I realized how behind I was in blogging (again) when I realized that I never posted some images I took of my little man…and he’s almost 3 months already!!! Granted, I had the excuse of being out on maternity leave and then once I returned from maternity leave I had a bunch of maternity and newborn sessions.

Anyway, this is an EXTRA special post in that this little cutie belongs to me 🙂 I took his newborn images over the course of 4 days, as he was the most difficult session I have ever done. Likely this difficulty was due to the fact that I was still recovering from my c-section, I had my 4 year old to deal with and every time I tried to pose my sweet James he would “smell” me and think he was hungry. Never the less, I was able to capture some adorable images.

In addition to the images I captured, I also hired the very talented Jessica Rivera (located near Bloomington, IL) to capture some newborn images, particularly some sibling and family images.  She did an incredible job with my challenging little man and I can’t wait to hang a giant canvas of my two angels in our home.

So here is my sweet baby James…

Hadley was the last newborn session that I took prior to having my own little guy and I have to tell you…I was totally in girl envy.   With her dainty little fingers, sweetheart lips and round cheeks I had so much fun putting her on pink and wearing cute little headbands.   She was such a doll and I had so much fun capturing her.

When Ben’s mom contacted me to schedule his newborn images I knew that I would be pushing it with taking newborn sessions so late in my pregnancy.  Newborn sessions, especially with fussy babies, can be physically straining in a very hot studio.  Add in a toddler sibling and I could have been looking at one tough session in my third trimester…lucky for me though Ben and his big sister Hannah were just ANGELS for their session.  Seriously, Big sister Hannah was one of the best behaved 2 year olds I had ever met and Ben was sleepy and smiley.   Sometimes I get lucky like that 🙂

I knew that I was backlogged in blogging some, due to the new addition we added to our family several weeks ago, but I didn’t realize HOW backed up I was.   This little guy isn’t so little anymore, as I saw him recently and he is growing like a weed!   It sure was amazing to share in his birth day, as I was lucky enough to be hired to photograph his birth as well.  He was my last birth prior to my maternity leave.   I photographed Maddex’s older sister as a newborn and it was such a pleasure working with this family again.

After I found out I was pregnant this past summer I knew that I would need to take some time off from my maternity, birth and baby photography for a while.   As we now get closer and closer to my baby boy’s arrival date (March 10th) it has really hit me at how much I am going to miss my photography business.  Yes, I will have my own little precious boy to play with for a while, but I also treasure working with different families in capturing their little ones.  I have my last newborn session tomorrow before heading into maternity leave.  While I still potentially have a month before his arrival the physical strain of newborn sessions (think 80-85 degrees heat and bending over 30 times over the course of 2-3 hrs) has been getting harder and harder as my bump gets bigger and bigger.

During my leave (mid-Feb-June) I will capture  a few existing baby plan milestone sessions  and I DO plan to return to doing maternity & newborn portraits in June.   Births will need to wait until the late summer/early fall due to the demands of nursing an infant.  With that said, I continue to get inquiries for sessions.  Fortunately, there are some great quality photographers in the Springfield area that I am able to refer folks to.   Often times people think that it is an ugly competitive market where photographers don’t look highly on their “competition.”  For me, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  I have great relationships with many local photographers and we use each other for feedback, support and referrals.    In fact, I myself have hired a local birth photographer to capture the birth of my son and a newborn photographer to make sure that I had some cute images of both him and my daughter (my 3 1/2 year old listens to others a lot better than to me!)   Will I play with him in my studio? Of course, but to have the pressure taken off of me is also a great feeling.

This all got me thinking about how I can help others to find a quality professional photographer for their baby’s images. Fortunately or unfortunately, starting a photography business is a relatively easy thing to do.   You get a “nice camera,” get a facebook and webpage and start charging people to take their images. But I will say that to me, that is EXTREMELY concerning, particularly when we are talking about working with teeny-tiny brand new babies.

There is only one time in your life that your child will be a tiny newborn.  ONCE in a lifetime.   The newborn stage goes by so quickly and within weeks your child is no longer a sleepy, squishy, fresh out of the oven baby, thus it is SO important to make sure that you hire the right person to capture those images. Do your research.   Too many times I hear people say things like “my friend takes great pictures, so I’m just going to have them take them” and it makes me cringe.  While it’s great to have family and friends who can capture snapshots of your new bundle it is also SO important to make sure you have quality images that you can hang on your walls and put into albums for years to come.

I started this blog post and in writing it realized how long it would be, so I broke it off into two parts:  Portfolio Evaluation and Photographer Background.  So here is part 1 of helpful hints to finding a good, quality photographer who is right for you and your family.

Do a thorough portfolio evaluation in the quality of their work.

What does this mean?  Go through a variety of images on their website and blog and look at the quality of their images.  Look not only on their most recent session but their most reason ten sessions.  Particularly look for the following:

Technically good images

• Are their images clear and in focus?  Can you see all the teeny-tiny details of the babies faces?
• Are the images exposed correctly?  If too bright and overexposed, their image that looks “cool” on your screen will not print well and the details of your images will be lost, including the softness of their fine baby skin.  If too dark and underexposed you may not be able to see the gorgeousness that is your baby.
• Can you clearly see the baby’s face?  With newborn posing it requires a lot of patience and experience to correctly light and pose them so that the focus is on them and not the blanket or props that are used.

Safety & Experience

• Do the babies in their images look comfortable?  Strained faces, claw hands and limbs that are red or purple can demonstrate that a baby isn’t comfortable.  Posing a baby safely takes experience and education.   While someone make take beautiful wedding images or senior portraits it does not mean that they have the knowledge to work with newborns.
• Do they show images of a variety of babies?  Newborns are unique and with each and every one of my sessions I learn something new about working with infants.   If someone has only captured a few newborns, they likely do not have the experience needed to know how to both settle and capture these unique tiny human beings.
• When obtaining difficult poses do their do composite shots?  I have seen some pretty scary images of babies dangling from trees or propped up on a guitar.   A TRUE professional will NEVER put an infant at risk and will take multiple images in which they compile digitally to make it look as those a baby is in a certainly pose.    Are their limbs hanging haphazardly or carefully placed?    Again, look to make sure the baby looks comfortable in the position they are in.

Style & Consistency

• Do you know that the kind of images you receive will be consistent with those shown in their portfolio?  While it is important to have some variety in their portfolio, an important aspect of newborn photography is the ability to recreate beautiful images with a variety of little clients.  Is the lighting, editing and style of the images consistent among their sessions?  Do you know that when you bring your baby to them you will receive images that are consistent to their look?
• Are their images over-edited?  While Photoshop can be a great tool for photographers, you want the NATURAL beauty of your newborn to show through.  Is the skin color shown in images natural looking or do babies look like oompa-loompa’s or washed out?
• Do you like their style? This may seem like a no-brainer but photography is an art.   Some photographers use lots of props, some use none.   Some photographers use a lot of creative editing techniques, while other focus on the simplicity of clear images.  Some photographers use bright colors, some more muted.   Each photographer is unique and it’s important that your requested style matches your photographers.

In my next edition of “Finding a Newborn Photographer” I will address things to look at when looking into your photographer’s background.