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Get the Sellable Shot

hello I'm so excited to be here I just want to say thank you to creative life for having me back I'm extremely grateful thank you and thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your day in your lives it's kind of a big deal the take that time away so thank you for doing that well I'm obviously grateful to tiffany for taking time away from her family to be here and you know I've been shooting for fourteen years and I've been educating for the past seven on dh just kind of started from me wanting to teach others what I knew when I started in nineteen ninety nine there really we're in a lot of books there wasn't a lot of information there certainly wasn't creative live out there and there wasn't facebook and I have to just kind of figure it out along the way we're very fortunate now that we have so many different mediums to learn from and I believe a cz my angela says that when you learn you teach so I'm hoping that a mix three days I can teach you a little bit about what I know a...

little bit of information about me as I said I've been ah photographers since nineteen eighty nine I was a photographer beef for I had children have actually been shooting since I was a teenager I was an anna for a good ten years before I became a mother and I thought I knew everything about babies until I became a nun mother a mother and then my business changed with each child my business changed completely and you think you know everything and especially when you're in your twenties you really think you know everything so but one thing that I did learn before I became a mother is to learn lighting and really get to know my camera and just really focus on the art of photography but I chose to specialize in pregnancy and newborn from day one and so I've carried that with me through the past fourteen years and one of the things that I have done my side ours is run tai open which is the art of pregnancy and newborn and that is to educate photographers and to provide them with tools and tips and the form and clothing to help them all in this process so hopefully if you're familiar with taya pan it's helped you in some way I have had the pleasure of photographing some celebrities being california celebrities have babies too all the time and I'm working with a celebrity baby is just like working with any other baby it's just the same babies are unpredictable um they kind of know what they want more than you know what they want so I always say follow the cues of the baby and they'll tell you what they need and what they want so moving forward some of the places that you can find me on facebook you can find me at facebook dot com slash the tile pan paige come over say hello tell me where you're from I would love to know who you are twitter dot com slash the tie open group and pinchers tight open pins websites several websites I also several facebook pages but I'm not gonna bore you with all of them you're gonna anna brandt dot com which is my wayne website belly baby loved out calm focuses on pregnancy and newborn and the art of pregnancy and you were in dot com is to educate photographer but that being said this first segment we are going to run through a newborn session from start to finish I believe in to our newborn sessions and I'll tell you why back in the day I hit four hours five hours six hours come back tomorrow let's re shoe let's try this again and it was a hot mess and there was a turning point in my career about six years ago when I had a client who had been with me for the first two newborns told me they just did not want to come back for the third newborn because it was so much work and it took up so much time and I was like really and they're like yeah it wasn't really that fun the first two times we got great photos but they still were having nightmares about the photo session and they were five sick sours sessions and I realized my clients were exhausted they didn't want to see me I didn't want to see them it had been half a day they're tired maybe they have good photos they care they just wanted out of my studio and I figured that's not really how I want people to leave I want people to leave being thankful that they came out of their house at ten days which is a big deal and feeling good about their session and feeling like we handled everything and that we didn't need to reach you and so I made a promise to them that in their third baby I would keep that session to about two hours and I did and I never looked back and there were no more reshoot and I was able to streamline my session I don't feel that you need to get every single pose with a baby it's not even possible and I don't feel like every single baby is going to now a particular post and I don't feel like it's even about me it's about the client and the baby and my job is to get some amazing images in a good amount of time in a reasonable amount of time and keep their babies safe and secure the whole time and so that's my goal today and with every session I will leave through transitions through each set and I always start with a guaranteed shot we're going to get the first guarantee chat with in the first fifteen minutes I believe that when a client comes into my studio if I get that baby bundled in happy and they're fed we have them feed it our studio we can get them wrapped up put them in a cozy environment and I can have that first successful shot if everything goes out the window I know I have the first shot I do not start with them naked right away I can probably count maybe a few times I've done that I always start with them wrapped warm we have heaters on we're gonna bring these heaters a little bit closer I like to transition so she is