{ISABELLA MALDONADO} BIRTHDAY SESSION | PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER GRAFENWOEHR, GERMANY

This Saturday I had a precious visitor in my studio. Princess Isabella is turning 3 soon and I had the privilege of doing her photos. This was such a fun session - maybe one of my ultimate favorites to date. Everything from idea to final photos made me smile and inspired me. 

When Sarah (Isabella's mom) contacted me to do the pictures I knew I needed to do something really fun and different but I was limited to shooting in the studio instead of outside like I originally planed to (it is a little too cold outside right now, given that it's the end of January). So I started brainstorming ideas and got creative. 

Once the idea was agreed on, I started making it come to life. All I needed was a hula hoop, some paint, a calligraphy word cutout that says 'three', and balloons. The latter being the easiest as I always have some in stock and the cutout being the hardest. I tried to buy a hula hoop but a friend said she will give me hers (phew! one less thing to worry about). Painting it took two coats on each side and lots of air-drying time (the smell of paint lingered for a few days). Then I had to make the cutout...this is where it got a bit complicated. My printer is not a large format one so I had to print parts of the word on different pieces of paper to glue them together after. Once that was done I had to X-ACTO it out of a cardboard box so it won't be flimsy and rip when I hang it up. I think over all this took me half a day just because I never realized how hard it is to cut out from a box (and that is all I had laying around in the house). One the cut-out was ready and painted I hung it up using fishing wire and added the balloons to match Isabella's theme colors. 

My bridal skirt (made by Maddy's Girl) I used as a backdrop to show off the cascading flowers and make the overall look even more girly. Then I added pillow fluff (one big and one small pillow) and tule all over the floor so Isabella will be comfortable and also to give the illusion of softness and clouds. 

When my little princess guest finally arrived she was ecstatic to put on her birthday outfit (also made by amazing Carol from Maddy's Girl ) and play around with the fluff and the flowers and I couldn't wait to photograph it. 

Here are a few of my favorites from the session. Happy birthday little princess!