The Many Hats of Ryan Killian
Since I don’t have a little girl, my “need to accessorize” is fulfilled through buying my little man hats. He currently has 18 or 19, last I counted (I know, it’s an addiction!). Ryan looks adorable in hats and honestly has never been a baby who pulls them off. I remember his first Easter he wore a little golfer hat for about 5-6 hours without ever touching it. Now when we get dressed in the morning he has a time deciding which hat he’s going to wear for the day (most of the time he chooses the shark hat, by the way). I’ve been thinking lately that I’d like to create a collage of images of him wearing each of his various hats. I’d love to have a memory of this fun part of his personality at this age. This morning the light was particularly nice streaming in the windows so I thought I’d give it a shot. I honestly didn’t have much hope for him making it through 15 hats without bailing on me but he really surprised me!
First, here’s a pull back shot so you can see how I set up the mini-studio.
Typically our couch sits right against three large windows in our living room. For the shoot I pushed it across the room so the back was facing the windows. I draped a large white furry throw that I use for newborns over the back of it to create the “backdrop.” I then grabbed that wooden box (also used for newborns) so Ryan would have something to sit on. I knew if I just asked him to stand in a certain spot it wouldn’t work.
So 15 hats later (13 of which made the cut), this is the final result….All shot with natural light, no flash…
For those curious, a description of hats, clockwise:
*Blue beach hat- from Anderson’s, oddly enough. Happened to see it while I was in there eating lunch one day. It has a huge octopus on the back of it.
*Orange hat with wool- from the Gap 
*Giraffe hat with poms- this was from our trip to the Rainforest Cafe in San Francisco
*Striped elf hat- also from the Gap…also used in a few newborns shoots (as a cocoon)
*Striped beanie- actually from last winter, it’s from Oshkosh
*Red cable knit- from Old Navy- also appeared in the infamous Valentine card of 2010
*Shark hat (Ry’s favorite) – from the Gap
*Furry Fair Isle hat- from the Gap (and on backwards, btw…. I let Ryan put all the hats on himself)
*Teal/lime pom hat- one of my favorites, I think it’s from JC Penney??
*Camo beanie- a present from Ms. Ann
*Orange/blue striped- my most favorite hat of his, from Babies R Us actually
*Panda hat- this was a gift from his Aunt Deb that came with an ADORABLE matching outfit! (from Gymboree)
*Baseball hat- from the Gap, surprise surprise
And to close, I snapped a few of Ryan without a hat on to show his crazy-long-way-overdue-for-a-haircut-hair…
I love this little boy. Just love him.
