So many dreamy and bright, cheerful things come to mind when you say the word candyland. Of course there is the old board game created in the late 1940's, "Candy Land" - which still is in circulation today; or how about The Candy Man - the infamous song by Sammy Davis Jr., or that 80's tune from a band called Bow Wow Wow: I Want Candy. How about the spectacular Oompa Loompas and Golden Tickets of the original 1971 movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! Ahh so many delicous treats! Cue sweet tooth cravings now!

Our latest fun photo session from the Girls of Summer: I AM ME project was themed "Candyland." The session came at the perfect time for my garage studio set up in Burnsville. I needed some fun and bright cheery, sweet smiles from the girls this day, and they brought smiles ear-to-ear! With a bright yellow backdrop, and gigantic candy props, we created our own sugar surge! Watch the preview video with candy coated goodness!

It was another heatwave of a day in the Twin Cities the day we had scheduled this fun photo session, but it did not slow down the energy of this wonderful group of girls! We had MaKenna, Grace, Ella, Marin and Lilee (we missed Kaitlyn!) for this super charged session. Bubble gum, popcorn, Coca-cola, Laffy Taffy, Jelly Belly jelly beans - we had a tad of everything sweet.

This session was a true delight. Of course we had to forego anything chocolate, because it was so warm out, and we didn't want to make TOO BIG of a mess. But we started each session off with some bubble gum, and took a shot at blowing bubbles. I think Lilee took the cake with 3 pieces of gum at one time! Possibly Makenna, too! The one time I actually allow chewing gum on set! A few of the outtakes from the bubble blowing:

The entire purpose of this session was just to have fun with these girls, and really let them do their own thing with the various props. A chance for them to feel independent and confident in an uplifting atmosphere. And they blew it out of the park like they always do!

I put my creativity to work and whipped up a batch of the finest candy props around! (Thank you Pinterest and to my fellow photographer friends Louise and Lon from Louise Ungerman Photography out of Oregon for giving me some great candy prop ideas! Couldn't have pulled this out of thin air without great resources!)

Candyland was both individual and group shots, so a few of the Girls of Summer gals did some of their images together. Which was a true blast...pure laughter and smiles galore!

I think three of the five girls are in competitive dance, so the personalities for the Candyland shoot were blown out of the water! Doesn't get any better than that! Take a peek!

What is Candyland if you don't have soda and popcorn! Had to bring in the classic treats of Coca-Cola and Ol' Dutch popcorn!

A fun attempt to throw popcorn at my camera! Lucky for me, I have a wonderful golden retriever, Allie, who was my vaccum cleaner pickup of all popcorn kernels that were on the floor after each model's session! 

Can I call these ladies "The Lollipop Kids!" (old Wizzard of Oz reference!) Large lollipops, gigantor candy props, real popcorn and soda, genuine smiles and tons of laughter filled this afternoon with true sweetness. Thank you, ladies for such a fun few hours of sugar and spice! 

Always find a moment in your day to tell someone something positive about themselves. You never know what impact your kind words may have!

Fondly, 
Monda the Photographer

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