If a well-Photoshopped photo makes you giggle, then get ready for some belly laughs. Matt MacMillan has used his photo-editing talents to create some works of art featuring his premature son. His first foray into Photoshopping babies happened when his daughter, Ella, was a month old. He created a series of images showing the newborn playing sports, and the results were hilarious. Matt wanted to do the same when his son, Ryan, was born.
As Matt explained on Bored Panda, Ryan was born nine weeks premature. He weighed just under 3 pounds. During his six weeks in the NICU, Matt and his wife decided to look for the positive. They joked that Ryan wasn't premature, but "advanced." The joke gave Ryan the idea for a photo series with his premature son, showing him doing all grown-up, "manly" things to combat the notion that premature babies are somehow weak.
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The photos took some effort, but the results are simply hilarious and absolutely worth every minute Matt and his wife put into the project.
Matt and Alyssa MacMillan have two beautiful children. At the time of Matt's positively inspired foray into creative child photography and Photoshop, Ella was just 6 months old and absolutely adorable.
Matt started playing around with photoshopping his kids even more once his premature son Ryan reached the age of 6 months old. He was putting out some pretty fun ideas like this cool-kid skateboarding picture.
Baby boy Ryan was born a whopping nine weeks early. He spent the first six weeks of his tiny life in the NICU before he was able to go home. What a scary and difficult time for Matt and Alyssa this must have been.
During his time in the NICU, Matt and Alyssa joked that the preemie wasn't premature, but "advanced." That joke inspired the photos Matt later created, using Ryan as his adorable baby model.
Matt wrote about his experience creating the hilarious images in a post for Bored Panda. He explained his process to people in simple terms. Some shots were obviously harder to put together than others.
"Each shoot took about 15-20 minutes. Most of the work is in the setup and editing. First, I had to make props and find outfits for most of the pictures," he explained. This card table picture is so funny!
"The next step was setting up the scene, framing the shot, arranging props, and setting up the lighting, where appropriate. Some of the setups were elaborate — like for the benchpress photo," Matt wrote.
"For this one, I made a rig that hung from the ceiling. It mounted the camera and also held the barbell above Ryan so all he had to do was grip it, rather than hold it up."
Of course, handling a newborn and a camera is a very difficult if not impossible feat. Luckily he had plenty of help from his wife, Alyssa who was a great coach for Ryan during all of the creative photoshoots.
"My wife often helped out by holding him so I could put his hands/arms/legs in certain positions, holding things," he explained. "After I got the pictures of Ryan, I would take some shots of anything that he couldn’t actually hold, like the ax swinging or the fish on the fishing line."
Matt would then pore through the many pictures he took to look for usable components. He compiled these elements together and made composite images, which amounted to the amazing finished photos.
People have absolutely fallen in love with the sweet and oh so creative pictures of little baby Ryan. Of course, because the internet is full of opinions, a few people expressed concern for little Ryan's safety.
Matt has assured everyone that Ryan was never in any actual danger. All the crazy, funny elements included are merely the work of photo-editing magic! You don't really think somebody stuck this gorgeous baby in the body of a cooked turkey, do you?!
Having a premature baby can be a very stressful experience for parents, but Matt and Alyssa made the best of it and now have these beautiful pictures to show for it. Matt even offered advice for other parents: "My three pieces of advice for parents of premature babies are to be patient, be positive, and seek support."
Ryan is already growing up so fast! You can hardly recognize the happy little boy at 6 months when compared to how he looks in Matt's series. You can bet he'll get a kick out of these pictures when he's all grown up!
