MomShots

I received an email from my cousin this afternoon.  Ok, to get technical, she’s actually my cousin-in-law; she’s my husband’s cousin.  But whatever, that isn’t important to this great story.

Anyway, she is really creative and artistic.  She’s one of those people that just comes up with amazing stuff.  They just pop out of her like some really great artistic poppy thing (insert great metaphor here, my mind is blank).  She had this brilliant idea that would be fantastic for so many things, including Holiday cards. 

I am going to just copy part of her email here for you and you can judge the brilliance.  I’m sure you’ll agree. 

I decided to take a series of them (her dogs) racing around the backyard and then put them all on one pic. I crouched in one corner, holding as still as I possibly could, (a tripod would help this with more planning) and snapped every couple seconds for about a minute. Then I snatched bits of them from each photo and dragged them onto one in photoshop. It may seem like a collage, but its all totally realistic– more like a bunch of pictures in one! 

I did this with my pups because I don’t HAVE any kids, but it occurred to me that it would be even more fun with your kids because you can yell a bit of direction their way… they could be making a Gar sandwich in a pile on one end of the yard, holding hands red-rover style running away from the frame on the other end, lying on their stomachs with their hands propping their chins up in the foreground… or just racing around like the hooligans they are like mine did. The photoshop part is seriously simple because if the camera is being held still, copying from one and dropping it into the other should match the pieces up perfectly. I did a bit of overlapping which took a light eraser brush only. 

Anyway, I thought that it might capture the sentiment (which I have at times), that I really have 12 dogs, not 2. I think you probably know what I mean.

Here is the adorable picture she sent me:  

So that is Kelty’s fantastic idea.  I L-O-V-E it.  It’s wonderful.  I am totally going to attempt this one of these days.  I think it would be so much fun.  In further correspondence she mentions a few ideas that you might enjoy:

You could even do little costume changes in between shots! Or simpler, put a ton of layers on the boys and then have them peel one of two off each shot! End up in their undies! Ha!

Doesn’t this sound fun?  I am so going to do this.  There are so many possibilities and you would end up with such a fun photo.  You could use this idea for a really creative holiday card.  You could use it for so many things.  Go crazy!!!