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Studio Light Shoot: Newborn and Toddler with Moon Prop

how tough is it for a male photographer to get into this business our moms maurin clyde toe hire female photographers you know you can ask that question a lot with pregnancy honestly I think if the men are good I don't think it matters and the reason I say that is because I get that question a lot with pregnancy and I always say have you noticed that most of the sports illustrated in victoria's secret model photographers are men so that's what I my responses when it's pregnancy with a newborn I've met some amazing men that are good with kids that are good with babies you need one strong criteria for working with newborns and the patients so if I know some guys that have amazing patients I know my husband will tell me he does not have the patience for working with newborns so if it's a guy and he has patience and loves babies I don't think it matters really don't the criteria is the same across the board you have to be patient kind I have an understanding of your technical requirements ...

understanding of babies and love it you've gotta love it if you do not love working with babies don't do it because it's sweat I'm like sweating and no one's keen on me today is that and we talked about this yesterday is that every baby photographer is different we have some photographers that are coming in very quiet and they whispered the whole time but I love because I'm a kind of a boisterous person so I like to build talk and the babies can resonate towards that you do the same thing and I love that is that what we would normally see in your studio yes there are I go back to the energy my client's bringing my personal demeanor is actually very quiet no one believes me but if you're in a car ride with me my husband three kids I'm not talking they're all so my personal demeanor if you met me outside of my studio I'm actually very common very quiet so if a client is coming in and they're also calming quiet I tap into the energy and I can have a very quiet very calm set we've had times where we've done sessions right where we've like barely uttered a word we're quiet it's calm it's just peace awful and then we have clients come in and there's like three toddlers running around the room and they're like high in a banana and there in the playroom crawling between my legs and and mom will say this is my life this is my life and I'm amazed sometimes where when there's a tattler and they're like banging bricks or something in earth studio and the babies like passed out and I'll be the mom like that's normal because we're not that loud in my house for pretty quiet so I feeding off of the parents I like to talk I like to socialize I'm not afraid to do it but I've had many newborn sessions were like I said I've been very very very quiet um so I can kind of adapt either way when I have a job to do I'm in a different mode right now because I'm in teaching mode and so when I'm in teaching mode I look at it as I've got a job to do I've got to get out as much information as I humanly possibly can and reach as many people I can in the short amount of time while trying to sue the newborn if one of the models came in the moms and said our baby needs really quiet and they need a calm peaceful sleeping environment we probably would have said this is probably not the place to come for newborn photos during a live shoot let's book it separately so does that answer the question don't you know it answered very verywell verywell way have ah two this is for laura lynn and for shannon m can you give us an idea of someone trying to just start into the newborn photography business could you name just a few must have uh as faras props equipment yes I would say just anything that you would say if you're just walking your want to get started you know you can't start without this gosh that's a loaded question because whether your studio are natural it's going to be a different answer but I'll say from a baby perspective from a baby perspective you need baby wraps because I feel like baby wraps keep them calm and cozy so I would say just one or two different colors you know natural pink and blue or lavender tanner you know just a couple of colors and if your natural light I would say you have to have a reflector um I would say I think I mean I think if there's a list when I first started out all I had was my camera I don't even know if I had a reflector and I had my cotton balls I didn't have anything else and I said photographed babies naked on the bed mom holding them naked dad holding them naked I literally just had a camera so I feel like in the beginning you need to know light you need to know photography you need to practice with a baby you don't necessarily need anything that gets started other than time and knowing how to shoot light and a baby and then from there with each one you get some baby wraps gets imposing mean mags you get a bean back you get some blankets you get some baskets you just give yourself a budget and say I'm gonna buy a ten dollar item a week or one thing a month because you understand if this is your business and this is gonna be your life you're gonna have to do a little bit investment but you khun budget it out it was years before I really went heavy and invested things and I was a big like ebay buyer for used equipment and lights and things like that cool that's great great answer perfect answer now can you tell us a little bit about when people like your facebook page yes there's a little something involved a little special treat correct you want to enlighten us on that there iss and I don't have it in my hands so what do you guys have it this my lovely assistant here it's going to show you the baby love client guide and this is a free download if you like my page and I'm not one hundred percent certain it's active but if it's not it will be but if you open it up and show the pages it's what we give to the client guy where you're not seeing is the nursing list which will be included in this in this folder and if it's not alive yet it will be tomorrow tonight trust my producer yes