Thursday, March 15, 2012

It's not as easy as it looks...


When I found out last year that two of our nieces were expecting babies
{due dates within two weeks of each other} I was so excited about
taking photos of the newest members of our family.


I ordered this turtle suit, and pinned a whole bunch of baby photography ideas
to one of my Pinterest boards. I read stuff online and in magazines for hints
and tips on photographing infants. In my head, I was totally prepared!


Ideally, infants should be photographed within the first 10 days after they are born, but that didn't happen because in real life, other stuff goes on. Baby girl K {she's 5 weeks old in these photos} had some health issues to overcome, and baby boy J {he's 2 weeks old now} had a momma that had health issues to overcome. Everyone is fine now, so we all met over at my SIL's house {who, by the way, is the luckiest woman on that planet to become a grandmother for the first time and have TWO grandbabies in one fell swoop - a girl AND a boy even!!!} yesterday afternoon to put all my thoughtful preparations into action.


Rule number 1 with photographing babies: A baby's gonna' do what a baby's gonna' do. Period.
Baby girl K was a little fussy when Aunt Deb arrived - and when this little chicky finally calms down
and sleeps, you don't want to disturb the princess! We finally eased her down out of her momma's
arms and I was able to take some sweet photos. LOVE this one of her hand.
{Captioned it on Facebook: "talk to the hand.}


Rule #2 - Brand new babies don't look AT your camera so you have to be ready in the event that they happen to glance your way - CLICK!!! And, if you can't get great shots of opened eyes, go for fingers and toes. This is something I realized in hindsight when I uploaded photos last night and wished I had taken more photos of baby parts instead of countless shots of scrunched up mouths and wondering baby eyes. :o)


And speaking of baby parts...  Rule #3 - baby boys are unpredictable. {just sayin'}


Rule #4 - Don't give up. Take as many photos as you can while you are in the presence of babes, because... 


Rule #5 - Out of almost 300 photos you're bound to have a few that melt your heart.

25 comments:

Sian said...

They are so, so gorgeous! Roll on Grandmotherhood, I say! (Oh, alright, maybe not just yet, but aren't they amazing?)

When TTO was born, my SIL had a baby daughter exactly a week later. Because of her husband's shift working he couldn't go to class and J took us both to antenatal classes together and sat between us!

Maria Ontiveros said...

These are amazing - love the Tonka truck. Baby pictures were a segment in the portrait class I took, and I loved it.
Rinda

Beverly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cheri said...

Great shots Deb! I wasn't into photography at all when mine were little... so I don't have any of those adorable little "baby parts" photos. I fully intend to right that wrong when I become a grandmother!

Beverly said...

typo first go around .....Ohhhh definitely melt your heart pics! What precious new additions to our world. The Beast and my nephew were born 5 weeks apart (my first, the Oldest Sister's third and last), we have some funny and some cute pics of them together but not this young, I wasn't into photography as much at that point. God bless Carrie and the mamas of my future grandbabies lol

Ruth said...

Can you hear me sighing with pleasure? Just perfect, perfect, perfect.

traci said...

you did amazing deb. those are so precious. it is not easy but i am sure the parents love every one of them. great job!!

tainted with a positive view said...

Oh My gosh - those babies are beautiful! Your SIL must be one happy grandma.

Jimjams said...

Wonderful shots with a great commentary (gotta love the effect of fresh air on little boys) - congratulations!

Marti said...

What sweet shots of those babies. Do I see two special baby albums in the future? Have a good day.

Unknown said...

Jealous that you got to spend time with them!! Cute pics - I bet the K's are super happy with them!

Fiona@staring at the sea said...

Oh, they are just gorgeous Deb :o)

I know what you mean about boys being unpredictable. I remember the first time my son gave us a 'surprise'!!

Alison said...

Beautiful Deb..their families will love them!
Alison xx

Pure Ella said...

These are lovely Deb!!!! ;D

What a sweet time with these babies....
I was actually doing the exact same thing on sunday.
With twins! ;D
And I kept nodding my head after every sentence you wrote here.... ha. it's not as easy as I though either.

I've done individual baby shoots - so I can handle that now, (through experience) but twins were really hard - they did not do the same thing at the same time. and I really wanted them to sleep so I could have more control over their poses - well. they did not sleep one bit (at the same time).

Your shots are really beautiful though. i love the last one ;)
A great baby photography tip is to make them black and white or a soft sepia - play with the contrast until you like the levels. (even blurred photos will look great in monotone ;D) not all but some ;)

These are adorable.... and isn't it just the sweetest thing looking over little precious baby body parts? ;)
I also wish I took more body part photos.

xo

Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita said...

you did great Deb!

Kirsti said...

Oh wow Deb these are just so darned cuuuute!!! wish all this style of baby photography was around when my lot were this age...xx

scrappyjacky said...

Just so gorgeous,Deb

Karen said...

No, it's not as easy as it looks, but you got some fabulous shots! These babies are so beautiful!

Amy said...

I am nodding at your comments too - yes, it is very hard to take shots of newborns - as it is with children about one year of age .... I have two of them to deal with this weekend, if I get one shot that is not blurry I will be happy!

Lizzie said...

Very lovely photos, Deb! I saw the other photos earlier too - you did such a great job!
I love the idea of photographing the little boy in a huge toy truck. That's so cute.
Love those baby feet too - we have a wonderful photo of J's tiny little feet...
Great photography, Auntie Deb!

Melissa said...

Beautiful photos! And I agree, take LOTS of photos because there's bound to be a treasure or two in the bunch.

Margaret said...

A professional photographer could not have done better. Really impressive work...maybe a side job for you to consider?

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, beautiful photos. I have gotten to the stage where I would love a little person in my life but not one from Gracia yet so am pinning my hopes on my older nieces. Love the last photo.

Miriam said...

Your photo's are amazing, you must be thrilled! Love them all.

Mom said...

Oh, how precious! You did an amazing job! Don't know what I enjoyed more--the pics or your story telling! So right on! Love you! xo

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