Where the Wild Things Are//Gilbert Cake Smash Photographer

My Friends have the cutest kids.

… and the wildest.

This past year I’ve become really passionate about creating sessions that capture not just the child’s image, but a little glimpse into who they are at this moment in time. I’m fortunate to have friends who are always on board with my ideas for their children and I kicked off this idea earlier this spring with his big sister! I’ve loved watching my images become infused over this past year with more and more of the unique characteristics of the kids!

But when it comes to the babies this is a little harder to do. The question, What’s your 1 year old interested in? is often met with the same responses. Mom, older siblings, dad and bath time.

His family spent his actual birthday this summer traveling the country and visiting the national parks. Exploring. Being free. I wanted to incorporate a little of that memory into his pictures and as I was perusing ideas I stumbled across this one. I loved the simplicity of it and yet the whole story of running off and being with the wild things felt like a perfect fit.

I proposed the idea to mom and she agreed that he certainly is “King of the Wild Things”.

Avengers Assemble!//Gilbert Child & Dance Photographer

I joined Tik Tok this spring.

Tik Tok is a dangerous place. The problem with it is there’s a lot of random, wonderful and weird content on it and it kind of sucks you in. As a creative person I love seeing what other creatives are up to just a little too much. But that’s also the bright side of Tik Tok. Is discovering before unknown talents in the people around you,

I only knew about 5 people on tik tok at the time so I didn’t have to wander too far down the rabbit hole before I discovered the page of one of young dancers I knew. On there I saw just how deep her passion for makeup went, beyond the every day makeup and into these MARVELous creations.

As soon as I saw what she could do, I could picture the entire thing in my head.

THIS. We had to do THIS.

I knew I didn’t want to do actual super hero costumes for the session because I wanted Makenzie’s Makeup artistry to be the piece that really pulled together the looks for the girls. It was a natural choice to use dancers for the session because I knew the clothing would be easy to source and I love the strength they display and the precision with which they can move. As an added bonus, I knew all of these talented dancers would come in character with every fiber of their being, from facial expressions to the way they moved, it was incredible.

I’m blown away by how perfectly the entire vision came together. This was a lot of moving pieces, parents helping to select costumes that fit the vision + find the right props (probably the easiest part of it all), Makenzie nailing the makeup artistry for each character, the dancers individually showing up with in character dance poses and lastly the sky, just being the perfect apocalyptical shade for the evening’s session.

I was blown away by how perfectly the entire thing came together and it left me immediately wanting to create in this way MORE. So I’m putting together a Dance Squad for the 2021-2022 year and I already have about 100 things I want to do (even though I know a shoot every 3 days isn’t realistic!)

If you love what we did here, have a dancer and want to be a part of the fun this next year please fill out an application here. I cannot wait to spend more time creating this year!!