Newborn photography at home. part one. #Mamarazzi #photography101
If you have ever happened across my photography page, there is a wee little link thing down there to the right then you would notice that I have a whole area of my site dedicated to photographing babies. Since i work with newborns and have done ( as a neonatal nurse) for 12 years now, it has seemed like a natural step to newborn photography.
Its sort of a niche area of photography. It is a pleasure to do but can take a long time (which i guess is why so many photographers avoid it!) and i love meeting these little miracles and getting to know another little person.
I often get asked about how to get lovely images of babies when they are so new. So i thought i would do a few posts with some hints and tips to getting some lovely images of your newborn baby. Easy things that you can do at home.
So part one, i thought i would explain a little about the environment that would be a good place to start if you have a newborn and you want to try and get some cute shots.
- Newborns have just come out of a very warm environment in the womb. Its very warm in there, about 38degrees. So if you are thinking cute naked baby shots then you need to have your environment warm. Babies cannot regulate their temperature when they are born so its important to make sure you do that for them. My general rule is if you are uncomfortably hot then the baby will be happy 🙂
- Choose a time when your baby is usually most settled. Often babies are sleepy in the morning and start to crank up the grumps towards the evening. Not always the way, you know your baby the best.
- When a baby is in utero it is NOISY! Lots of noises! Anyone who has a newborn will marvel at the fact that their new baby will nod off next to the washing machine on full spin. So its a really useful tip to download a white noise phone app and have it playing near your baby. Or you can use a womb noise teddy things you can get to soothe newborns to sleep.
- Look for signs that indicate when your baby is relaxed and settled. Babies have a way of communicating….honestly! It isnt always all crying.
Signs that they may not be in the best place for being a model…
- Stretching their hands towards you and up towards their face or splaying their fingers apart in front of the their face, yawning, hiccuping and sneezing excessively, arching their back or moving their arms and legs frantically.
Signs that they are ready to play model…
- well fed or just fed, wrapping them up in a blanket or other loose item to feed them and settle them. One thing that will for sure wake your baby up is fumbling a onesie over its head when its asleep.
- Rock your baby back and forth to imitate the movements that would have settled them in the womb. how many mothers always say that their babies were still as could be when they were on the go and then woke up to party when they lay down. A slow rocking motion copies this and will help lull your baby to sleep.
- Once they are asleep you can gently pop them on the beanbag or pillow that you want to use to photograph them on.
….and how you go about setting that up will be in my next newborn mamarazzi post!!
#silentsunday
Lens love challenge #mamarazzi #photography101#CountryKids
I am very very lucky to have a few lenses which i really really love but i don’t use that often. I have my work horses that pretty much do just that, they are functional, do the job and i have three lenses which are never far from my camera bag. They are the 50mm 1.4 ( this is the mid-range) 24-105 f4.0 ( my go to studio lens and its pretty good for days out as it has a bit of a zoom) and the daddy 70-200mm F2.8 ( this is a killer lens in both quality and size) Out of the three it is the one i use least for personal use but when im shooting for a client..it is pretty much the front runner. every.single.time.
I know there will be people out there thinking ‘well why dont you use it for personal use if its that good?’
One reason…
well five..actually 😉
It is a very heavy and valuable lens and when we are on days out and have all the kids, their stuff, the packed lunch, the dog, uncle tom cobbly and all along with me..adding the stress of a large lens bouncing around on my hip and threatening to give a small toddler a head injury..its just not going to happen. You have to be sensible about lenses when you are talking capturing your own family memories. A large, monster of a lens that might be fabulous but gives you chronic back pain is going to be left at home in favour of your iphone.
Go..on..you know im right. 😉
Getting something that works for you is the key.
Anyway there is a point somewhere.
So one of my lenses that i am lucky enough to have on a borrow from my dad is the 15mm Fisheye.
It is beautiful even down to its perfectly styled non-plastic camera cap. Really..its metal. I dropped it on the floor at the Olympic games (the cap not the lens!!) and the lady in front thought id drop a flask or a mug of coffee! Its small but mighty and i love it. One of the things that i regularly do with the lenses that i dont use that often is challenge myself to only shoot with that lens for a day, a week or a couple of days…some time..so that i get used to using the lens and also a new way of looking at my composition and imagery.
This is SO worth doing. It really stretches you and takes you out of your comfort zone, you might even find that you fall in love with a new type of lens and way of shooting your subject. I know its more money and camera equipment is super expensive as it is BUT it will give you experience of getting an idea of just how different these lenses are and what they can do to an image. I get asked all the time..’So what is actually the difference between these lenses then?’ I went a bit more in depth about that here
Here is your chance to find out!
I know not everyone has access to more than one lens BUT there are companies that hire out these lenses for a few days and they are not that scary prices either. I would totally recommend shopping around and grabbing something that maybe you are toying with the idea of owning or maybe even you just want to see what they would be like for the hell of it.
Its playtime 🙂
Some companies worth thinking about are: lensesforhire lenspimp lensfettish
Thats just a few, there are loads out there!
So.. here is what i got up to. It was an awful day today and it rained…a lot..so we went for a quick bike ride and fed the ducks. The thing about the rain is it makes the greens take on an luminosity that is so attractive..which is probably the only good thing about rain…well you know apart from that we need water to live ‘n all 😉
This post is linking up with the Country Kids too…so welcome all linky followers!
