Yesterday we showed you some of our favorite photo projects, but perhaps our true favorite is the monthly baby photo. They're such a lovely, physical (and sometimes bittersweet) reminder of how much and how quickly our dear babes change. Here are some wonderful examples to inspire you to try it yourself.
First Row:
Lucien - Julie of Famille Summerbelle (blog and shop) used felt letters and numbers to spell out how old her son Lucien was each month. See the whole series (especially the last one!) here.
Eleanor - Nicole of Making It Lovely is photographing her daughter monthly for her first two years sitting in their Eames rocking chair and wearing a sweet pin. See the whole series here. We're looking forward to seeing how Nicole carries on this tradition with her new son, August!
Clara - Sherry and John of Young House Love get extra credit for snapping their daughter every week. They use different (mostly) fabric backgrounds which gives them the versatility to play into holidays and special occasions. Wondering if Clara has a dresser filled with 52 weekly onesies? Nah! Sherry and John are way too practical for that - they cleverly Photoshop the week in. See all the weekly shots so far here and check out their Photoshop instructions if you'd like to try this yourself.
Oliver - Stephanie of Simply Radiant poses her son in, on and in front of a giant letter "O" and snaps away as he gets bigger and bigger each month. What's really fun is she doesn't choose just one a month to share, but a whole bunch. Check out the whole 'Ollie with an O' series.
Bea - A few years ago a reader, Kathy of Laowai, shared with us her project of taking monthly photos of her daughter on the over-sized page of a Stendig calendar. See Bea's photos here and she's keeping up the tradition with daughter Claire, too!
Second Row:
Runa - Mijs of Mijs on a Holiday lives in Amsterdam and began taking a photo of her daughter in a popular newborn pose, perched on her father's arm extended into the frame. Well they've kept it up as Runa has grown and we wonder how much longer dad can do it! See the delightful Flickr set here.
Brayden - Tabitha of Fresh Mommy Blog captures her sweet son and his giraffe every month in their chair. You can see the month-by-month series here. Brayden just turned one and you can see his one-year photo and read about the family's celebration together here.
Linus, Miles & Oliver - If you think these monthly photos are nice, but sound like a lot of work, Pam of Pyjammy, did it for her three boys so let that be an inspiration to you. She lines up the triplets on a loveseat and then Photoshops in the month and, maybe more importantly each boy's name. See the whole adorable series, 3 years and still going here!
Lex - If you really want to take it up a notch, you could try what Lex's parents did: a daily photo turned into a lovely video montage.
We hope these inspire you to give it a try yourselves. Even if it's too late to start at the beginning, it's never too late to start! Do you take monthly baby photos? Leave a link to yours so everyone can get even more ideas!
(Images: 1. Famille Summerbelle 2. Making It Lovely 3. Young House Love 4. Simply Radiant 5. Laowai 6. Mijs 7. Fresh Mommy Blog 8. Pyjammy)
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We took them for each kid in my antique child-sized rocking chair. It's fun to have them side-by-side and see how one baby grew in different spurts than the other.
I dress my baby boy up every month in funny costumes that coordinate with whatever month it is. Ridiculous? Yes. Too much time on my hands? Yes. Will he put me in a home? Definitely. But I don't care, it entertains me.
http://shannonsswell.blogspot.com/2011/02/gabraham-lincoln-lesson-in-history.html
I just do a simple 3x5 card each month...check it out here:
http://justdaisydreaming.blogspot.com/2011/02/baby-month-cards.html
We used decals from etsy seller Picky Sticky on onesies for our gal's monthly pics: http://www.nannersp.com/search/label/Em%20months
We have been doing a stenciled onsie for every month. Really fun! http://bit.ly/g6jfiu
I did a photo a day for my daughter's first year and then posted them weekly. I called it the 365 project. You can check it out on my blog.
http://creativehussy.typepad.com/undisciplined_thinker/365/
We do weekly photo shoots on a different backdrops :) the last week was a beatles theme and before that he was cupid
http://www.blog.easilydunn.com/2011/02/22/10-weeks-old-beatles-edition/
We used a chalkboard monthly - http://milochristopher.blogspot.com/2010/11/eight-months.html
Prop him up on the couch next to a teddy bear and a piece of paper with his age on it. Not even a piece of paper with the number printed--I just freehand it and go. It started out as a whim that first month and everyone started requesting it. 12 month picture will be on Sunday. :sniff:
Our son just turned 3 and we continue to take a photo. It began as a monthly photo and has now changed to every year. We use plain old paper and always pose our son in a small blue chair.