wearing little knit pants over her diaper we ask mama to feed in my presence and if I'm going to her home we want them to feed right before I come and then I want to take the baby one of the reasons that I'm holding the baby is I want her to feel me I wanted to feel my heartbeat my smell my voice I don't want to just take her from mom and put her in a basket she's going to be like where am I who are you and why am I here ten days later three weeks later whatever it is I want her to feel that I'm a safe place to go to because you need to establish trust with the baby and so I will make sure that they're wearing a diaper why because they just ate right so we have a little cycle process that we need to go through and I'm certain at some point she will cooper p and my presence on my clothing those have watched my youtube videos have seen me get showered several times it's part of the job I try to wear nice soft materials so nothing is poking or hurting the baby like her microphone um and so basically how it's gonna happen I'm gonna explain for a quick minute and we're going to get ready to go in the session she's wearing a diaper she's wearing a little minute set if I was in my studio would be the same thing maybe she'd be wearing a diaper cover but she'd be wearing a diaper we're going to give her a little rap and we're gonna get a really cozy in a basket and warm and get the shot set up and we're going to take the first shot I don't believe in getting fifteen shots of the same image we get to three we get it we perfected and we move on then we're going to transition teo headbands and little accessories in the same set up if all goes well we're gonna do one more set up like that before we go to a proper to be mad than mom maybe dad baby and the family and every newborn session I try to get two or three setups the rest is a bonus I want to make it simple quick comfortable and I wanna make sure that mama has classic images that she's gonna live forever so mom and dad can come sit down you guys excited are you guys doing good good yeah and so we think we need to lay out the rug and maybe john if you can grab my camera and I'll give her a quick wrap we are doing a segment on the art of wrapping so I'm gonna give her a very quick basic rap right now but if you feel like you want to see more detail don't worry because and believe it's right before and after this segment we are doing a baby wrapping segment after after the safety segment we're gonna do a safety segment and then baby rapping and I'm going to show you different baby wraps when we take off that waterproof pad we're using a shoot maybe beanbag that I believe we're giving this in bag away the cover we made that sinner ty open shop so we brought the cover and that waterproof pad that tiffany just took away um is also coming from shoot baby the waterproof pad is great because when you have a naked baby in multiple blankets it's good to kind of just savior cell middle well um so we'll do a basic rap so longer on one side sh let's bring that heater a little bit closer I worked with an assistant form of my fourteen years I believe it's been about ten years when I gave birth to my second daughter I opened up my first studio and I remember thinking before that I was doing everything myself I'm bring this little closer I was lugging everything setting everything up by myself and that's great because you learn how to do everything but I'll never forget when my lab manager because I was filmed at the time told me his daughter was in college and needed an internship and I have never even really heard of interns even though I went to school I mean I didn't think of it for a photography oh her pants around backwards how cute she is a little ruffled goes on the back that's okay hello anyone so we're going tio keep her I always say where do they want their hands she feels like one she wants by her face one more on her belly does she keep hands more by the face mama dad okay so ask the parents say where do they normally keep the hands I learned she's a thumb sucker so she can tell her that she's trying to get that thumb close by and she does not take a pacifier so parents said that she can thumb suck which is fine but one of the reasons why I love having an assistant now is sometimes when you're trying to rap it's you're trying to hold the baby and wrap and you're trying to do with one hand and you look kind of silly when you're doing that and so I always tell people if you don't have an assistant get mom she's like the best assistant ever or dad on dh so just say to them can you just come and hold her while I rap so tiffany is going to help hold your hands are really cold tiffany's gonna put her hands on the heater so if I was doing this alone I want to keep those hands really close in and I want to go in and I'm more concerned about this top part right now I just want to get those old just get those hands in we're gonna put some white noise on for her but waken bring it over but we'll wait putting it on and so I tell people all the time work through the cry if she was crying right now it's okay you're just gonna rap and we're just gonna work through it because she'll be really happy once we're done so if tiffany wasn't here I would have mom go ahead I would have mom do this and I remember when I first started out I was afraid to ask parents for help because I felt like they were hiring me and if I asked him to help that would mean they have to work and so then I realized that the parent knows the baby the best and they don't mind helping but I also don't want them to work and so I remember when my lab manager said do you want to bring on my daughter is an intern I was like a sure I had no idea what I was doing okay what's we know why not have