okay so here we go we're going to start here's we need something we need the fur I think that stand goes in the middle of the moon number that stan was in the middle of the moon here's the here's the thought where's our toddler so we have I am holding my holding james and we have four year old isabella hot mama hi isabella how are you do you know what my name is miss anna banana huh hi do you like bubbles you do you like to pop bubbles you do you ever kiss your baby brother can I see let me see how you kiss him oh that is really good so what about if I put him on a little moon see the moon over there do you think if miss tiffany missed tiffany's over there do you think if she helped you you could come over and kiss him yeah maybe okay we're going to try it but you know we're gonna d'oh we're gonna have you just come sit down by us and we're gonna try to put him in the moon is not a good idea okay and then I think you're gonna get special treats when they're all done writing say hi to everybody in town how old are you three you have very beautiful eyes yeah your mama over there very pretty she say hi mom okay so we're going to come with us to remember what I told you my name and knows we're gonna put a little hat do you love your brother he's fun huh what do you like to do with him you liketo have him okay let's see what's gonna happen e I have some little blankets that came to us um there's that patch one see that patch one that's from handmade quilts there they sent us that I think that would be perfect for the moon and if you put the little the little custom photo props blanket underneath it this mom one up top of top left and let's get a little baby beanbag for his head I'm going teo can I give a disclaimer I've never used the moon before ever and this moon is from mr and mrs cho and she e mailed me and said make sure you test it before you go live like too late we're going live because it just came yesterday so the season is a lot of that this is either going to work or it's not we're going to try it we have an idea here's my vision my idea would be if he was sleeping on there and she came over and kissed him way don't know he's gonna let us do that I have confidence in her he's questionable mom's wake yes he is his ten days nine baby okay let's get him on get this shot bring little mama and and keep losing his hat mingling with isabella in obviously with any kind of prop like this maybe a safe is he humanly possibly can john I don't know if she's in the chat room or not mr mrs ko but I thought I saw a diagram that had been in the middle that thing it could be totally wrong no no okay just put it in the back yeah like that that's where I want it hold it ok here we go I think those two we'll do a different post for them agassi now with children we have a play area in my studio but before we had the play area when I worked out of my garage can we move this light right this light back a little bit when we when I worked out of my garage I had a little basket of toys and I kept those toys for my client's kids well we like to do is tell our clients because we get a lot of clients they're like I'm not bringing my child like I can just get out of the hospital and we need a heater close by so I tell them we have a play area in the studio but when I had my garage studio I had a little basket of toys kids don't need much they just need a toy that they haven't played with before at their house or even if it's the same toy at their house they see it in your place they're happy and so I um whenever I feel like my kids aren't playing with a toy bringing to the studio and they're like oh I love this toy toby didn't play with at home for like a year so clients in the same way so what we tell them so I'm going to get ready and then you're going we're gonna have to put past parent if we can I just say something yeah bridges in the chat room she is the owner of mr and mrs and cho yes and she suggests that the moon on the stand the other way so do not turn it ninety degrees I think is what she said in the channel ninety degrees I think maybe you put it like that oh there we go thank you since it's your first time using I'm so glad she came in the chat room yea yeah I was really getting nervous I'm like I don't know if I can do is tiffany is holding the moon in her hands very waste that passes where tell her thank you um so here's what we tell the parents way tell them just bring your children I'm sure it's not gonna be easy but just bring them yes we have staff teo take care of the children anymore this blanket way have a play area they can go and play in the play area we're going first get the baby we get the safe shot of them she's totally fun we first get the baby we get the safe shot of the baby and then we're gonna bring the toddler in it's very important that you gain the trust of the toddler so when the toddler comes in you come down to their level you talk to them you introduce yourself you tell them who you are because you're technically a stranger yes I'm so sorry to interrupt so wrong yes britt said it's still it's not correct um I don't know if you want to look at the picture but it looks like the wood panels should be going on the bottom towards the stand oh she's coming over to look at the picture britt here we go in the front we'll still spot thank you hallelujah I'm so glad she came in a chat room thank you okay let's get a hat on him okay says yea with exclamation the tattler comes in you want to gain their trust you want to talk to them come down to their level and then you focus on the baby and not necessarily on the toddler because what's going to happen the toddler is going to observe you watch how you're handling their precious little roommate sibling and when they see that you're taking care of their sibling they will also then in turn want to trust you hear a safe person the mom has said this is a safe person so it's very very important I never say no to a child's coming to a newborn session I encourage it for all the reasons I've been telling you you know it's kind of not fair if you come in you take these newborn photos and the toddlers know where you put this great