Christmas snowball fight!

I have two daughters, one age 11 and the other 10 next week. I also have a son who is 8 and, for the last few years I have tried to get some Christmas portraits.  The first year it started, was because a friend who lives in America, had sent us a Christmas card with her family on it.  My children loved it so much they decided they too wanted to be on a Christmas card! We had great fun doing those!

2015

Last year, was a bit more rushed on Christmas eve, and the dog wanted to be involved, so she kept sitting on the ground backdrop.

2016

The last two years I bought backdrops and as you can see, the first year I forgot to iron it! The second year I really didn't look at the backdrop properly and ultimately hung it wrong. This year I decided to try something different.

It all started when I watched a tutorial by Heidi Hope. She is a hugely successful photographer based in Rhode Island. She started out with a degree in fine art, then was an art teacher and then decided to turn her love of photography into a career. She is inspirational! And way too perky for a mother of 3!  Her tutorials are fantastic and easy to understand.  She also hand paints and creates all her own "sets."  I cannot paint. At least that is what I thought, but Heidi Hope would beg to differ.

So I started out by trying to paint a tree! I bought a roll of white seamless paper for the backdrop, and some acrylic paints, brushes and an artists pad.  It felt like first year in secondary school!  I practiced and practiced and came up with this...

I then had to try and recreate this onto the much larger backdrop! And add a few more different trees and some snow! I bought some lights, fake snowballs and a can of snow and then sent my husband to get me some branches.  We have loads of lanterns around the house so we added them too. 

my kitchen Christmas eve!

After this, it was finding my willing models.  This year my son was miserable.  He had a tummy bug two days before and was still feeling a bit rough so unfortunately he was not able to take part in the madness!  My girls on the other hand were full of mischief!

Millie

Caragh

mini snowball fight!

Once the shots were taken all was left was some tidying up and some Heidi Hope light overlays to be added.  I think this years shots are much better except for my missing little man. Might have to try something else now that he is better!