Professional Photo Shoot

We like to think that we're fairly good photographers, but there's still no substitute for a professional. So around Anders's first birthday we scheduled another photo session with Michael Peterson.

We tried to be creative with the props that we brought to his studio for the shoot. Overall Anders wasn't quite as cooperative as during his previous session at 6 months, but we still got some good results.

TOYS
We picked bright, primary colored toys: Viking Toys "Chubby" cars, wooden stacking rings, megablocks toolset, etc.

KITCHEN
We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and Anders seems to have picked up on that. He has his own set of kitchen utensils, bowls, tupperware, etc., though for the photoshoot we brought some of "ours" as well.

SQUASH
It was fall, and we happened to have some around. Why not?

FLOUR
This one was suggested by Michael and we had high hopes for it. We envisioned him throwing the flour into the air and just generally having a good time. But he was much more cautious and tentative about it, and rarely looked up at the camera; he was focused entirely on the flour. By the end he started to loosen up a bit and actually have fun.

DIAPER SHOTS
Okay, so we know that these are "fake" in the sense that the diapers will have a white cover over them so that you won't actually see the color underneath. But what fun is that?

BLANKET
The blanket shots from the first photo shoot came out so well that we just had to try them again. The blanket and hat were made by my mom, and who knows how much longer the hat will actually fit him.

READING
Anders still loves his books. This shot was an excuse to use Michael's super-fancy low F-stop lens to get a really shallow depth of field.

FAMILY SHOTS
In addition to all of the studio "prop" shots that we had planned for Anders, we got some good family shots as well.

If you reached the end of this endless slew of photos, congratulations! You must be one of Anders's grandparents. :)

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

Date: October 13, 2009