New to Newborns
Let’s be honest: photographing new life is stressful.
I’m not saying it can’t be a wonderful experience, filled with magical moments that make you smile and coo at your camera screen. But it’s a situation that no matter how detailed your plan, you must be willing to both give up control and lean into chaos. Plus, depending on your community, you may not get a lot of chances to practice and perfect your approach before clients come calling.
So as you can imagine, I was more than a little anxious when my childhood friend, Johnny, invited me over to meet his firstborn days after her arrival. Of course I was excited to meet her, but what if I somehow exposed my inexperience in traditional newborn photography?
This question uncovered my first challenge: walking away from unhealthy comparison and competition. It is an isolating issue that many photographers silently share, but struggle to overcome alone. That meant putting down Pinterest and pulling out my portfolio. What words capture the style and stories in my previous sets? What details in an image pulled me back to taking it? Answering these helped me establish that regardless of what Johnny’s family was doing, I wanted their photos to feel authentic and interesting – just like them.
So for us, this meant staged scenes and production props were unnecessary. All we absolutely needed was a fed baby and awake parents; from there, we would wing it!
Now is no plan a good plan when it comes to newborn photography? Probably not. So if you want to take environmental portraits of infants and their caregivers, check out the following lessons I walked away with from this at-home session in Mount Vernon, Washington.
1. Design the session around daily routines
Environmental portraits capture subjects in their natural states and settings. If there is any posing involved, it’s kept to a minimum and used to better highlight the activity or scene. But searching for session inspiration on the internet largely pulled up photos of newborn babies in bright tutus, tucked up and sleeping in baskets or on crescent moons.
If those aren’t the portraits you’re looking for, then take the time to talk with the parents about their new dynamic at home. What does getting up and going to bed look like right now? Who prefers to do what when it comes to bathings and feedings? How are they taking care of themselves and each other?
Answers to questions like these can identify and prepare you for the small moments that matter most to this family. In this case, it was clear that reading to their baby was important to these parents. So I brought over a book I loved as a child to add to their library, to capture the magic of them reading it to her for the first time.
2. Change diapers on couches
Changing tables can be awkward to work around – they are often tucked away in a corner, with limited space to move around without getting in the way of light or parents. But for better or worse, a lot of bonding happens during changing and I don’t want to miss that.
But this little one’s mom, Bianca, had the right idea: go for the couch. Not only do living rooms often have the largest windows (so plenty of natural light), but throw a colorful blanket over the cushions and you have a comfortable-yet-chic faux studio.
3. Embrace everyone’s personalities
One of my favorite aspects of environmental sessions is the active discovery of what makes life unique. No two people are the same; from the moment we’re born, through nature or nurture, we develop innate traits that define and guide us.
This is why as a photographer, I like to take a step back and let things unfold as they will. And doing so during this session led to one of my favorite family photos I have ever taken:
Sure, just before catching this moment I took a sweet photo of just the newborn nuzzling her mom without the interference of dad. But it’s the addition of his humor, injected while he’s still offscreen, that completely captures the spirit of this family: loving and laughing; serene and silly; humor with heart.
A few more takeaways to take note of:
Eliminate any distracting decor – and pull in personal artifacts where possible
Find a soft organic light – with room for you to move about without casting shadows
Test your arrangement and props – preferably with a baby doll
This is by no means an all-inclusive list for what to do in preparation for a newborn session – so do your research! I found these articles particularly helpful, but follow @asyouarephotos on Facebook and Instagram to show us what posts and practices you find most useful:
Article by Erin Poppe