Take a peek:
https://thewaverleyhouse.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/three-years-told/
Fun! Thanks for posting about the boys' pictures. I have toyed with stopping now that they're three, but I guess I'll keep going. I have visions of them being sixteen and still doing it. :)
We used numbered onesies that I made myself. Check it out here -
http://emmmylizzzy.blogspot.com/2011/02/past-project-friday_25.html
I have taken at LEAST one photo a day since she was born and put them together into a year end video montage with one photo per day. Her name is Paige, so the first year we called "A Paige-a-Day" I'm working on "The Daily Paiges" for her 2nd birthday in June. Some days I have forgotten to catch her while she's awake, but remember before midnight and run in to get a sleeping picture! I didn't originally mean to keep it going for so long, but can't bring myself to stop now!
I take weekly pictures of my daughter in an Eames rocking chair with a quirky handmade toy cat:
http://happinessiseva.tumblr.com/tagged/weekly_updates
I feel like a terrible mama because I haven't started a photo project, my daughter will be 5 months in a week. But thanks for saying it's never too late to start, I'm going to start this month and hope when she's older she wont care that I missed the first 4 mos.
ohshannanigans, wow, you put a lot of work in your monthly photos and it shows, wonderful result !!!
I just take a monthy photo of my daughter with a chalkboard next to her, in the same chair. I took a picture of my son each moth too, his first year but didn't think of doing it in the same place or with a visual telling at which month we were at.
Forgot to add I love the examples you selected for this article, esp. Clara and Runa !
I take a picture of my little girl Sophia on the same blanket each month and add in the months in Photoshop or Picnik:
http://ccpbtg.blogspot.com/2011/02/5-months.html
I have also been taking weekly pictures next to a sock monkey to show her growth.
We got a stuffed Tigger at one of our baby showers and we took a picture with Jake each month with Tigger (we're continuing it in year two as well). It's been a great gauge of growth and development. Here's one month vs. one year.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoosgracie/5274680363/in/set-72157625351659240/
We started out doing a photo a day, but I got distracted. Ha! We are religiously doing a photo a month on an Eames rocking chair though not terribly creative, obviously, but we figured we might as well put that chair to work since that purchase was a splurge for us. :)
For my son, I created monthly cards and took a picture with him in just a diaper sitting in his bumbo. It was amazing to see how seemingly little he changed from month to month, but over a year, the change was huge. Will definately do it with future kids too!
http://kinzieskreations.blogspot.com/2010/08/digital-art-in-my-etsy-shop.html
We take a shot with my daughter holding a vintage number sign of the corresponding month. Well, usually it's vintage; unless I get desperate or plan poorly and then it's a run to Michael's for a wooden number.
Here's the most recent one:
http://2drifterz.blogspot.com/2011/03/6-months-and-5-too.html
Back when my daughter was born, no one was really doing this, and I started, but didn't keep going... to my regrets. Still, we have tons of pictures of our children.
The most amazing baby pictures I have seen though are being turned into a book. They started out as a little naptime project of a very creative mom in Finland, who blogged the pictures on her site --
http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/2010/10/im-just-daydreamer.html
They became so popular though, that people used the images without her protection, and so she has removed them from her blog, except for the thumbnail gallery and her first picture. Can't wait for the book to come out!
I love all these photo projects so much that I was inspired to do 3 different backgrounds/set ups with my son every month. Now he's 11 months old and I'm trying to figure out how to edit them together into 1 project that I can have printed in different sizes (for our selves, gifts, photo books). I thought this was something I could do on Shutterfly or iPhoto but neither of those sites have a 12 picture collage templates. I don't have any photo editing software. So here I am with all these pictures and a desire to complete the projects but I'm at a loss for where to turn for help. Can anyone point me in the right direction? I'm even willing to pay for someone else to do the editing but again I don't know where to look for that sort of resource. Please help! Thanks