Babies are my favorite photo subjects- well, up until they can move fast. I think I’d have more success photographing bird poop than a mobile toddler.
I’ve been shooting with a Canon camera and lenses for almost 5 years now, so naturally I was pumped to work with them on a post to encourage new and expecting parents to get behind a camera and document life with baby. Thanks to Canon for sponsoring this post.
I have pictures of my first baby with us in the hospital after he was born. Good friends of ours, photographers, took them.
I cherish them. Not only because they capture those first 24 hours so perfectly with my first squishy newborn, but because I have maybe 2 or 3 more with him from the time we brought him home from the hospital until he was 4 weeks old.
4 weeks may not seem like a long time to go without taking pictures with someone you love, but 4 weeks is an eternity in newborn years. It was also an eternity in new-mom years, and that eternity was full of mastitis, colic, and anxiety.
It wasn’t that loving, bonding, happy time I thought life with a newborn should be. And so it went undocumented.
By the time I had my 2nd baby 2.5 years later, I regretted that so much that I purchased my first DSLR- a Canon Rebel camera and a Canon EF 50 f/1.4 lens– the month before she was born. I know the saying goes that poor 2nd babies end up with no pictures of their childhood, especially compared to the first, but that’s far from the truth in this house.
Family photo taken, days before I had Leyna, with my brand new Canon Rebel DSLR camera (on Auto because, wow, it’s overwhelming when you get your first fancy camera!).
By the time I had my 3rd baby another 2.5 years later, I mastered and embraced documenting ALL the baby emotions and moments.
The good..
And the kinda rough…
If I could pass on 5 bits of wisdom to new and expecting parents when it comes to documenting all the first family moments, they would be:
1. Both parents should be familiar with how to work the camera!
I never even bothered asking my husband to take pictures for me with my first son because he was clueless about lighting and settings. He didn’t even know where the camera was half the time. By the time we had Leyna, our 2nd, he was much more proactive, taking pictures of me even when I was convinced I looked terrible and didn’t want to be in the shot. (More on that later)
In the hospital with Leyna, 1 day old
This becomes an even bigger problem when one parent is using a DSLR camera and manually adjusting the settings. My husband still doesn’t know what aperture is or how to adjust the ISO.
So what I like to do for him is to put the camera on AV (aperture priority) mode, and set the aperture relatively wide (small number), like a 3.0, and adjust the ISO accordingly (higher if indoors, lower if outdoors). Then I send him on his merry way, and he mostly gets amazing shots for me.
2. Know where the light lives in your home.
You’ll be spending a lot of time inside with baby those early weeks/months. If you can, try to scope out where the natural light comes pouring in your house and at what time of day before baby comes. Natural light is a million times more flattering (especially on newborn skin!) than a flash from your camera.
Take advantage of those sleepy afternoon naps. I loved putting my 3rd baby in his Rock & Play, with a pretty muslin blanket under him, and getting pictures in the sun.
As he got older I used the same spot in the living room and tossed him in a beanbag!
I also highly recommend getting a different lens for your DSLR camera that has a wide (low number) aperture, like 1.4 or 1.8. This makes shooting indoors with low light so much easier, and produces beautiful shallow depth of field.
3. Put white sheets on your bed, or keep a white cover nearby. This is especially great for those newborn days when you and baby spend a ton of time on your bed anyway. I got so many amazing pictures of my 3rd on our bed. The white was a natural reflector and a neutral, simple backdrop.
4. As baby grows, get creative with containment.
Trying to get a mobile baby to sit still for a picture is pretty close to the definition of insanity. Try the beanbag trick like I mentioned above (always keeping a very close eye and never leaving baby alone in it), but also experiment with angles around their crib and their highchair.
I liked to keep the highchair next to our big window in the kitchen, and tried to keep the background and surrounding walls clutter free.
Get in close for those happy crib shots post nap or first thing in the morning.
