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When Becca came to me to discuss Lincoln's 2nd Birthday shoot, I knew it would have to be awesome. His first Birthday was Legend of Zelda inspired, with him running around O'Brien Park as little Link. So this one needed to have some magic as well.
We got to chatting about what Lincoln is into. At 2 years old, it's not always easy to narrow it down a theme for a birthday shoot. When my daughter was 2 she was liked a lot of things, but I wouldn't have said she was obsessed with anything besides testing boundaries (still haven't figured out a theme to match that one. Ideas?). Luckily Becca is a great friend so I had a bit more insight then I usually do, so when I saw her reading his favorite book, "Moo Baa LaLaLa" for the 100097693rd time, and his excitement over the 'MOO', I knew what we had to do and exactly where to go.
One of my favorite locations is a private farm out near Webster, AB. I knew they had just had a herd of cows arrive that month, it was kismet! It's a bit of a drive, and my truck got to get a little dirty as we bounce over to the ruts, but its so very worth it!
We planned the shoot for the evening before his second birthday, and despite storms on and off the entire day, it cleared up as we were heading to location. Bonus for me was that my dad was also up visiting for Father's Day weekend. If you remember from my previous blog post, my dad is a photographer. So when he's up and I have shoots, I jump at the opportunity to have him come along and be my assistant. There's nothing quite like working with someone who knows what you want, before you want it.
We started out with some adventuring through an old lease road on the property. Wild strawberries grow along the path, along with what I think is wild roses and some tiny blue bells. It's a beautiful area full of young trees and interesting hoof prints to inspect.
We sent Lincoln on ahead with a broken elastic shooter gun, and the idea to hunt down monsters (his idea). Once he had his mom or I in his sights, the fun began. I definitely wasn't the only one shooting at that time!
We adventured back to the main field, dodging cow patties and set up an area for some beautiful back-lit shots. Lincoln went through an outfit change and he was up for a more shots. He spent a lot of time trying to shoot my dad/assistant (who played wounded soldier so well).
All in all I'm pretty sure Lincoln thought he was out on some really fun country play date rather than a photo shoot.
Then we were driving over to find some cows!
Now let me tell you, the moment a toddler sees the real version of his favorite animal is one you remember. The faces he made when he first heard a real "moooooo" - priceless!
Lincoln ended up braving almost an hour and half of shooting and adventuring in total, all the while being way past his bedtime. He was a trooper even with a half hour of "just this last shot... oh wait, that light!"
I know that both his mother and I will never forget those looks on his face when he saw the cows (or discovered how they pee - now that was comical). Or the adventure we had for his second birthday. Check out some of my favorite photos below: