When my client wrote to me that they’d like a viking theme for their newborn photoshoot, I got so excited! – Challenge accepted, I thought. Then I could barely think of anything else for the rest of the week!
Usually, my clients choose a couple of colors for their newborn photo sessions, and maybe mention what kind of props they’d like me to use. Here I could use all the creativity I’ve got! The only problem was the lack of time. I only had three days to prepare.
DIY photo props for the viking theme newborn photoshoot
I knew I didn’t have time to order any items for this session, therefore DIY was the only solution. My first inspiration was viking ships, and I got an idea to make one out of dried coconut leaf I had in the studio. I bought this leaf a couple of years ago in a flower shop, but didn’t really use it that much. The shape of the leaf looked similar to viking ships, so I only had to decorate it a bit.
Real vikings decorated prows (fronts) of their ships with cravings of an animal head – a dragon or a snake. The head of the fierce creature was supposed to frighten the spirits of the land that the vikings were raiding. Many pictures on the internet show that vikings arranged their shields along the side of the ship. Although it remains a mystery whether this kind of arrangement was historical or not, I decided to go for it.
I asked my husband to make me 3 baby shields (he knows I’m crazy, so he didn’t question this). 10 minutes later he returned with 3 shields and a tiny sword, and I screamed of joy when I saw that! – A real viking needs a sword, he said.
How it all came together
Now that I had the ship, the sword and the shields, I knew that the viking-baby needed a proper outfit! I searched for the viking-looking material in the thrift store and the sewing store. When I couldn’t find anything that was both authentic-looking and soft to touch, I decided to use jersey material which I use for the newborn backdrops. So I sewed the outfit. It worked out just fine! I decorated the outfit with a faux fur and a viking belt that we actually bought at a real viking festival in Lofoten a few years ago.
Instead of painting some random colors on the shields, I got inspiration from the tv-show Vikings. So the shields are from the Lodbrok’s family: Ragnar, Lagertha and Bjørn. Can you see that? For the ship decoration I used silk clay from a toy store, and I painted it brown to match my viking ship.
Viking baby
When everything was finished, I felt so excited prior to this newborn photo session! It’s pretty rare that the customers want something extraordinary, so never before have I used so much time to prepare for a newborn session! I was hoping the parents would love my ideas and that the baby would cope.
The viking baby was awesome! He slept when they arrived and he slept throughout bigger parts of the session. I was able to take the regular photos and a good variation of the viking photos. At the end of the session I took some sea-themed photos since the parents mentioned a maritime theme as well.
Now both me and the parents are super happy with the baby-viking photos, and I hope that my future clients will dare to choose new interesting themes for their newborn photo sessions!
For mer inspirasjon for nyfødtfoto sjekk mine blogginnlegg her: