Since Maddie’s been born, I like to do at least one studio shoot a year to document what she looks like at her current age, what she’s into, her personality, etc.

I have done this 3 years in a row around Christmas time.

This year was no different, except that I moved the session out to the garage. I set up the seamless, placed and weighted down the lights (even placed extra weight as an extended precaution since I was about to have a 2.5-year-old Tasmanian on the lose). After I had the set created, I informed my wife, Lauren, and she brought Maddie out – she was in all her glory!

I was able to capture a few of her with the cape on before she saw her wooden horsey off to the side. So, like a dad, I asked her “Do you want to ride Sven?” She lite up! Of course, the cape had to come off when she got on Sven because that’s what she wanted, and when shooting toddlers, you take what you can get. They create the flow and you go with it. Like I said earlier, I just planned on shooting our yearly session to capture her as her for that period of her life. I didn’t expect she’d give me the gold she did.

Pro tip: Seamless can do more for you than simply having a timeless look. When shooting on seamless, you control its tone. Want it to be white? Light it that way! Want it to be Black? Light it that way! You fully control its visual outcome… and it’s great for post-production compositing; like I did in this series.