Shooting baby Isabelle was my very first newborn session EVER.
Nervous didn't even begin to describe me.
She wasn't even a stranger's baby, she was my own NIECE.
I think I may have packed up half my house to bring over to my sister's house so that I
would have anything and everything I needed in order to facilitate the shoot and make it
everything that my sister hoped it would be.
I'm not new to photographing newborns by any stretch.
I have three of my own and a few (oh, about 20,000 roughly) photos under my belt to show for it
but it's just different when it's not your own baby. Pressure.
I wanted to get it right, to capture the pure essence of newborn that goes away by about day 10.
So day 5 rolls around and after a week straight of gray skies and pouring rain, I saw a break in the clouds
and the few tiny rays of sun that were peeking through were just enough to be
able to capture her in natural lighting.
It didn't go exactly the way I had envisioned it in my head. I was a clumsy and sweaty mess
trying to lull her to sleep to position her in the millions of positions I had researched online
and the ones that I thought would be perfect in my vision of what the ideal newborn shoot should be.
Isabelle had other plans.
Girlfriend. Would. Not. Sleep.
I began to wonder if all those photos of the babies on all those
other photographers' sites were Photoshopped into those adorable positions that you see in the magazines.
It was so much harder than I thought it would be! I thought I'd drop her or break and
she refused to be put on her stomach for any amount of time.
She even POOPED and peed all over me and our blanket!
After a few breaks to love on the tiny little subject and trying to kiss and shh her into
a deep, deep sleep, I just did the best I could with what I had.
She finally slept but when I moved her from the basket she was sleeping in she was wide awake again...
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In the end, my sister was happy with the shots I did get and I got to learn and get some hands on experience while I'm building my portfolio. She's such a sweet baby though, even if she doesn't sleep. |
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