an extra ham and it was the best thing ever because she was able to help me all with these little things I'm just really pulling this rapid I'm keeping the feet in now it's very important that some babies will not touch I had a breech baby in the studio last week and her legs were out there and moms like her legs air not talking so if you have ah breech baby or a baby that is not tucking you need to know that she obviously tux very well right mom she's just and that's the thing with preemies is they usually will talk in curl very well if you have a bigger baby we have I think a ten pound baby today I'll be curious to see how they are see how she's already calm and we're not even finished wrapping and she was kind of fussing before babies want to feel like they know they're in the womb they want to feel cozy there is no reason in the world teo put her naked on a beanbag and start a session that way I just the only time I've ever done that is if I have had like a ten pounder that's like naked and passed out it's very rare on dh so there's really no wrong way to wrap I really don't think there is the idea is to keep that baby cozy and safe and we're going to just go right up under and we're just going to keep rapping watching her little chin ssh you're okay you're okay so photographers always say I can't afford health yes you can you can't afford not to have help we're going to specialize in newborn get help tiffany's a photographer as well and she gets help and she doesn't have a full time business she works for me and is a mom and does photography and don't you feel like it so much better when you have help you can barter barter child care barter grab grab someone you know many people would love to help it a newborn session in turns college I've had interns for years and sometimes they need ninety hours sometimes they need one hundred twenty hours and you know you work out a schedule it's invaluable I wish turned rains if I could go back if I could go but look atyou mama uh you see her tear me oh she's good okay so we're gonna put her in the basket remember I talked about getting the shot in the first fifteen minutes you could get it just like this just like this hi yes so we're going to move this beanbag oh you're going to sleep in town you don't even care right now so like well we don't have a whole list today looking for a natural light let's come back over here that's where we tested wait the white noise and start with gen it and let's get the baby being bags oh so what we're using and you wouldn't grab my phone too and I'll show so we actually just picked this up off of amazon we feel it's in there amazon dot com and it's just by my baby what I normally use if you want to pause that is I usually use white noise app on my phone and so anyone who's seen me on youtube that nose then I stick my phone in there and it's just a white noise up and this is usually what we use and we stick it right up really nicely just wonderful but for the sake of the show I decided I should bring this because my phone's going to be beeping every three seconds and many times when it's school pick up time my phone starts buzzing buzzing buzzing buzzing the kids were like mom where are you and so lately I've like well feel like we should probably have something besides my phone but I got to tell you you know what mammy parents say to me where did you get that what is that what is that time keep tight it right on the side just loosely they'll say oh my gosh you know I just I love being a parent but let me tell you you know nothing when you have a baby right we're going to keep this is very loose by the way my fingers under here so when you're doing this you should be able to get your fingers under here obviously we want to restrict nothing we have to be so careful um so we're very loosely if I feel like I have a baby that's moving a lot and is going to get caught up I won't even ty it I'll just gently rest into the side so that's perfect but I feel like when I had a baby oh my gosh I knew nothing and so I would have been that same parent like white noise act by my phone what tell me does it call me baby so I've had dad's you know download the app during a session there like I need that up I'm like it's free my third child slept in swing for like six months so I'm a big believer in doing whatever it takes to keep your baby happy so we brought my posing beanbags that I love because I think yeah she might sink in because we want teo this this this is what we're gonna talk about props safety but just so you know this is a metal egg basket and I've run my hands on it many times there's nothing sharp nothing jagged our biggest concern is we don't want her to sink too deep in there so that's what we're discussing right now is do we put something up underneath here her this is double so she should be okay but we are going to put something under her head obviously you don't have to buy posing mean bags get a towel something but you have to you just have to have things that are going to help them along the way just have them ready in about ask it because you don't want to be like posing and then behind oh her head sinking or or you know you want them just cozy comfortable you should have a little you know a basket of things readily available oh mama you can have your eyes she's like I want to know what's going on hi way well like so my thought was to transition it so it'll go over her she likes that way huh you like that way well let's see where she's going she kind of likes that way so let's just let her go too just by not going be looking at you right now sorry because she likes this way so you know in the beginning that first shot I want to just go where the baby is going to go so tiffany's gonna spot I'm going