Of bunnies and babies

Posted by TJ Mullinax on Mar 21, 2011 | 1 comment

OK, so this isn’t a post about the great depression, but of an Easter magazine cover photo shoot that did not go as scripted.

The plan required getting a cute baby photo.  The plan was also to try getting a cute bunny photo.  However, adding bunnies and babies don’t always equal cute portraits.

It’s not everyday we get to have animals in the newsroom.

There are reasons for that – plenty -  and the most feared reason requires cleanup.

The assignment was for a Playdate photo shoot that included a 1-year-old baby and a baby bunny.  Both were a bit skittish. Both wanted to go home.  That’s the reality of placing young kids and/or animals in unfamiliar surroundings.  Never-mind the flash of strobes, the collateral of a small studio, and a guy hovering around with a camera pointed at them.

With kids, I usually prefer shooting them where they feel comfortable. Having a familiar place almost always yields big smiles, laughs, giggles and the child being active. I can work with the setting. Shooting a child in a studio or canned environment is challenging and takes more time for me to get what I am looking for because infants rarely warm up to the environment in the given time.  (There are ways to make a photo studio kid friendly but ours at the Herald is purely utilitarian.)

This day was a bit more work because we had a live, skittish bunny arriving from a bunny donor for the shoot. Thankfully it was not mean spirited or ready to make a mess.

(The bunny’s owner, Jordan Eng’s mom Chantell, Scott Klepach and I joked that we should have had a ‘holy hand grenade’ on hand for the baby to hold in one shot.)

Starting off

I decided to acclimate Jordan to the unfamiliar setting. With mom on the floor, dad bouncing wildly behind me, and Scott making faces we were able to get Jordan ready for a few solo shots. However, this 1-year-old was walking, or more like baby sprinting.  As soon as mom or dad stepped away, Jordan was moving.

Once we got a few shots off that looked promising, we brought in the bunny.  The bunny was scared stiff.  We could put it just about anywhere and it would just sit there with its ears back. The bunny made it easy for Jordan, but the baby would have no part of being around the tailed beast.

Not that Jordan was scared.  Jordan just wanted to get out of being the center of attention and give it up to bunny.

The vaunted idea that Scott sought — having a 1-year-old cuddling with a bunny — was unattainable that day but we accomplished the main mission, to get a cute Easter baby photo. The bunny played its part and Jordan did exceptionally well considering the situation. Even though things did not go as planned, flexibility was key to getting some cute photos.

 

NOTE: I decided to play the headline loosely from part of one of Robert Burns’ poems, …

“But little Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often askew,”