Make your invitations personal
Every year, for both kids I’ve shot a photo for their birthday invitations. It’s one of my favourite things as I get to choose a photo that reflects their personality at that age. This year was no different, except that we’ve decided there will be no more parties after the kids turn 5. Even so, we’re going to have a bunch of his mates around for a movie, some minigolf, and fish n chips, so I had to do another invitation didn’t I?
It’s really easy to do this for your kids’ parties, just find a photo with enough negative space so you can insert some text. By that I mean having a background that’s not too distracting, and fairly plain. If you can’t find one, then look around and take a new photo. Leave about half the frame for text. Whenever I take family photos or baby photos I include at least one photo for this reason, so you can make invitations or cards from the photos at a later date.
How to get kids to look good for a photo
As usual, the process of getting the right photo is more fun that taking the right photo. Mr5 (soon to be 6) loves pulling faces, and hates instructions. So to get a natural look from him takes some time. I start by just telling jokes, asking him to pull the craziest faces he can (the photos of which he wouldn’t let me post; always get a model release!!). He knows too well what I’m trying to do, and will try his best to resist! I’ll bet you’ve experienced this with your kids too; have you ever told them to smile and received the cheesy grin face?
My trick is to never say “Smile!” or “Cheese!” I’ve never said it, and that forces me to try other ways to get a natural smile. You have to be patient, and plan to spend 10mins taking a photo that should only take 1min. Just when you think you’ve got it, he’ll change his mind, move off the spot and pick up some random item to start playing ninjas with.
So, have fun, turn it in to a opportunity to learn about what makes your child tick. For Mr5 the thing that cracks him up every time with when I accidentally-on-purpose crash in to something, fall over, or whack the camera against my head. Kids love slapstick, so if you can pull it off you’ll come away with some real reactions.
How to get invitations printed
This is the best bit. Once you’ve edited your photo and put some text on it (there are heaps of programs out there that will let you do this, or use picnik.com ) you just take the photo to your local print lab and print out some very cheap invitations.
This one isn’t a contender for the invitation, but I love it. He was thinking about the best character from Ben10 to mimic for the photos
This one I love, and will probably be the invitation photo. There’s heaps of space on the left to put all the details on. It’s the gruff ’don’t-mess-with-me’ stance, but he’s got a twinkle in his eye, and that smirk that I just adore. This photo is screaming “You’re mine! come to my party!”