to get my camera we're gonna bring in a reflector I just want to read a few comments from the internet anna so gloria g and I'm in the lounge had said what a sweet baby and defrost said and that's how you make a baby mommy so they're all really enjoying just watching you set this up and yeah really looking forward to thank you I love it I love it I love it I love it safety strap I like a wrist strap um if you don't have a wrist strap doing neck crap I love the wrist because I was always the strap over my neck was driving me insane and so this is pretty secure this is pretty comfortable so amazon nothing crazy we'll be gammas on user if I want something just go on amazon and have it the next day so we just lost like all of our life john what happened like a ring wow come in we like tested this before we have no light we have no life so let's wrap it around this weii I'm like where where did our life yeah it's a really dark morning like raining we are doing studio and natural light today um so you'll see both I'm going to try and do this whole session in natural light um I'm gonna just go wide open here so I'm going to a correct she is pulling shadow in this bonnet and we are getting this shadow and I don't know if with if we can eliminate the shadow on the rug but I'm going to try and just that's coming from one of those lights okay turn it so let's try and turn here yeah and let's try and fix here I'm just going to go in and just turn beautiful I think we may even have to put a little where oh you're young mi look at this see okay so we can have a shot right away right quick right away from fifteen have even been shooting fifteen minutes howling over me shooting two minutes you want to get that first guaranteed shot there's no reason why you can't get a guaranteed shot right away there's just no reason so I always say you get the shot and then you perfect it ugo she's beautiful perfect test testing beautiful twenty three I love it I see it that way now then the knees begging me so we're gonna perfect it love it okay so her face is good and the dark shadow it bugs me the position of the baby bugs me so we're going to fix it we're going to fix it I also think we're going to soften up this rap by bringing me this so transitioning color palettes keeping your color palettes very simple and similar in tone and texture I love tones and textures so we have the same color in three different textures and so by by having similar tones and textures you what I call that first rap is just kind of a basic foundation rap because it's not always the prettiest but it's the best in the most secure so we have that because of that I know for a fact is going to keep the baby comfortable and happy now I can pretty it up a little bit and I can double layer we have multiple of the same color wraps and fabrics I mean I probably have like fifty creams asked my assistance they keep telling me it's time enough courage but look how much prettier that is come on now look is not young so I'll usually tell my assistant testing because if baby is you see baby keeps turning her head which is not a terrible thing we can put a little beanbag in there we can put something in there and keep her head there maybe that little teeny disc fall there may be a train ticket okay and so I'll tell my assistant testing testing she's still holding because with babies a lot of it is just keeping the position and just holding him in that position okay so hold hold let's do a test and then I think we got it we can transition okay here we go testing beautiful here we go got it I'm going to shoot the whole thing and then I'm gonna go go go that shadow is still kind of there john this one but I think it's because of these lights I don't want to turn off those lights so we'll fix it in post normally I try to get the shot in the camera I am not a big believer in fixing it later I really try to perfect my shots but we have a lot of elements going on here and I don't want to adjust the lighting that they need for the set so this little shadow here we would normally not have um and since we have gray skies we're just going to go with it um the idea right now is to get the shot and I just want to show you how I shoot people ask me all the time why do you shoot all of that I like big square campuses I saw twenty by twenty thirty by thirty forty by forty square campuses if I go in too tight and mom's like I would love a square campus over the nursery and my god can happen or it can't happen I got to go do some post production and work and retouch all day and I don't want to do that so you're going to see I'm gonna go horizontal vertical close up could try a couple different angles done three to four shots different angles let's move on to the next shot let's make this smooth I am shooting with twenty forty seventy I did bring a fifty but I don't need it so you can see that one thing that me is a photographer the first thing I see is like that bonnet is not totally round with her face and so that's where I'm like I want to get that shot if I was in the studio we I haven't even been shooting fifteen minutes I've been shooting five six minutes already got the shot now I'm gonna perfect it I'm going to transition and I'm gonna finish the set and I'm gonna move on beautiful that instant yep perfect you like it it's fun huh son it should be fun sitting hadn't should be fun so I you know I always shoot a newborn with an assistant always if I don't have an assistant I will tell my client it's just me because I have an interesting schedule I'm I mean I'm closed on sundays and mondays and believe it or not I don't work twenty four seven on dh there are times where there has to be an exception and I have to bring in a client when I studios closed or or