Beauty takes heat: preparing for the photo shoot

Yesterday, the whole day was focused on one thing: Sarah's Photo Shoot.  I shined her shoes, ironed her dress, bathed her, rested her, and used a curling iron on her hair for the first time.  

She is such a rambunctious child, that I was sure the hot iron would kill her in her squirminess; or at the least deter her from ever letting me use an iron on her head again.  I did not want her to hate curling irons because beauty takes heat (you can quote me on that).  If she does not like the heat, she will not look beautiful.  At least in my experience.

Luckily, she is still alive, unscathed.  I did worry that I might burn her, and she would suffer the crusted ears and forehead that I endured when my wonderful Mom curled my hair and occasionally missed (in her defense, she had five children and our hair always looked perfect.  Her mantra was, 'it hurts to be beautiful').

Because of my fears, I did not do as long lasting and perfect a curling job as my Mother, but I got the job done.  

I focused on the front, because I did not know Sarah's sit still time while I held a death iron.  We would have to ignore the back of her hair.  I do it all the time with my own coif.  If I cannot see it, neither can anyone else.

Before we left, I took a couple of pictures while she played.  I understood that the photo shoot was a risk, and everything might fall apart, including Sarah.

It did.  Her ironed dress wrinkled in the car seat, her shined shoes tumbled town the stairs and got scuffed, her hair went flat, her nose ran, she got milk on her front, the photographer's M and M's on her teeth, and she would rather be behind the camera than in front of it...or laying on the ground beside it.

Here are the pictures I took before I left:



This is Sarah waiting for her turn.  I had the brilliant idea of giving her a bottle of milk to keep her calm.  Bad, messy idea.
It is hard for a two year old to understand that we want her to stand in one place...the empty, boring white space, in front of the camera instead of explore.
If the camera is magic like my cousin-in-law's Miriam Lovell, or her husband's Dan the pictures should be ethereal.  If not, it was a good memory.

Comments

Oh the stress of the "photo shoot"! I know exactly where you are coming from, mah dear. ; ) She is a darling girl (death heat stick and all!) I daresay the camera will do it's magic (it already has with your candid shots) and you will find at least 1 or 2 pictures that you absolutely are willing to pay more than you ever thought you would!
Brandi said…
I think Sarah looks BEAUTIFUL. You should definately curl her hair more often.She looks just lovely.I can't wait to see the pictures.
The Bears said…
Was this the dress I didn't get to see??? It was cute, but Sarah would be cute no matter what. I hope you get some great shots.
squiresclan said…
She looks so cute! Pictures at that age are a chore well except for makenna she was born loving the camera i have more pictures of her then any other child and i swear it's not because shes the baby it's because she is always bringing me the camera saying "mom take a picture of this, ok now i'm gonna pose like this" I seriously think she should consider modeling in the future lol
Dan said…
Let us know when you get the photos back! I'm sure they'll turn out fine. No matter what you will treasure the photos.
Anonymous said…
I'm sure they'll turn out lovely--Sarah is such a beautiful girl.

Wendy
Annette said…
Sarah looks so beautiful, what a cute little princess fairy...I really like the picture where she has her had on the side of her face..like "Oh this is so boring, would you hurry up please"
Unknown said…
in that first picture she looks just like you, Candice!
Ben and Shara said…
She looks beautiful!! you get an A+ for effort.