Taking Pictures of Infant Multiples By Renée Ruggiero, Triplet Mom Originally printed in November 2003 Before my babies were born, I remember asking around to singleton parents what popular photo studios they thought were best. I looked into Sears, J.C. Penny's, Olan Mills, Walmart and more. I learned all about sitting fees and to multiply those charges by three was a little more than I wanted to pay. But, hey – I'm a new mom and so I've got to catch every single moment in history, don't I? We decided to try out one of the abovementioned portrait studios. They seemed to have the best deal at the moment, so I made an appointment for them at four months. I picked a Tuesday afternoon, thinking that would be a quiet time. I enlisted Noni to come with us and help, fed them non-staining foods all day, and left them in their play clothes until we actually arrived at the studio. As far as I'm concerned, we'd thought of everything and were well prepared. Unfortunately, it was the studio who dropped the ball. A) The 12-year olds that were taking the pictures were so excited to see triplets, you would have thought I had NSYNC in my back pocket. B) Surprise, surprise! They had never photographed triplets before and didn't have available any appropriate seating for three babies. Noni and I ended up on the floor, under a blanket, holding up the boys by the backs of their necks, while Lily got the only available seat. C) And, since photographing triplets is such an outrageous request (how dare I?), a certain impossibility, in fact, the photographer decided "we" would get one picture without them all crying at the same time and call it a day. With that, Noni and I, still on the floor, were instructed to yank pacifiers from mouths at the right moment, while the photographer snapped her winning shot. It sounded reasonable, but my kids all looked like kissing fish in their first group photo. Being a mother in love, I didn't really care about the fish lips and it was only after Noni got indignant about things that I realized she was right. Just because I had three babies, didn't mean I was supposed to make exceptions for quality for the rest of my life. With that, I decided to try to do my own Christmas pictures. I didn't have any fancy backgrounds, so I "made" my own. My parents have a beautiful fireplace at their home and we basically decorated everything around it to look like Christmas. My mom had a few boxes lying around, so I dug out some wrapping paper and wrapped them up empty, complete with bows and huge name tags with each baby's name written on them. We dug out my mother's wreath, ornaments, and a wooden rocking horse, which we also tied a big, red ribbon around as if it was a present. With that, we set the kids down, propped on bed pillows covered by a red tablecloth, and clicked away. We ended up with better pictures, happier babies and a more personal expression of our holiday wishes. After our success with the Christmas pictures, we never went back to the portrait studio or any other studio, for that matter. We've since done pictures for every holiday, including Valentine's Day, Easter, and July 4th, and our own birthday invitations and thank you notes. We also did our own baptism formals. Doing these pictures yourself is really the way to go, in my opinion. If you'd like to try taking pictures of your own kids, I have some suggestions to be successful. First of all, a digital camera is an absolute must. You need to be free to click at anything and everything to catch that perfect picture and obviously, that gets expensive with all the film a 35mm camera needs. Digital cameras are very affordable now and can be as easy as a point and shoot, or include all the bells and whistles for the more experienced photographer. Either way, they are a very worthwhile investment. Secondly, think a lot in advance about the picture you would like to take. What is your theme? Is this a holiday picture? What items would you like in your background? I mentioned earlier what we used to make our Christmas scene. For Valentine's Day, we used my red Christmas tablecloth as our background, dressed the kids in only diapers, and draped over them a red, feather boa I bought at Michael's. For Easter, we laid the kids out on a pastel quit my mom made, decked them out in only their diapers and some really cute bunny ears I found at Walmart, and surrounded them with plastic eggs. Props and backgrounds don't have to be expensive or even bought, for that matter. Want flowers and gardens? Check out your local parks and cemeteries, which always have beautiful landscaping. Something Fall? Check out apple orchards and pumpkin patches. Think indoors or out! Look around your homes and see what you already have. Be creative. Wrap empty boxes with the tops off and put your kids in them to look like opened gifts. Or try wrapping them in a flag for Independence Day. Attach