Valentines choco from my girls.

I was very surprised to be getting some valentine's candy from them - my girls are so sweet!!!

I live in America where it's tradition that boys and girls give chocolates to each other. Sakura was quick to remind me that they were each born in Japan where girls give boys chocolate on Valentines and to make sure I remember that come White Day next month! :D

I wanted to setup a quick backdrop to get some nicer looking shots of them. They expected as much and were ready for some photos!

I also got the girls a cute little teddy bear and Yukino spotted him first. She instantly feel in love with him saying how soft and cuddly he was.

As Yukino is the newest she is still a little shy in front of the camera. I wanted a shot of her giving me a chocolate and she looked so cute and shy!!!

Below is a shot of Yukino giving it her all.

Sakura has no problems posing in front of the camera now and was happy to pose.

It also seems Sakura liked the teddy bear. When she didn't think I was looking I caught her rubbing noses with it and saying something under her breath about how snuggley he felt. I think I'm going to have to buy a 2nd teddy bear now.

While I was changing out one of my camera lenses I heard Sakura making some "mmmmmm" sounds. I looked over and saw that she started to help herself to some of the props!

I was hoping to get Yukino to help me convince Sakura to wait till we were done shooting before digging in but it seems she was already following Sakura's lead.

I figured that was the end of my quickly assembled photo shoot and decided to just let the girls enjoy themselves.

For those interested in the photography I figured I'd throw in a shot showing just how "thrown together" the shoot was. Two large white foam boards, one leaning against my main monitor as a background and one on the right to bounce some light into the shadow side. A spare hard drive and doll stand to prop up the bounce card.

My only light source is a Nikon SB-26 flash on a light stand, just left of camera, shooting through a 32 inch white "shoot through" umbrella attached to a stand. I'm using cheap 'ebay' wireless triggers but hope to upgrade those soon to the "TwinLink T2D" triggers made by B&H Photo.

I'm also hoping to get a mid sized soft box to get better control over my lighting. The umbrella just shoots light everywhere, not bad when shooting full sized people but it's a bit much when your subject is 1/3 scale. :P

Sakura and Yukino hope you and your girls had a great Valentines and remind you to not eat too much chocolate at one time or you could get a tummy ache, just like poor Sakura did. :( She's starting to feel better now, thankfully.