How To Photograph
a Baby in a Mailbox
I don’t have access to a giant cocoon or ginormous flowers or pterodactyl-sized butterfly wings… these are only a handful of things that me and Anne Geddes do not have in common.
I do however have a mailbox. It sits on the east side of my house and is framed by a large tree, very scenic this time of year.
I enlisted my wife to take baby Sawyer outside for a quick snapshot and after coming back inside I realized a quick snapshot wasn’t going to do. I had to bring out the big lights… which meant we were going to cause a bit of a ruckus, which meant our neighbors might look out the window to ascertain the situation and it wouldn’t take much imagination for people to assume the Garns were outside, in the middle of the afternoon, drunk off their rockers.
So we had to move quickly, and quietly. I brought out a large softbox with a single Elinchrom Style 600 RX strobe to provide some fill light, and pearl reflector to bounce a bit of the flash back in the deep shadows from the afternoon sun… after all, the early morning or late night sun would be a little too chilly this time of year and it would take some really irresponsible parents to take a newborn outside under those circumstances.
We bundled baby Sawyer up in a pile of blankets and my lovely, giggling wife was responsible for gingerly placing him inside the mailbox (notice I did not use the word stuffing or shoving). She was also in charge of holding him gently underneath his head.
In fact, the whole process was a little too gentle, most images were of him sleeping peacefully, but that just wouldn’t do… luckily upon removing him, or adjusting him (notice I did not use the word poking him with a stick) he got just a tad bit ornery and made the perfect “get me out of here” face.
Ahhh, poor kid. You’ll thank me later though.
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haha jake, you are the best. sawyer is such a good sport.. and so is jenny. i think the stamp on his head makes the entire photograph. like i said before.. these needs to be published.. not just in this blog but like in a book. i will publish it for you.
You guys are mad!
Both of you…
But like you said… he’ll tank you later…or not
Wow, you guys use a lot of starch on that baby blanket. Love the red flag on the mailbox. Geddes got nothin’ on you.
Never heard of parents doing that to their baby…nice shot, great facial expression…one day when you show him the picture, he will laugh and think your the best! lol
so that’s where babies come from… lol!!!
Nice job, too bad I dont have a mailbox to try this with y month old boy…
Much more fun than a sappy pea pod! What about the model release?
Ellen,
That’s the beauty of being a parent, until he turns 18 I get to sign his model release. Bwahahahaha!
-Jake
Hey, nice job. You got mentioned over at the Strobist flickr forum – that’s probably why you’re seeing a huge spike in traffic.
Keep up the good work. Great picture, and even more kudos to being able to convince your wife this was a good idea!
A baby in a mailbox… who’da thunk it, awesome!!
Thank you for an enjoyable read. I was searching for stuff for my baby on Bing and your website came up on search results. I’ve bookmarked your site so that I can come back and read more when I have time. Thanks very much.
Hey, This is cute. You would never guess this but there are a few people that do this. My family included. I am 25 years old and my cousins and I were all photographed when we were babies in my grandparents mail box. We have also passed it down to the next generation, my kid and my cousins kid were both photographed in the same mail box. Its a really fun and unusual tradition.
Keesha,
That is awesome! I’m not surprised that it has been done before, in this day and age I’m not sure there is such a thing as an original idea!
I read this sober earlier today and thought you were an irresponsible parent. Now I’m sauced up like Lindsay Lohan on bingo night and I’ve got to tell you… you’re a GENIOUS.
Hey, habe deine Seite gerade bei Google entdeckt. Hast echt ein interessanter Blog, werde sicherlich noch das ein oder andere mal hier vorbeischauen! Deine Posts sind auch echt spitze! Lieben Gruss
Jake, you simply had an idea to send baby out of the house legally. hehe. I guess I have to do that also, so that no need to hire nanny. just send it to her grandma via snail mail. oh oh…hehe.