plastic daisies or other flowers to the entire surface of infant caps your babies will wear and sit them in their own huge clay pots… Anne Geddes will have nothing on you. Thirdly, do whatever you can to set up your "studio area" in direct sunlight. If you can get outside, perfect. If you can't, do what you can to set up your area in front of the largest window or glass door in your home. Sunlight can make the most mediocre of pictures into something purely amazing. Be aware of shadows from window and door structures and avoid high noon when the sunlight will be too bright. Shadows will be very dark and the kids will be too squinty to make their sweetest, smiley faces. Mid- morning seems to be the best time for us, right after breakfast. Also, when the babies were unable to sit up on their own, we'd actually turn the couch so that it faced our sliding-glass door (our sunlight source) and use that as our support for the babies. We'd prop them up against pillows leaned against the bottom of the couch and drape whatever cloth we were using for our background from the floor, over the pillow and up the couch. This worked well for us. Lastly, the key to getting great pictures is the emotional atmosphere of your kids. If they are happy, it will show in your pictures. Plan to take your pictures when your kids are most rested, like we do, right after breakfast. If you can get a bath in, their hair will look better (yes, even if you bathed them the night before). If you don't have the extra time, just wash and style their hair. Try to get someone close to your family to help both with repositioning slouching babies and for making funny faces to entertain. This alone is a huge bonus over photo studios – your children will be happy and comfortable in their own surroundings and with people that are familiar to them, as well as knowledgeable of what really brings out their happy giggles. Other tips for photographing babies… ? Dressing everyone in coordinating colors or identical outfits in different colors will give a more sophisticated look to your pictures. ? Feed only non-staining foods up until picture time. ? If you want a picture of babies in only a diaper, put the diaper on backwards where no cute designs are printed. The all-white diaper looks better and more timeless. ? Keep a cloth near to dab up the constant drool. ? Have a few noisy and/or shiny items on hand to catch babies' interest and have all their eyes looking in the same direction. Car keys or bottles of vitamins work well. ? Make sure your background includes only relevant items. Think how bad your last studio shots would've looked had the photographer's busy desk, wall clock, camera bags, etc. had been included. Move anything you don't want in the picture out of the way. Can't move it? Hang up a sheet to cover it or move to where these items can't be seen. ? If your very young baby won't stop crying, wave a large piece of cardboard back and forth in front of their face. The breeze confuses them momentarily and the crying will stop. ? MOVE! If your babies don't sit up yet and you aren't having success in propping them up, lay them flat and take your pictures from directly above. Stand on a chair and make sure your position does not create shadows. ? Bubbles are a wonderful attention getter, both for the children's entertainment, and also for adding a little extra magic to your pictures. ? Snap as many shots as you can get! I take hundreds and end up with only three or four that are truly noteworthy, but the ones that are great, are amazing! The more pictures you take increase your odds for success. ? Always have someone else around to help – it's difficult to catch great shots if you have to keep trying to catch and reposition babies. We actually plan our picture-taking way in advance and recruit my parents to help. Jack and my mother do the repositioning, one on each side, and my father and I take pictures with our own cameras. Again, more pictures, more chances for success and a different perspective than I might get. ? Take your digital pictures to Costco to be printed! They have the cheapest prices around ($0.19-4x6; $0.69-5x9; $1.99-8x12; and $2.99-11x14) and offer both matte and glossy finishes, and with or without a white border (looks very finished). They can even do sheets of wallets ($2.99 per sheet of either 9 or 16 wallets) and special greeting cards, again, for the cheapest prices around and the fasted turnaround (while you wait, in most cases). They can even take your digital pictures off your camera's memory card and print them onto a CD for you. To use all of Costco's photo services, you'll need a membership of course, but if you don't have one and plan to take a lot of pictures… the $45 membership is well worth every penny! Good luck in your picture-taking adventures! Take your time, be creative, put your heart into it, and you can't go wrong!