whatever I'm travelling on location and so I'll tell mom you know that one that I don't have an assistant today is that okay I should say that's fine I'll help you out so if you don't have an assistant you say to mom I need a spotter I can't do anywhere in session without a spotter you also have to remember that mom is recovering and if they've had a c section I've had three bending over and squatting not fun so is dad around or is the partner around or a nanny or a housekeeper or anybody anybody home you need you have to have somebody assisting you to type and the story even when I'm shooting children I have an assistant you'll see the children later anna can I ask a question yeah so fashion tv who's a regular here on critic live from singapore wanted to know how long do you usually take two established trust with the baby before shooting do you have any practical advice for us yeah like about I'm probably holding that baby for about five to ten minutes I would say because so the mom's going to feed in my studio and the minute she's done feeding I will say can I take the baby can I burp the baby and um what will happen is I will hold the baby rock the baby burp the baby wall mom is picking out prop thankfully the creative lives staff kind of created a little mini studio for me so in my studio we have this times ten and so I will have mom pick two to three outfits and dad and pick blankets and things like that I'm holding that baby the whole time so I'm holding the baby rocking the baby burping the baby having that baby get comfortable to who I am while mom is picking out props blankets the assistants helping and then and then we go to shoot the baby I would say on average about ten minutes not too much but keep in mind that the whole shoot I'm the one saving the baby so if that baby starts crying I'm going to do everything in my power to sue that baby before handing him over to mom mom is the feeding source yeah you a very important job andi I know that's why you saved mom for the end of the shoot I don't even I never start with photographing a mom because she's the safety you know it's like my kids only come to me with her tired and hungry right that's what mamas four and so if I consume the baby I'll say to the mom does a baby take a passive fire we ask that right off the bat does the baby take a pacifier and if mom says no baby doesn't take a pacifier sorry john I figured we should just keep shooting while I'm talking I hope that's okay um but I will ask mom do we do a passive fire or not what can I do to see the baby can I burp can I rock you know what can I d'oh and I'll do everything I can and all all that I bumped to huddle back two thousand all that is establishing trust with the baby if I can comfort that baby the whole time much better well that shadow kills me um if I can soothe that baby comfort that baby that whole time establishing the trust so I feel like the trust is the whole photo session we're going to do one more little tie back we're going to take take this tie back off put it one more then we're gonna unwrap sure and women there's an outfit under so I tell people all the time plan the next shot while you're doing the first so when when the baby's ready and I'm doing the shot my mind is already on the next shot that I'm doing I already am going to say another tie back I'm going to do a little bonnet or I'm gonna unwrap the baby I'm already onto the next shot and the minute I start that chat I'm already onto the next one so another quick question and do you have the mothers pick out the outfits that they want and they also pick out the physical props that you're putting the baby in so they're picking out the entire scene yes okay just double checking if they want I'm going to take off my rings normally I keep my rings on because the bottom is nice and smooth and there's no issues but just when I went to adjust she's so little I don't want my ring to catch on her so I am going to take off my jewelry and I will tell you that that is optional teo you I'm not going to tell you you have to take off your jewelry I'm going to tell you if you're wearing your jewelry and at any moment you think you're going to cut the baby take it off thank you so um we're talking about I got about parents choosing problem oh yes yes yes yes tiffany says sometimes because sometimes parents come in and they're like you're the expert you pick and I'm gonna do whatever you want todo here's my baby well here's what I say to that yeah you hold right here what I say to that is what colors air in your home because the colors that I like may very different from the colors that are in your home if you were to hang a photo in the nursery what are the colors of the nursery and I ask if there is a nursery because you know first child usually has a nursery second child it's questionable but a child sleeping in the bed you know so it's like sometimes there's no bed so I tell people and I know because my third was sleeping in a swing so I tell people here's the thing I want them to hang their photos I want them to have canvases in their nursery I want them to have a family photo I wanted to still be a part of their home and so to me it's really important to know what colors are in their home what color's your gonna compliment I mean this is california where I live so I get the people were in remodel I get that a lot burn a remodel we're moving we live in you know in apartment wherever that's fine and I say okay well what colors do you like and then I tell them pick three to four outfits then we kind of take the design on from there we say pick the outfits and the purpose of that from iraq is to find out where their color is going then we will help them pick coordinating blankets we don't really want them