A Darn Cute, Non-Professional, One-Year Photo Shoot

   This coming weekend, we are going to do something that I've repeatedly promised myself I would never ever do again... we are going back to Gara Hill for yet another professional photo shoot.  If you read this blog, you know that Ryder has had three shoots with Gara.  The first, his newborn shoot, wasn't a complete disaster, but that is mostly because he was too young and tiny to cause a huge scene.  He did manage to spray pee-pee all over Gara though.  And he certainly didn't sleep through the entire shoot like cooperative newborns do.  The second and third shoots were 100% epic failures.   He screamed bloody murder and refused to let us sit or lay him down.  He demonstrated behavior that I had never, and still to this day have never, seen before.  We still haven't figured out what the problem was.  We tested numerous theories (Was he scared of the large, professional camera? (no) Was he upset by his stuffy attire? (no) Did he hate being outdoors? (no) Was it a bad time of day? (no) etc. etc.).  We finally narrowed it down to three possibilities: (1) Ryder somehow could sense that Blake and I were tense and it rubbed off on him, (2) he hates Gara, or (3) plain bad luck/timing.  For what it's worth, I highly doubt that he hates Gara.  Ryder doesn't hate anyone.  He can tend to be a bit shy at first with new people, but because he's been going to school since he was three months old, he's pretty good about warming up quickly. 

   Anyway, after the six-month photo shoot, Blake and I vowed to try something different next time.  However, Gara is a talented friend with a brand new studio, and I just can't bring myself (yet) to go elsewhere.  Plus, she's always managed to capture some sweet photos despite Ryder's monstrous behavior, which is pretty freaking impressive.  So, we're going to try one more time.  It's been six months since the last shoot, and I'd like to think that Ryder has changed a lot.  We'll see I guess. 

   A few days ago, Blake grabbed his fancy-shmancy camera, and followed Ryder around for a while.  The photos are casual and precious.  Enjoy!

 

A throw-back to Gara's photo shoots.