Thrifty Thursday: Father's day photo op

       Each year Richard gets an updated photo of the kids for his office. As Father's day approaches, I have fun thinkng up clever themes for a photo shoot. (You can see my first attempt here.) 

      This time, we went with a sports theme. I envisioned a shot from behind, the kids lined up, with jersey numbers on their backs. Originally, I thought it would be easy enough for my two older boys to use their soccer uniforms, and then pick up some used jersey's from the thrift store for the remaining five. However, finding the right sizes and styles was a bit tricky, and even at thrift-store prices, a bit too expensive to justify a one-time use. 

       Then inspiration struck - no need for new clothes (or to convince the children to wear an outfit I had picked out). I would simply make a jersey number from masking tape and place it on the back of whichever shirt they wanted to wear! Bingo! 

       I searched for clipart online to use as a reference, then did my best to replicate the style of the numbers with my masking tape. Besides being an easy and inexpensive alternative, this gave me the added bonus of choosing which numbers to use. At first I thought each child could wear the number of their age, but then realized, that would be outdated in another month. Plus, putting a 3 on the newborn's back would be kinda confusing. So we went with birth order instead.

       Once the masking tape numbers were finished, I ordered everyone to put their "jersey" on and line up in front of the garage door. 

      

       I drew different shapes with the sidewalk chalk and assigned each child to a different one. That helped a bit with placement.

       One of the benefits of doing a shot from behind was I didn't have to worry about squinty eyes or forced smiles! (Which was seriously helpful, because one of the kids was in a bad mood at the time!)

       It was tricky, though, to get #6 to keep her back to the camera. She was a bit confused as to why everyone was staring at the garage door. But her big sister solved this problem by chalking something interesting for her to look at.

And BOOM! Team Campbell. (minus 1)

       I then had the kids rummage through the toy bin in the garage to find different sports paraphernalia for their individual shots.

       When you're not facing the wall anymore, there's so many interesting things to look at - other than the camera!

       Once our rookie player woke up from her nap, I was able to get some shots of her as well.

       Thanks to the convenience of digital photography, I was able to upload my favorites and edit them into a fabulous collage, then have the whole thing printed that same day. (I like to use this free online photo editor. I also found it helpful to open it before I took the pictures, in order to get an idea of what kind of shots I should take to fit the style options available.) 

And viola! The finished product:

       I mounted the photo on black cardstock and slipped it inside a large manilla envelope to be presented to our MVP on Father's day.  He was thrilled!

       I sure love this squad. And I'm grateful for my Richard. I think we make a great team.

       

     Frugal fathers for the win!