I have been involved with most parts of the portrait photography business my whole career. I spent many years working with different studios holding virtually every position possible. Marketing, Production, Graphic Design, Customer Service, Color Correction but my favorite was Retoucher. I absolutely love the idea of creating something fantastic from my computer. Most of my job was retouching pimples from teenagers faces, but sometimes I got wonderfully creative projects. I was rarely asked if something was possible, just expected to make it possible.
Becoming a Mother has afforded me a permanent on-call model for all of my wild ideas. My brain thinks "baby doing yoga" and only a few days later I found myself in a friends studio making it possible (Thank You Michelle @ Nixon Photography, www.nixonphotography.com). For this shot I used at least 8 different images of Grayvin and composited them into one image. It took me around 4 hours to complete. At this point in his development (5 mo) he couldn't stand or even sit up on his own.
Grayvin in Tree Pose. www.BabcockStudio.com
My baby Spartan photo was inspired from an image a friend did of her cat many years ago. The cat wore a red cape and had a stormy background. It was wonderful. So when Grayvin was born I knew I had to make him into a Spartan Warrior!!! I sewed a cape, wrist and leg bracers. I made a talon necklace and found a shield and spear on Amazon.com. This image is 98% photographed in my studio and 2% cloudy stock art. Those wonderful Greek abs are the real deal! Well sort of... it took very little convincing to call in a favor from Megan @ Pinned Up (www.updotoyou.com). She was gracious enough to air brush abs on my little 8 month old. AMAZING! This took about 3 hours of Photoshop work to complete.
Grayvin as Spartan Warrior from movie 300. www.BabcockStudio.com