brigade (despite our many, many attempts) . . . below is definitely our favorite one of the day, interesting setting and good perspective of the boys side-by-side:














The next two pics are definitely our favorites of the day . . .

• Dad with Noelly Canoli, who is giving a little "over the back of the couch" charm























• Pai with Ethan (Pea Pie), who is definitely flashing his brightest smile of the day
  

Next up, some great shots of the boys with their respective grandmothers:

Gramma and Ethan, snapped just after she used her special powers to calm him. Such an incredibly sweet picture . . .

Avo and Ethan, who is giving us a great tussled hair look

Avo and Noel, both looking adorable

Lastly, some immediate (upper) family pictures, taken late in the day when the boys had declared that they would no longer be participating in our silly picture endeavor. We were definitely glad to get these pictures as a bonus to the 18 month shoot.

Random Posting...

Just a few pics/videos from the past month:


Noel loved Weezie's glasses so much and walked around like a little professor























Even better....Ethan loved Weezie's wig and had to try it on:

























A cute pic of Ethan while we were walking Sunday. This picture makes him look much older than his 19 months:
























And last but not least....a video of the boys at the gym:

Sliding Down the Stairs

The boys adapt pretty easily to most things and getting down the stairs is no exception. They initially took their time getting down and the more they did it the braver and more efficient they got.

I managed to get a video of this before they begin walking down like big boys: