Anna lost her first tooth! Well...lost is a relative term. We had it pulled. Or as her dentist puts it "helped out". Homegirl's tooth has always been a little off in color. We took her to her first dentist appointment when she was two, and they told us she must have had some trauma or something. Asked me if I remembered anything happening where she hit her face or that tooth in particular, and I couldn't think of a thing. I mean, she was two, so she'd taken her fair share of tumbles, but something serious enough to kill a tooth.... no.... So, every time we went to the dentist they'd pay particular attention to that tooth because they were worried it might get infected or abscess. Her gums in the area started looking a little funny recently, so we decided it was time.

I never had a tooth pulled at the dentist (other than my wisdom teeth), so I don't know if this is normal or not, but she got so much stuff! She got that bear she's hugging there, she got a bag filled with stickers and bracelets, she got a little tiny chest to put her tooth in, and she got a sealed letter from the tooth fairy for us to give her the next morning. Then the tooth fairy brought her a coin, tooth brush, tooth paste, and a My Little Pony puzzle! Oh and glitter stickers shaped like stars. So, needless to say, she wasn't too bummed about losing the tooth.

This weekend I put together a photobooth for our family picnic at work. Each division in our department was tasked with providing some sort of activity for people to do. Some groups did a three-legged race, there was a ring toss, a tug of war, karaoke, etc. To say I was stressed about this photobooth would be a tremendous understatement. I never could figure out a way for people to preview their photos. :( I don't have a laptop, and tethering the camera to a laptop via Lightroom would be the simplest way to do it. Maybe I'll be able to talk Josh into a laptop sometime this year...

Anyway, I started gathering supplies and some people at work did as well, and with a little help from Pinterest I decided to use plastic tablecloths for the background. I'd found a pretty cool looking article online where they used all sorts of different colors, so I thought I do that. And then at the last minute I reconsidered and thought it might be better to do something red, white, and blue. So, I set up a very small practice run two nights before the event, and HATED the results. In hindsight, this really wasn't a fair practice run. I set it up in the office at home, there was no natural light because it was nearly dark outside, and so I was using my flash bounced off the ceiling.

Anna looks like she's about to run for Congress or something....And you can totally tell they are tablecloths!!!

At this point my stress level rose to an unbearable level, but I was stuck. There really was no time to order a large roll of seamless paper...I was going to have to make this work. "/ So, I went back to the multicolor plan that I originally had, and decided if it looked like crap, then it looked like crap and there wasn't much I could do about it now.

But...When we got there...something magical happened! :) The natural light coming in behind the super thin tablecloths looked so pretty!

Unfortunately, my original plan of having people take their own pics with my remotes didn't work out.  I think my camera was going into a sleep mode, and the remote wouldn't wake it up.  One of my co-workers was nice enough to stand there … — Unfortunately, my original plan of having people take their own pics with my remotes didn't work out. I think my camera was going into a sleep mode, and the remote wouldn't wake it up. One of my co-workers was nice enough to stand there behind the tripod and take all of the photos. Which, in some ways was a good thing because she was able to tilt the camera down to catch little bitty kids and stuff...and I'm not sure I'd of liked the way people would have looked holding the remote.

We ended up with lots of props.  And I was honestly shocked at how popular the booth ended up being! — We ended up with lots of props. And I was honestly shocked at how popular the booth ended up being!

We set up Josh's big white tent that we use for BBQ events so I could make sure the light was diffuse the entire day.  It worked out great! — We set up Josh's big white tent that we use for BBQ events so I could make sure the light was diffuse the entire day. It worked out great!

It got VERY windy, and my tableclothes pretty much created a giant sail...so I was lucky my boss remembered to bring some sandbags to hold the backdrop down and keep it from flying away. I tethered the bottom of the tablecloths with a 1x2 which I clamped to the base of the backdrop holder. For the most part it held, but apparently at some point a child fell into the backdrop, and it all came apart... I was with my kids at the pony rides when this happened so I didn't get to see it, but the guys got it all put back together again. :)

The best thing about the wind...it kept changing the look of the backdrop! I thought that ended up being pretty awesome.

We're a construction department, so there were a lot of hardhats and safety vests in the pics.  :) — We're a construction department, so there were a lot of hardhats and safety vests in the pics. :)

I ended up taking all the pics as JPEGs because I was worried about space. I forgot how annoying it is to process JPEGs though. Never again. And I was honestly surprised how much time I spent processing the pics. I did a lot of cropping to get the seams from the tape that I used to make the tablecloths into curtains out of the shot. And there was a pole nearby that kept showing up in the pics. And after going through the pics over and over again, I decided I preferred the look of tight shots.

I would definitely do the photobooth again! But if I was forced to do one indoors...I'd just buy the seamless paper in a bold color I think. In my opinion...plastic tablecloths look like crap when they aren't back-lit.