Fun with January and critters.

After January was born, I tried to take a photo of her related to the event, Christmas, Easter, Halloween etc.  So, back up a bit for some understanding.  The roof on my house extended 4 ft from the vertical wall of the back of the house.  So, I decided to cage that area in from the back door to the end of the building, about 12 feet.  I built in a doorway so it served very nice for critters.  The administrator of the hospital came by my office a week or so before Easter and provoked me into taking a pretty little bantam hen with 10 teeny tiny little ones.  They lived quite well in the coop.  My wife had bought a nice long dress with a matching bonnet and that would be the apparel for the photo.  I had an unusual room in my house that was about 8-10 ft wide and about 20 ft long.  It was just right for a minor studio setup.  I had seamless background set from the ceiling to the floor and about 8 ft on the floor.  The day before Easter, the administrator came thru with the cutest little angora bunny you ever saw.  He gave it to me and I figured it would do well in the coop.  So, the day of the shoot, I pulled down the sand colored background, January was getting her bath and into the dress.  To make it a bit of Easter I put in a couple Easter baskets with green paper grass, and colored eggs, and a few stuffed toys to add to the intrigue.  That took some time, so now January is in the dining room that had a direct view into the studio area.  I caught a couple biddies (baby chicks) and put them in the studio area.  Right away I saw I needed some kind of fence to keep them enclosed to the photo area.  After that, I put in the hen, and turned the light down.  Then it was fairly easy to get the rest of the chicks and they ran to mom and she settled down.  Now it was time for the bunny.  I’m a country boy, but that label was totally lost when I put the bunny into the area.  The hen took it as a threat, and she exploded violently onto the bunny…and the bunny thumped and squirted a bit of pee.  I couldn’t have that on the seamless paper, and worse, every time she popped him, she’s poop.  So here I am trying to get control of the chaos, kleenex to poop and toy or something over the pee spot.  However, January was watching this and started screaming crying.  There was no way she was going to get in the ring with such violent critters. The chaos persisted until I gave up and grabbed the bunny.  Needless to say, the planned photo was never fulfilled.  Video would have been great.  Here (if I can do it) is a photo of January at age 3 in the dress.