By: Anuradha
Life with kids is just wonderful. Each and every hour that you spend with them would feel like a minute and you will never get bored when working with them. However, more than anyone else parents love their kids the most and the way that they feel about their kids can hardly be expressed by words. It is such a genuine feeling and that is why we say parent’s love towards their kids cannot be compared to anything.
Ryan was not a normal kid. He born premature and spent 6 weeks in NICU. But, that didn’t prevent his mom and dad from loving him and admiring all his moves and tiny gestures. His dad got this wonderful idea of making a photoshoot of his son and the final result is just way hilarious. Here is what his dad had to say and we are sure that you would love this too!
“Our son Ryan was born 9 weeks premature weighing just under 3 lbs. He spent 6 weeks in the NICU and it seemed to last forever. When my daughter was born 2+ years ago, I photoshopped her playing sports as an infant and had wanted to do something similar for my son. Although things didn’t go according to plan we didn’t let it slow us down. We joked that he wasn’t premature just “advanced” – so I came up with the idea that we should do a photoshoot of him doing manly adult things.
Each shoot took about 15-20 minutes. Most of the work is in the setup and editing. First, I had to make props and find outfits for most of the pictures. The next step was setting up the scene, framing the shot, arranging props, and setting up the lighting where appropriate. Some of the setups were elaborate – like for the benchpress photo. For this one, I made a rig that hung from the ceiling. It mounted the camera and also held the barbell above Ryan so all he had to do was grip it rather than holding it up.
My wife often helped out by holding him so I could put his hands/arms/legs in certain positions, holding things. After I got the pictures of Ryan, I would take some shots of anything that he couldn’t actually hold, like the ax swinging or the fish on the fishing line. After each shoot, I would comb through these hundreds of photos and choose the best ones. I then used Photoshop to remove myself from the pictures and combine the best parts of his body into a unified composite photo.
People seemed to love the photos – there was a lot of disappointment when the series came to an end. Most people found them funny but there were always a few people that feared for Ryan’s safety. I always explained how the “danger” all came from photoshop and he was always being held and was never in any harm. I’m curious to see what Ryan thinks of them 18 years from now when he’s actually grown up.
Scroll down below to see all the fun we had with Baby Ryan!
Image credit: Matt Mac
1. Shaving that 5 o’clock shadow
2. Mowing the lawn.
3. Blowing the leaves like a champ.
4. playing poker with boys.
5. chopping that firewood.
6. catching his first fish (and release)
7. turning up mom’s Prius.
8. carving the Thanksgiving turkey.
9. earning that paycheck (yes, we made him a mini briefcase)
10. Maxing out 106 ounces on the bench press.
11. pumping iron.
12. Ryan’s now 6 months old and finally on the growth chart! Much love to all the NICU nurses at Virtua Mount Holly.
