Another fabulous post from Freckledpast , our honoured guest blogger here at The Dublin Knit Collective. Thank you Evin for sharing.
Until my son was born, I knit for friends’ babies and happily used a weight ball to help model the little hats or a deck railing to show off the blankets but after he was born my eyes were opened to a soulful world of project photography in which unpredictability and life shine through in each image. Here, I’m sharing a sort of before and after of such images. Similar or the same finished object, photographed alone and photographed with a model, specifically my son LB. You can see how not only does size of the knitted item show better but also its use.
In particular, I prefer seeing baby blankets being used in a project photo. Here is Miller’s baby blanket, made using my Squishy Baby Blanket pattern, being modeled by a deck railing then after that is the same pattern (knitted for Miller’s baby sister) modeled by LB.
Both look lovely but there is a certain comforting feeling evoked by seeing a lovingly created blanket being used be a little bundle of love, right?
Another favorite baby blanket pattern is Beata Jezek’s Undercover. This blanket was knitted by MaireOS with Hedgehog Fibres sock club Tidepool colorway. Here it is modeled by LB’s toy bunny and then by the little man himself.
I know which one I prefer. Though I believe for detailed stitch work, like in the Undercover blanket, a standalone photo helps show the pattern nicely, it is also nice to have one showing it in use.
As is the case with clothing on a moving baby especially. I knitted a baby-sized variation of the Whale Watch Hat by Kate Gagnon Osborn for my nephew then it was handed down to LB. The Fair Isle colorwork is best shown on a non-moving object but to show how it fits a real baby head requires the sports setting on my camera.
But movement and a bit of blur is expected and just shows you have a healthy happy baby model on your hands. It’s natural. This shows just how it can still show off a pattern though, as is the case in this cardigan knit by Sara of Smudge Yarns using Manos.
Amazingly, the moving baby photo shows more detail than the sitting still baby photo.
So I learned early on to just go with the flow, keep the camera shooting and to have fun as I do it because at least one photo will turn out (usually more) and you get some fun memories out of it.
