Keoula’s friends Kate and Belinda, are having a naming ceremony for D’arcy next week. Part of the outdoor ceremony includes releasing 24 butterfly’s. While there is a good chance someone might get a good shot of this moment, just to be on the safe side they also wanted some studio shots doing for the album. The ceremony is a double family affair with Kate’s sisters boy, Connor as well.

With Keoula having had a hand in making the outfits, both D’arcy and Connor got dressed up for some shots along with a couple of colourful butterflies which we had to try and weave into the pictures. I wonder if whoever said “never work with animals and children” had tried combining butterflies and small children! LOL

For the shots I broke out the Death Star my DIY 50″ collapsible soft box again. This is a great light for little wrigglers as it is so big! I also wanted to try my new orange seamless background paper which I lit with with a Sunpak 383. I also set up a SB-28 on low power to give a bit of fill on the shadow side of the children but unfortunately I didn’t realise I had the PW set to the wrong channel until it was too late.

The butterflies arrived in a carefully designed transportation box from the suppliers. There was a block of ice in the bottom of the box (separated from them by a sheet of insulating plastic) that put them into a hibernation state. This kept them pretty docile for about a minute until they warmed up and became very lively. A couple of minutes back in the transporting box slowed them down again.

We found the best way to get the shots was to occupy the children and put the butterfly on them without them realising. When D’arcy saw it, he would get very excited and like all small children decided the best way to determine exactly what it was would be to put it in his mouth. Luckily both butterflies managed to escape a drool encrusted close encounter and were released back into the wilds of Brisbane after the shoot! :)

D’arcy
D’arcy
Connor

D’arcy and Connor Setup, originally uploaded by nickwheeleroz (on holiday).