Bubble O' Bill Photo Shoot

Way, way, way back in July 2021, my firstborn child turned One. Outside of a pandemic, normal life would have dictated a milestone celebration with family and friends coming together not just to celebrate the little tots birthday but also to congratulate us, the parents, for getting through the first year of parenthood. A first birthday party considered so incredibly normal, was taken from us and so many others. Back in July of 2021 case numbers were rising in Melbourne and we had just come out of a lockdown and were facing another one. Private gatherings in private residence were outlawed and venues were limited by capacity. It was with a heavy heart we decided to cancel Henry’s first birthday party. My anxiety could not ask our nearest and dearest to come together and risk the spread. But, I already had a themed party and outfit planned. At the very least I would turn this into a photo shoot. Lord knows he wouldn’t fit the $60 pink corduroy overalls in one years time.

The theme was Bubble O’ Bill. Wikipedia tells me this is an ‘ice confection’ currently only offered in Australia and New Zealand, but historically was available in the US and UK, the former being the launch market in 1985. And I quote : The Bubble O' Bill is a moulded ice cream on a stick, resembling a cowboy with a large hat, "Bill". Three flavours of ice cream are used to form the details of a Bubble O' Bill, strawberry for the face, caramel moustache details, and a chocolate hat, with a hole resembling a gunshot. The reverse of the ice cream is coated with a layer of milk chocolate. If you are still wondering, check out this Product vs Packshot by the iconic Australian TV show The Checkout.

Naturally, this ice cream theme fits the criteria for the birthday party of a child who has a dairy allergy. Nonetheless, she persisted. My vision for the party was inspired by the colours of the ice cream and its current day packaging.

With the party scrapped, I turned to the internet for photo shoot inspo and I found it with the ‘Make a DIY Photo Backdrop out of Streamers’ tutorial by Chelsea over at Lovely Indeed, a beautiful blog with loads of great content. I had purchased several rolls of streamers pre-lockdown for decorating the party so now they would be repurposed as a backdrop. It is actually eerie how similar our colour selections were…

I used our dining room (now craft room, yipee!) as the studio and pushed all the furniture to one end of the room. I selected that room because it has floor to ceiling windows on each side. It has such beautiful natural light it is hands-down my favourite photo shoot location in our house. Blessed with light but cursed with oppressive Australian summer heat so don’t feel too jealous of me.

I have co-ownership in several meters of glistening silver fabric that was purchased with a friend as a backdrop for our joint DIY Santa photo shoot. I decided that it would be great as a decorative floor for my crawling infant. I did put his foam play mat underneath the fabric so he was somewhat comfortable and not sitting on a cold slate floor. Check out its glorious sparkle.

On the eve of his birthday, I set about building my photo background. I had my four rolls of streamers, scissors, blue painters tape and the play mat to kneel on to save my old and weary knees. It actually took a bit longer to assemble than I was expecting but it is, overall, a super quick, efficient and affordable way to make a fun background. As you can see in the video I made mine quite short and low to the ground as it only needed to go higher than an adults head when seated on the floor. Apologies for the view of my saggy bum in the video - it is what it is, a mum bum haha.

In lieu of making a special dairy and egg free cake to do a smash photo shoot, I gathered up the photo props from the party supplies: a homemade Bubble O’ Bill, a golden party hat, a ‘Happy Birthday’ banner and some offcuts of streamers. I did a test shoot before breakfast to make sure we were good to go and then the birthday boy was dressed in his special birthday outfit. With my trusty compact camera in my hand or balancing on a tower of nappy boxes, we got the photo shoot underway.

I wanted to emulate the vibe of carefree Australian summers of old, spent by the beach with ice cream running down your hands and wrists - but without any diary, in the middle of a Melbourne winter, with a mum who was suffering post-natal depression, anxiety and trying desperately to have a cheery day at home all by ourselves. I think I nailed it.