The pressure of “what is the photographer going to do for her son’s first birthday photos?” is pretty intense. Well, no one is actually saying that but I do feel the pressure to think outside the box for a creative one year old photo session.
I have done countless cake smash sessions with adorable one years olds in the past six years. Parents have brought all kinds of cakes, from cakes that look like animals to giant cupcakes. One of my usual recommendations to parents is to NOT buy a chocolate filled cake. Can you guess why? Let’s just say that brown smears on a baby’s face and body are not the best look. Besides that, white or lighered coloured cakes photograph better in my opinion.
So, with Rusty’s first birthday coming up in early March I started thinking about alternatives to cake smashes a while ago. After kicking the idea around in my brain it finally came to me – EUREKA! A spaghetti smash! With meatballs of course. My little man Rusty can destroy a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs instead of cake! It is his favourite food and a great way to show off his goofy personality!
On the day of his big shoot I waited until it was close to a meal time, then off we went down to the studio for our spaghetti smash. I rolled out a clean piece of paper and Rusty had dinner on the floor. Of course Archie followed us downstairs for dinner time too. I have to say that Archie was one of my first models and often comes into studio to sit perfectly still in front of my studio lights, patiently waiting for a treat. In this case his treat was a meatball or two and a handful of spaghetti thrown on his head.