no work and if they say I really love this blanket then they can have that blanket and we just helped them but we usually have a stash that they've picked from she's like in there who wraps his maybe who wraps you you're in there a little bit there you go usually one of the things I do and I'll probably do it later is I will go to an egg rap in here because it's very easy to dio now listen mama you can't strong backwards so we're going to go with it now what happens she's fussy because she's like I was wrapped in cozy and warm and you just took it all out from under me so we just want to give her a quick minute just let her know way tio position a little bit even turn on a little weight sh all begun or tired she likes it warm and bundled huh is she always wrapped yeah she likes it warm she where her hands just went under ricky theo wait you like them yeah it's going tio tio I shall take it so little strange encouraging some thank you e babies know what they want want want to scare her thinking like this we're gonna go in for a minute just wait never underestimate the power of your hands because its hands are used to hell around the world and babies love touch a quick question yeah what temperature do you generally like to keep your studio okay so thank you I am in an old building I have no heat and no air so um I cannot control my temperature so I only use uh portable heaters just like the one we have I don't believe in using heating pads because I don't like any heating element touching a baby's skin I know that as a mom I wouldn't feel comfortable using that so I've never used a heating pad I'm a believer in keeping the surrounding area very warm it's probably like what eighty degrees here right now it sze toasty better I mean it like a sauna it's probably what you don't want parents passing out on you as well and that that can happen so we've actually put air on sometimes in the other room and ask the parents to step out especially with moms and their hormones and all the craziness going on so I actually ask creative live not to make it too warm in here and we would just focus on the surrounding areas we're going to finish this transition basically what I'm going to do is just the way this rap worked I'm like let's go with it she likes it she's comfortable we're just doing a little hand adjustment they're gonna take it off and she's just in her pants and then we're done that's one set okay so here we go with sea testing beautiful little warm but likes those fingers that it's a little pulling a dark shadow there but it looks good it looks better on my camera than it looks on that it's gonna be so I know that foot that foot like this case I do but it has to be detective or let's just get her checked job mama good girl actually you know what why don't we just take this off the couch fund and I would like to turn her head so why don't we do this why don't you hold her feet I'll just turn the whole basket you hold her feet and the matches work on her head a little bit you want to look at details I'm a perfectionist I can't help it so I shoot it and then I'm like how can I perfect it what can I do and see how I'm I want her hand by her face so what I'm doing is while I'm trying to fix this headband I'm also trying to keep her hand where I want it look how adorable that isthe so what we're taking cues from the baby she's kind of doing a lot of this too and so you did never force the baby you never pushed a baby you just gonna watch where they going and how can I work with their body movements and get him cozy because if you work with third body movements it'll be very natural you know go down try to get that back one thief we're going to do this last shot and then moved to the next setup because we did we are on you know I'm pretending like we're in a session by the ears if you can I'm not married to this headband we could always do it different e think it's driving her nuts too she's like a citizen police little came perfect she's like every time I go to sleep no way you can ask questions if you want we have so many questions let's have it ok let's have it so of course we have a question our studio on its go right ahead it's in your studio do you find that you shoot primarily with studio lighting or with natural lighting because it's a great question in my studio I am one hundred percent uh studio light I do have a big beautiful windows they just don't pull in enough light so I'm studio light all the way when I'm in the client's home I am natural light as much as I can we haven't done a studio lighting the home in a long time tiffany's amazing for booking my clients when they asked for a holmes session there's usually two reasons one is cultural they're not supposed to leave the house for the first six weeks six months um that's one reason and another reason is they just want to be home they don't want to leave their house so we ask them if it's okay to do environmental we prefer to do environmental in the home I love naturally baby photography but I love studio like photography just a cz much to me natural light is way harder than studio you set up the lights you're done I don't have to think about my lights one more time the entire newborn session even if I modify them it's not even a thought whereas when I'm doing home mom you know that the light is just like here it's my every my every breath I breathe so I have said before I made a promise to myself years ago that I was a photographer I could shoot anywhere in any time with any light source so I'm always up for the challenge I will find the light wherever I go but if I'm home in my studio studio all the way I love it I love it it's just easy it's beautiful you control it okay testing beautiful one two three okay I have an accent