5. Take more pictures. Don’t delete the ones you think you look bad in.
I will never apologize for taking too many pictures of and with my kids. I can never get back those first 4 weeks of my first baby’s life, and I hate that I have very little to look back and remember it with.
That said, I am just as guilty as anyone when it comes to not liking pictures of myself. I’m quick to delete ones that I don’t feel are flattering.
But then I stumble across ones like this…
And I’m just so dang happy to have that moment now.
At the time, I remember looking at the back of the camera and wanting to cry. I was close to deleting it when Scott took the camera from my hands. I recall pretty vividly that I was feeling the frump on that vacation. None of my pre-baby clothes fit. Maternity clothes looked ridiculous. My hair was falling out in clumps. My skin was breaking out.
But now I look at it and see beyond all of that. THAT is a picture of life with a newborn and toddler. The fact that I even managed to put on makeup that day is a triumph. And look at my happy little boy?
It’s perfect.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to capturing all those sweet family moments after you have a baby is to give yourself room to grow! Put more emphasis on the picture capturing the moment and the emotion than it being technically perfect.
10 years from now, you won’t care if a picture of your newborn is a little blurry, or you had a big pimple on your cheek. You’ll be happy to just have the moment captured.
I’m really glad we put a little effort into our bedroom before Lowell got here because it’s basically our own 2 man (or one mommy, one baby) cave. We spend a lot of time on that bed.
Though sometimes we have visitors.
Yes, 4 weeks and one day into this (you did not misread that nor did I mistype- FOUR WEEKS), and I’m still hardly able to get it together enough to get out of my jammies for the day or move past a sloppy ponytail.
We are so, so, so fortunate that Scott just went back to work, and that he works from home quite often. It’s been much easier on all of us as we try to transition into a functioning routine again- one that now involves mandatory punctuality when it comes to getting Kendall to kindergarten. I am not exaggerating when I say I am scared of how much I will fail at that part when I’m on my own.
I’ve done a pretty good job of fighting off the urges to jump back into life and laundry and menu plans and to-do lists. It’s not hard when you get to lay on your bed and look at this all day.
I love to count the rolls starting to form on his chubby arms and legs. I love marveling at his cheeks as they fill out.
I love that belly button.
Can’t we just hang here until he’s old enough to run away from me?
Real clothes are overrated anyway.
Thanks to Belabumbum for the matching PJs!
Oh look! It’s another post with a lot of pictures.
This time, they’re not from my camera, but from the lens of Amy Columbus– an incredibly talented newborn and children’s photographer in the DFW area. I’ve known Amy for a long time, and have watched her work grow into the level of awesome I’m about to show you.
She took some pictures of Kendall in the bluebonnets when he was nearly 1.
Now, she’s given us an incredible gift by taking photos of Lowell (and a few with me and the kids) when he was just 5 days old.
BRACE. YOUR. OVARIES.
I can’t begin to describe how PATIENT Amy was. I mean, the fact that she got anything with all 3 kids in one frame is a miracle because there were no drugs involved. And she took her time, never rushed, all those sweet poses with Lowell. Basically, that meant a lot of breaks for me to put a boob in his mouth. My milk had just come in and he was right in the middle of a cluster feeding marathon.
If you’re in the DFW area and in the market for a newborn, child, maternity or family photographer, check her out. Her website is AmyColumbusPhotography.com, and you can like her on Facebook, too.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Amy!
I’m excited to have a very informative, important guest post for you all today from Jennifer Dell, a photographer located in Tomball, TX (near Houston). If you are pregnant or have a newborn photo shoot coming up, or even if you are a beginning photographer who’s planning to take pictures of newborns, this is all really valuable information. Jennifer covers everything, so I’m just going to turn it over to her.
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We’ve all seen the super cute newborn photos of baby with her head in her hands or of baby hanging from a tree branch or in an awesome wood basket. What a lot of parents and even new photographers, might not know is that these images are composites. A composite is when you take two, or more, images and combine them very carefully in photoshop in order to create the look that the photographer wanted as an end result. Safety during newborn sessions is becoming a rather hot topic at the moment and when you hire a photographer to help you capture your sweet new baby please be sure that they are taking all the safety precautions to ensure that your baby, and their well-being, are top priority.
