My first newborn photo shoot

Have you seen those cute, adorable newborn photos with the newborn baby all snuggled up and sleeping like a lamb? Or cuddled into a soft basket or with another photo prop?

It looks like such fun to create photos like that. The sleepy peaceful baby in the photo makes it look oh, so easy.

Oh Baby…

I’m here to tell you it’s not easy, peaceful or uneventful! At least not the first time your try to make those lovely peaceful memorable photos for a young family.

I set up my first newborn photo shoot for someone I knew and afterwards was so glad that I volunteered to do this one for free. There are so many details to be aware of all at once. Paying attention to the light, every little thing in the frame, the mood of baby, impatient older siblings, and more.

What a Learning Opportunity

Making portraits is not something that can be learned from a book. The full experience of doing the work is needed along with making and learning from lots and lots of mistakes.

And working with newborns is quite different from working with older children or adults. I feel such a need to create a quiet peaceful experience for them and their families.

I learned so much from this first newborn photo shoot and made so many classic mistakes, I am grateful to have created just a few photos that I think the family will enjoy and cherish.

“But what if I make a mistake?’ Will asked.

Gilan threw back his head and laughed. ‘A mistake? One mistake? You should be so lucky. You’ll make dozens! I made four or five on my first day alone! Of course you’ll make mistakes. Just don’t make any of them twice. If you do mess things up, don’t try to hide it. Don’t try to rationalize it. Recognize it and admit it and learn from it. We never stop learning, none of us.”
― John Flanagan, Erak’s Ransom

A few of the things I learned…

I learned that I need to communicate much more information up front about how to prepare for the photo shoot (if baby is having a fussy day, it’s better to postpone, make sure baby is well-fed and sleepy, have a quiet warm room with soothing music in the background, and well-lit open spaces to shoot photos in).

I learned that it would probably be a good idea to set up a time with just mom and baby without older siblings around to work on those oh so precious sleeping baby photos. I didn’t do that and it was challenging keeping 4-year-old big brother occupied and keeping a peaceful vibe going. Preschoolers have a LOT of energy and they need to express it and let it out.

When I am making photographs, I tend to develop tunnel vision and stop communicating. I need to learn to communicate more and be more directive and expressive during the photo shoot instead of just going with my internal flow. Families are looking to me to provide ideas, leadership and feedback.  Being more expressive is a challenge because I am still in learning mode and I haven’t had enough experience to have that confident certainty that makes it easy to give instructions and reassuring feedback.

I need to find my own inner peace and confidence

Perhaps the most helpful thing for me to learn during portrait sessions is to find my own inner peace and confidence so that I can imbue the photographs with that sense of peace and so that  I am able to plan ahead and also respond to whatever is happening without moving into a reactive stress mode.

Pay Attention

I have much to learn about paying attention to the tiny details in a portrait. A piece of lint, a stray hair, a tag sticking out can seriously distract from an otherwise beautiful portrait.

And I have tons to learn about posing and lighting. Enough to last a couple of lifetimes at least.

And then there are the dynamics of working with these precious fresh new to the world people.

 Challenges, challenges

Even easy babies have fussy days. Our photo shoot ended up being on one of those days for Penny (my adorable 2-week old model). I was hoping to create some of those quiet peaceful closeups of a little sleeping angel. Penny was not in a sleepy or peaceful mood.

It was a heavily overcast day and my plan to use all natural light went out the window (as not enough light was coming in the windows).  With it being my first time in their home, I was challenged finding the best lighting and places where there was room to frame shots without a lot of distractions. I used whatever lights were available along with a reflector, high ISO, and wide open aperture on my camera.

Baby Penny was asleep when I got there so we started with some photos of her nude on a blanket. The blanket and Mom’s shirt was soon initiated. These things happen when the little one is left bare-bottomed.

I never did get a good completely nude shot of her. I think she was too cold and it woke her up. After that, we kept a blanket around her most of the time. To me, it’s more important to keep baby comfortable and happy, than to get the perfect nude shot.

As I said, Penny woke up and was unhappy with all of the messing about. As we (my assistant was my husband, Jon, holding reflectors, giving me advice on angles, and moving lights as needed) continued to work on shots of Penny by herself, with her 4-year-old big brother, Mom, and Dad, she became progressively more fussy and upset. We decided to call it a day since she needed quiet cuddling time with Mom.

Time to Regroup

I needed time to take a few deep breaths, find my own inner peace, look at the photos we had made and make plans for the lighting and interiors that were available for the next day.

Happy Day

I came back the next morning, and Penny was so much happier. Unfortunately, the skies were even more overcast and dark than the day before.  It was challenging getting the shots but we persisted. I set up my clip-on work lights and worked with the available light.

We did a variety of poses around the house with the whole family and with big brother, and we even managed some of those heavenly cute and peaceful sleeping baby photos.

By the time we were done, big brother was being bribed with M&M’s to cooperate and was clearly tired of the big interruption to his playtime. But we made some fun family photos and Penny photos and I was fairly satisfied with the results of my first newborn photo shoot.

Life gives us so many opportunities to learn. When was the last time you stepped outside your comfort zone?

May you walk in beauty.