Babies

My Darling Chloe Turns One

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Having gone through my first 365 days of parenthood, I have to say that the journey as parents is one that's fulfilling and wondrous in every way possible. Thank God for granting us the tenacity to go through our daily lives and bringing up the child in a healthy and sane manner.

As you've noticed, I took a hiatus from blogging for a month. During this period, much time was spent planning, conceptualising and photo-shooting various themes for parents and their little ones who were either turning one or have turned one. However the one most photo-shoot that I was looking forward to was none other than my own daughter's one year old photo-shoot. 

I recalled telling my wife that I would love to DIY something for Chloe's photo-shoot. She gave me a moment's look of disbelief and went ahead to tell me that if it was something I want to do to just do it. Just for the record, I was never an arts and craft person. The last time I tried to DIY something, it failed miserably. Anyway, I managed to DIY three cloud mobile and some backdrop accessories for Chloe's photo-shoot.

To sum it all up, I'm glad that my wife and I survived our first year of parenthood and we both look forward to many more years of parenthood to come. 

Have a happy golden jubilee (SG50) weekend people!


Chloe & Melanie at 7 Months

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True story: Babies grow very quickly. I think not many parents or grandparents will refute that.

Looking at how these two little cousin-princesses, whom some mistake for twin-sisters, have grown, certainly make their mommies' and dadda's hearts aflutter!

As a parent, I am told the most important changes take place in a child from age four to seven months. Chloe and Melanie have progressed well in terms of the coordination of their emerging perceptive abilities and their increasing motor abilities such as rolling over, sitting up, grasping and even crawling (with Chloe!). 

Moreover, you can't go wrong when your Papa and 姨丈 (yi zhang or mum's sister's husband in the complicated Chinese family tree) is an avid photographer. My idea for this shoot was really simple. It was to capture the bond between the cousin-sisters with a limited number of props.

What you need:

- A photographer
- A play wagon
- Some cute balloons
- Stuffed toys
- The baby stars!
- And lots of enthusiasm!

Though they are still young, I hope that one day, when these two little sweethearts are a little older, they will be able to look back and admire the pictures here capturing their beautiful smiles and cheeriness. We can't turn back time, but we can freeze that exact moment in time, with photography, at the very least. I <3 you two.

 

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Hope you are enjoying your visit. If you liked what you have seen so far, please call me at 9820 1295 or email to info@kelvinluffs.com so we can discuss how I can help you capture those precious and endearing moments of you and your loved ones.  Kelvin Luffs Photography - making each click worthwhile.

July Mommies & Babies

Howdy people! Hope I'm not giving you a baby overload on my blog. It's just so much fun and joy photographing babies and children. Yes, some do cry while others sleep but when the cries gradually turn to smiles and laughter, both the mommies and the photographer become at ease knowing that phew.. the little one is going to have some nice photos of them taken.

So back in November, I was given an assignment to photograph 13 babies and 13 mommies in a single day.  All the babies during the shoot were born between late June to end July (July Mommies Group)

In all honestly, the job was both fulfilling and tiring. The tiring part was inevitable because the shoot lasted for a full 6 hours. Thankfully my partner / wife was assisting me so as to make the flow of the photo-shoot more seamless. YES it was also a very fulfilling job simply because the expectation of the assignment was met and all the parents left with a smiling face knowing that the photographer (me) has captured lovely photos of their dear little ones.

Haha.. enough said, here are some photos taken on the day of the shoot. Enjoy!

Happy 4 Month Old Sweethearts!

You must be wondering why is it that I'm always photographing baby Melanie and baby Chloe. Well that's because these two babies are my darlings and I know for sure that I will miss the days when they are this little in future. That's why whenever possible, I'll take pictures of them as they grow up so that we as parents can refer back to these pictures to reminisce the times when they were still babies like that.

Like any new parents, juggling between work and caring for the kiddos is always a challenge that causes stress, anxiety, unhappiness (especially between husband and wife), frustration and so forth. But what's awesome to know is that all those aforementioned negative emotions will dissipate when your kid gives you a big bright smile or giggle or better still, laughter - and you'll then realise that everything that you've given is absolutely worth it.

As both baby Melanie (7th Aug 2014) and baby Chloe (8th Aug 2014) turn 4 months old, I (we the parents) thank God for his grace on these two adorable babies. May they continue to grow up healthily and happily always. Happy 4 Months Old Sweethearts!

Extracted from @sharinpoy Instagram post:

Here Mummy's prayer for this little girl:
May you grow up to serve Him All of your days.
May He lead you and guide you In all of your ways.
May His hand bless your future with Friendships that last.
May you cherish your youth And not grow up too fast
(Chorus taken from Rachel Aldous' A Mother's Prayer)
 

Here's a lovely picture of my wife Sharin with baby Chloe (left) and my wife's elder sister Maggie with baby Melanie (right)!

Baby Chloe & Baby Melanie

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To begin, allow me to introduce the stars of the photo-shoot. They are baby Chloe (my lovely daughter) and her cousin baby Melanie (my lovely niece). Both Chloe and Melanie were born in August this year, just a day apart from each other in the same hospital. Somehow I feel, these two baby girls are destined to be as close as sisters when they grow up, just like how close their mummies are to each other.

As I seek to add pictures to my portfolio, being a daddy photographer gave me the opportunity to do just that. Having these two precious little babies allowed me to constantly practice shooting with my baby models, play with the lightings to ensure the lights compliment the subjects, meddle with the props, think on my feet, etc.. I must say, I can handle babies really well now (after the few months of practice Chloe gave me).

In my previous post, I mentioned that in a baby photo-shoot, most of the time is spent on every other thing related to the babies Except photographing them. But when you do get down to taking their pictures, their expressions can sometimes blow you away.

Take for example this picture below, Chloe was busy crying and Melanie was well.. shocked! Priceless expression from baby Melanie.

Some behind the scene pictures.. Having a two Profoto B1 Air made a world of difference in lighting these precious babies.

[Picture left] So as the shoot progresses, it ended quickly (within 30mins) because both babies started being cranky (time for their nap). [Picture top] We all know that photographers love to 'Seize the opportunity' and that's exactly what I did, seized the opportunity to take the both of them sleeping, just like the picture below.

After about an hour and a half, both Chloe and Melanie came awake. So immediately, the mummies and I sprang into action by helping them change into their next outfit for the next shoot. Like all human beings, babies too need time to warm up after they come awake but perhaps we were too anxious in changing their diapers and clothes, the babies became agitated and showed me their displeasure in this photo.

Another two behind-the-scene photos to show how the next few pictures will transpire. Seriously, it involves the mums hopping up and down and making all sorts of baby language noises just to gain the attention of the two little ones.

[Picture above] Any home can be a make shift studio. With the right backdrop and a sofa, voila! We've now got a red background. [Picture right] Most parents would know that the colors that babies first see are Red, Black and White. As red background is too distracting for the babies, we had to quickly change a background to one that's of a more neutral color.

The babies being 3 months old have gained a fair bit of muscle mass hence rendering them less flexible as compared to when they were just infants but we still managed a few good pictures nonetheless.

Remember, babies are precious and they grow up real fast. So seize every opportunity to capture fun portraits of them, just like these pictures. If you're interested in having such portraits of your kids done, just drop me an email at info@kelvinluffs.com and I'll be most willing to sit down and conceptualize ideas for the shoot.

Here are a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure. Have a great week everyone!