This is an example of a composite image is of just the prop set up. The second shot is of the prop set up alone. The first is of baby in the large wooden basket with my assistant helping to brace his head even though it was mainly resting on the edge of the basket (and blanket). She was in constant contact with him at all times while he was in the basket.
Sometimes there is an older sibling that is excited about the new baby and of course we all want to capture that excitement. I have always found that it is best when the older child is surrounded by mom and dad to ensure that baby is safe incase the older child gets too excited.
Even when baby is just on a beanbag posing ottoman it is essential that either an assistant or mom and dad be very close by incase baby rolls over (yes it can happen, I’ve seen some very strong newborns!). Even if baby seems to be comfortable and able to hold the position fine on their own it is always good to have a helpful hand to help brace their sweet little heads as most do not have the proper neck strength to keep their heads from bobbling over to the side. In this image I just cloned out my assistants hands in photoshop.
I know that I have been mainly referring to newborns in this article, however proper safety precautions should always be taken with children and babies. In this image, I had my assistant ducked down just below the frame in front of the girls, their mom behind them ducked down just below the counter and their grandma off to the camera’s left just out of the frame in case one of the girls decided it was time to jump down.
Below are a couple more examples of composites or where I cropped mom/dad out or even cloned them out! The main goal of a photo session for your new baby is safety, while we all love those squishy sweet photos, we need to remember that they are little lives, not dolls and that their health and well being should come first at all times. Here are a few do’s and don’ts to remember for your newborns first photo shoot…
Do’s…
Do remember that they have very fragile bodies and they need support in those popular poses.
Do remember to take baby’s cues seriously… if he/she starts to become uncomfortable at any point. STOP. No pose is worth injuring your child or causing them to be uncomfortable.
Do make sure that the temperature in the home or studio is appropriate for a little baby… as they cannot regulate their body temperatures.
Do keep baby’s safety the top priority.
Do make sure that you are taking time to stop and feed baby or comfort them, bonding is very important in these first few weeks (and beyond) and should be continued even if there is a photo shoot. Newborn shoots can be quite long so take frequent breaks.
Do talk with your photographer about your concerns and their training with photographing newborns.
Do speak up and take an active roll during the shoot. If you are uncomfortable with a pose, just say so, your photographer is there to help you capture memories of your baby and family and will be happy to listen and stop if you wish.
Do try to capture lots of lifestyle images of you with your new baby, as these will be the most treasured when your child is growing.
Do find a professional photographer that has experience photographing newborns.
Don’ts
Don’t literally hang a baby from anything without the proper set up and assistance and even then think twice as most of the “hanging” images are actually composites where they have photoshopped baby into the image.
Don’t leave baby unattended, at any time.
Don’t try to recreate an image if you (or your photographer) do not have the proper training or knowledge.
Don’t try to force a pose.
Don’t treat baby as an object, but remember that he/she is a human life and needs to be treated as such.
Don’t use heavy materials around baby’s face due to suffocation hazards.
Don’t place a space heater directly in front of baby but keep it a little further away.
If you keep safety a top priority you will, no doubt, end up with beautiful photos and a happy, healthy, baby.
*Disclaimer, these are merely my observations, tips and knowledge, (I am not a doctor). Please consult with your pediatrician and photographer for their recommendations prior to a newborn shoot.
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A huge thanks to Jennifer for addressing this topic here. Please spread the word with any new or expecting moms you know. I confess that up until recently I thought many of these poses were achieved by magically posing the baby in these positions and then stepping away to take the picture. It boggled my mind, but I figured I just didn’t have enough talent to pull it off (though I never tried). It’s easy to look at a beautiful picture and not realize all the technical/not magical steps involved in creating it.