Fail.

Yeah, this is how today has gone.  I had high hopes my girl would be the perfect cake smasher and I would get kick ass pics but that was not in the cards today.  

But lets focus on what I did get out of it, some camera practice.

 Sorry but I am still learning how to get great pics with very little natural light.  Our house just doesn't get great light and on top of that, it is overcast today.  I took this pic with the AV setting (Canon) and ISO 1600 (I think).  I also edited it a bit in Picassa (because it is free).  I am using a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with 85 mm 1:1.8 lens.

A sheet draped over two dining room chairs, gold and lace banner, 2 gold picture frames and a chalkboard banner.  A cake and cake stand.

For this shot, I switched to manual mode with shutter speed 1/80, aperature F 1.8 and ISO 400.  The cake is out of focus because I had my point of focus behind it.  It definitely gave me more light and I am liking those setting for this area of my house.

The set:

I started with a bed sheet that I ironed but I am a terrible iron-er and there was still wrinkles.  But I was willing to work with it anyway.  Pinterest seems to suggest using a large sheet of paper instead of a sheet so you don't get wrinkles.  

Next, I made a banner using some wall decals and lace and twine I had laying around.

 I think I got these from Target about 6 months ago.

I cut a section of lace and twine and then applied the decals.  See below.

I sandwiched the twine between two decals then strung the twine through the lace after each set of decals I applied.

The lace is only attached where the twine intersects it.

The frames I picked up from an antiques mall on the east side of Madison yesterday.  I got them for my living room or maybe for a Craftshop project but they were gold so I had to use them.  

The little chalkboard banner I picked up at JoAnn's months ago. 

I got the cake at Metro Market and added some gold sprinkles.  

I waited alllllllllllll night for daylight and finally, it was today!

I dolled up the girl in her perfect gold hair bow (Etsy) and tutu (Carters) and set her down with the cake in front of her.

Annnnnnnnnndddddddd.....

Foiled by an uncooperative child again!!  I didn't even try this with the boy as he was highly offended by anything wet or sticky.  I had high hopes for the girl.  Nope.  Apparently I just have kids that don't have the same vision at I do.

I kept with it for about 30 minutes and got a few ok shots...

Then we called in some superheros to assist....

And then we started sticking stuff in the cake so she would take them out of the cake....

And we ended where we started.   Sigh.....

I had to do some straightening and cropping in Picassa so I lost some quality with the photos.  I don't shoot in RAW as I am afraid I am going to need a whole lot more room on my computer for this but that would definitely help keep the quality during edits.  I know Photoshop is the optimal edit software but I am not sure I have the time and patience to delve into that right now.  Meh.