Valentine's Day - A Very Sweet Event

So I know I promised a post about food photography, and that is in the works for next week. I have a few treats up my sleeve that I want to photograph first, so today you are getting a Valentine's post instead. Hope you don't mind. :)

If you know me well, you know that I live for holidays and special events. When the Christmas decorations came down in the beginning of January, the Valentine's decorations started going up. I love that I can take out a few special things, repurpose some others, and have my kids make things to transform our home to reflect the season, holiday, or occasion. And when my middle child was just a baby, I started a tradition of taking Valentine's photos to give out to our family and friends in wallet sizes. For some reason, I have always enjoyed this photo shoot more than any other. I think the kids do too - but it is quite likely that the reason for that is because I usually bribe them with candy props.

 

 

 

 

 



See? A little Valentine's candy corn (yuck) can do wonders for a natural-looking smile.

 

 

 

 If it were up to me, I would take portraits of my kids at every holiday - green outfits with a gold backdrop for St. Patrick's Day, their Easter formal wear outside in the green grass, patriotic bathing suits at Fourth of July, I could go on and on. Most of the time I just content myself with getting snapshots of them doing crafts or eating special treats we make. But Valentine's Day will always be a time for me to coordinate their outfits, find the perfect backdrop, and just the right candy bribe.

 

 

With the age of digital photography, I have found that it is much more rare for me (and many others) to actually have print copies of photos. By making it a point to do this special photo shoot every year, I am ensuring that I have new pictures for framing and wallets to hand out to the people we love. There is just something about having a printed photo that is very satisfying.

 

 



So, the real point of this post is this: whether you schedule a portrait session with a photographer, set up your own at home, or just take some candid shots, make sure you get some actual prints to frame or put in an album, and make sure you get some extras to hand out. Sure, it is fun to have an online album to share on Facebook or through email, but someday you will be happy that you have that real, hard copy of your memories. After all, every day is truly a sweet event.