This kiddo turned one! With COVID-19, it’s been hard not being able to visit Liam as much as I wanted to, but thankfully, technology allowed Rose to send me lots of photos and videos as he grew bigger. If anything, it made celebrating his first birthday that much more special!

Post-nap (Liam’s; neither of us took a nap though we could have definitely used one) and feeding, we went right to work. Rose had bought a traditional Korean hanbok for the dol pictures. Dol (sometimes spelled dohl) is a baby’s first birthday, and it’s significant in Korean culture because many babies didn’t live to be one way back when. There’s usually a big party called a doljanchi (literally a dol party) with special events like the doljabi where items representing different careers are laid out in front of the child and whichever item the toddler picks, that is the career they’ll go into. Sometimes you get to guess what you think the kid will pick and there’s a prize for the winner who guesses correctly!

For Liam’s pictures, we went for simple and timeless. We wanted to highlight his Korean heritage and the little details like his little hands that preserve this time of his life. The chair was a rental specific for dols, and I made the frame sign. With sudden big changes like moving to a different state, it was quite a rush pulling the shoot together, yet it turned out beautifully!

We took a break when Liam got a bit fussy and we transitioned to the cake smash! I always follow the child’s lead to help with the flow of the session. This helps the kid stay happy and I get to capture their personality and precious in-between moments! To keep the frosting and cake from getting all over the carpet, we used a washable kids mat.

This kid went. to. town. The frosting was a little hard from being in the fridge, but once he reached the actual cake, he dug in. He loved eating and playing with the frosting and cake, which made for great (messy) pictures.

Hanbok: Bella Hanbok