Thanks so much Michelle for allowing to showcase these beautiful images of baby James, he took a little while to settle but once he finally did, we got some beautiful shots. This gave me an idea of writing up a little blog of useful things for mums to know when arranging to have a photo shoot of your precious baby.. and with me as your photographer.
1). This will take a while!! Really, at least two hours.. Even the youngest babies I have shot have taken at least 40 minutes to relax and if we think about it, about why wouldn’t they take so long?!?! Wouldn’t you take a while to calm down if you are exposed to such bizarre surroundings? I have this theory that babies sense a stranger and they have to take time to settle around the stranger before they relax. So, rule no 1 set aside at least three hours for your shoot and be prepared for feeding and calming time.. Having said that I do feel that Newborn shoots are most certainly better shot when baby is no older than 12 days.
2) I come to your house, which is great cause you do not have to pack up the small holiday load that comes with taking baby anywhere in a car. Plus, its the environment that your baby is most used to. So keep things as they usually are on a normal day living in your house, that is, if you usually have the radio or tv on, keep it on. Silence is not always golden in this respect.
3) I bring with me a big baby bean bag for baby to be on during shoots, stand and backdrops so arrange a room with the most space and have that space close to a window. This room does not have to be tidy and prestine, just a long as I have that space and light, we are onto a winner. Natural light on the baby is lovely and soft.
4) Have the master bedroom or a spare bedroom with the most light clean, neat and tidy. Clear away the deodorant bottles, the hair dryers and basically have it looking its best.. most importantly clear of clutter. Clutter can be very distracting in a photograph and we all want the focus to be on the subjects at hand. These rooms are the I will shoot family shoots with the baby and more of your baby along. They show for some nice and natural family time.
5) Pre-shoot discussions, I believe, are very important to achieving what we both want-a great photoshoot. I definitely will explore my creative ideas with you and will hope that you go with them as I love to give you something I have not done before with anyone. It is just as important for me to know exactly what you want from the shoot and then we can discuss the best way to execute this. This also gives us a chance to get to know each other and when the shoot comes have a great time working together.
Key things to note:
Keep your house (or rooms that we shoot in ) SUPER WARM!!! Baby will be undressed and the warmer they are the better.. Cozey time is best!
We may not get all the shots you want.. Sadly, well happily actually, your baby is a living breathing growing human being who already has likes and dislikes so we have to understand that sometimes your baby just might not be in the mood for all this fuss or might just be having a bad day. I do try an organise a re-shoot at a very low cost to accomadate this situation.
As much planning as we have and planning is great! Things might veer off plan depending on a bunddle of factors and that’s ok, we might get great shots that were never expected.