Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniela Larsen.
Daniela, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Smash Cake Photographer:
I grew up with a mother who is a baker. She baked cakes, sweets, pastries, appetizers and all kinds of goodies since I can remember! I love going through my childhood photos and seeing pictures of my birthday parties decorated with all this yummy food, friends, balloons, party hats, and goodies! I have amazing memories growing up and celebrating birthdays.
When I started my journey as a family and child photographer, I quickly realized how much I enjoyed designing birthday photo sessions for children. Creating a cute set up for a birthday portrait session, I can recreate all that magic and happiness I felt as a child and transfer that feeling to my clients in a styled smash cake photo session!
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Sereia Photography is photography studio specialized in portrait photography with a passion for styled and candid portraits in natural light and in studio setting. Our specialties are Baby milestones, children, family, maternity & newborn photography. Birthday portraits and Cake Smash Sessions are my all-time favorite!
What is a Smash Cake Photo Session?
Simply put: A smash cake is a small cake (size 5 or 6 inches) made for the baby to do whatever they want or choose with it. My job is to create a super cute setup to photograph all the giggles, reactions and cute expressions of the baby destroying his/her birthday cake. This is the best way to celebrate and register a baby’s first birthday!
What’s Included in a Smash Cake Session?
1. One Styled Setup (balloons, banners, available props) to match your baby’s outfit and theme
2. The Cake (I provide the cake, as long as your baby has no food allergies)
3. One Bubble Bath Setup
4. Online preview gallery
We will work really hard to source and create a super cute setup for you baby smash cake session! You are welcome to request any available props from the studio. Parents are welcome to bring their own props if they have a special theme in mind! All details like the theme, color scheme and outfits will be discussed in a pre-consultation call.
My 3 Step processes to photograph a Smash Cake:
Step 1: We photograph the baby in the cute scenario before introducing the cake. This serves as a little warm up to get the baby comfortable with the studio and the camera. Another reason is that there is a 5% chance that the baby may not like the cake. This ensures we will have a handful of beautiful photos of this important milestone. We encourage parents to bring two outfits: one cute look for before introducing the cake and a diaper cover/tutu skirt for the cake smash itself.
Step 2: We introduce the cake and the fun begins! It is super cute to register all the cute faces and expressions as the baby tries cake for the first time!
Step 3: Bubble Bath: this is a great way to end a Cake Smash Photo session because it washes off all the mess and most importantly it’s fun and relaxing for the baby! And we get tons of giggles, smiles and water splashes! The result is a gallery full of beautiful portraits of your sweet child in this cute scenario to register this very important milestone! One Year old!
The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Creating and setting up a Smash Cake Photo Session requires time and investment. We custom create each photo session to be unique and to match a specific theme that coordinates with the child’s birthday theme. We have a selection of different props we can use and we also source our props from local shops as well as online.
Some banners and hats are handmade at the studio a few days prior to the session. We do encourage parents to bring any props they have available to add to the decor if necessary. We order the cake that is custom designed to match the colors and the decor. A couple hours before the scheduled session time, we run to the store to purchase the balloons.
The biggest challenge we face when creating a smash cake photo session is to ensure the setup is ready to go when the client arrives at the studio. As we all know we have a short time to get smiles from babies at that age because they may get tired or hungry or may need a nap. Preparation and planning are key factors for a successful Smash Cake Photo Session!
These images are so precious and we go above and beyond to ensure our clients will have a handful of beautiful images that will be heirlooms to be treasured for a lifetime!
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Daniela Larse was part of Visual Voice
http://www.kpbs.org/events/2018/feb/09/women-in-photography-our-visual-voi/?et=88056
Contact Info:
- Address: La Jolla, CA
- Website: www.sereiaphotography.com
- Phone: 858-922-4850
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sereiaphotography/
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/sereiaphotography/
Image Credit:
All images are shot by Daniela Larsen – Sereia Photography
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