As mentioned before- Lou loves horses.  He watches Spirit religiously, has many horse figurines and when Lou's mom asked him what he wanted to do for his 3rd birthday of course it had everything to do with horses.  The awesome parents that Zoe and Warren are, they made the magic happen.  Lou had a Spirit themed party and ponies were invited.  Prior to the party Lou and his family were welcome to visit the ponies at the farm.  This is was the PERFECT opportunity to schedule a birthday session for Lou- we visited the pony farm, captured some amazing images of Lou and his family with the ponies.  

Prior to the session there was much planning- this takes your session to the next level!  Coordinating outfits, special props to enhance the experience, etc.  Here is what we did to coordinate Lou's birthday session:

1. Outfits were coordinated by mom and we discussed color options and patterns (a wardrobe color palette is very helpful when coordinating clothing and propping for photo shoots). 

2. I brought the cowboy hat and Lou's grandma purchased the boots for him to match the ensemble. If he was riding a horse he had to have a hat to complete the look!

3. For the cake smash bit, we stopped at a nearby field with a dilapidated "farm house" in Newcastle. (mom had found the location randomly and dad had scouted it out in the late afternoon when the light would be perfect).  We had discussed the "look" we would like to achieve with location and lighting.  I also created a pinterest page to collaborate ideas of posing, lighting, location, etc.  I brought a small 4" cake, candle, bucket, blanket, banner and hat.

4. Making the banner: I found a children's vintage horse book that had similar colored art to what we had confirmed as the color palette.  I took the book to staples and made copies of the page art to create a banner for Lou's Cake smash.  The book also was a great prop and kept Lou busy at times.  He also brought some of his horse figurines to match.