big canvas on the wall and the toddlers like what about me and she loved me anymore you know so void years of therapy just bring him just bring him to the session all right let's let's shoot it and then we bring child over and then I'm probably going to need you to wrangle the babies so you'll probably have to spot if this was me alone I would have both both parents right and I would say this is a team effort okay so lights I will try not to shoot so fast I keep forgetting about the recycling time of my lights and so when you see that some of the images air not lit well it's because I'm firing faster than the wizard is recycling so I apologize for that oh no test test okay need better light his face this lightness to pull I feel like both lights need to anyone see and then tiff watch his yeah thank you now my only thought is she's going to come in I would love her to just look at him first and the reason I say looking first is because if the toddler touches the baby the baby may startle so I usually will always say just look at the sibling that's a very safe shot in addition whoever is spotting the toddler should be the first shot should be holding the toddler from the waist or something because of toddler doesn't know their own strength they could fall in the baby and so most times we have a parent holding that child the child is kneeling down your right there because it takes a second takes all it takes a second um oh you know why I went on calvin get off of it thank you for saying that I totally forgot I was in a helmet okay testing much better but this world was still losing this face past a past he's gonna drop it let it go look at it look at it a little later pull a little over to the right john totally believed that we just blew that one out it's amazing it's a perfect shop face is really dark but he is very red in his face trying tickle his lips okay here we go let's get two good shots yes face john right here to assist with that was a blotchy skin or is very blotchy and red on the face we're going to try and balance it a little bit with a reflector but no no we'll take care of it in post there's really nothing you can do because it's not like you can really put anything on a baby skin um john I see reflector first I think that left light needs to be pulled back in my opinion okay we're going to get ready to bring in let's try this one more time I need a good is he gonna smile on me I'm still seeing those faces is trying to smile stephen get the smile before his sister comes in still feel like that face is dark what if we turn them inside go go go go go way over here it's doing something no that's where it's going the other way let's get this right so we can bring her in ok tiff let's switch is still feel like it starts but that's why can you two switch let's get her in your body a little more out of the set uh aside aside he just went forward we saw that coming and saw that one I'm gonna put him a little more over it's not quite balanced there we go I saw that one so here's what we know we know that he likes toe lift up in turn so what I would do is keep your body over there as much as you can and you're going to keep your hand right on top of his head just like that when you feel comfortable you're going to take your hand and put it in the back of his head and I think that let's just do that I think that's where your hands going to stay because I do not trust pulling away now the challenge is here's the challenge is she's coming in tow look att him should she be over there and her arm is in the back of the moon okay and he's a little off the rug so this is what it is folks you gotta just like make it happen we're gonna move him you're gonna be here here ok because she always want her to do is just okay so what's underneath here do we have to slide that kill a few slide it it'll be okay okay so do you want to go over here and have him sorry right there just stay right there in the back of his head I'm not worried about you what we will do for retouching is we will take a shot of the moon with the blanket without him that's how you fix the inconsistencies of the blanket thank you we're not letting go of him okay so we're gonna um just need to tuck her hair behind her ear and then we're just gonna lean over to him miss tiffany is going to show you how and you're just gonna smile and say hi okay so that like I still don't like the light on the face at all and that one's too right now so this one pull it down okay his face is just not catching late I don't know why maybe bring that yes yes there that might be better that might be better hold on I think him us talking I think maybe that's oh there it is okay now we're over I'm gonna go toe well I'd like to go because I'm cheating her I'd like to leave me at least five six or six three let me try can we get the hat more on top of him I didn't I didn't cycle there hold on stay at five six from the hat looks weird didn't fire let's get this firing got it alright we nailed the exposure in the other exposure now we just need to get tolerant let's try and fix that hat a little bit thank you the top see how it's the top no no no look up here just press thank you there ok here we go we got it yes and watch the hair watch her here what if she touches the bottom of the moon say hi can you give him a smile do you have a pretty smile ah I was a pretty smile uh it's you know that's beautiful now that yet right where she is where am I hi peek a boo peek are you over there with your baby brother are you smiling so beautiful where am I can you see me can you see me where's my camera took her here a little bit beautiful stay right there we're going to do just a couple more pictures and you're done and you're ready peekaboo pull her shoulder down and watch your left hand it's a salary isabella isabella oh there you are I love tess she's resting her head let's try and perfect it so isabella can you just do that again right there much the shoulder gentle gentle isabella look how pretty you look oh you so beautiful can you stay right there in chloe I'm sorry slower okay let's do that again I'm sorry to get so excited isabella can you do me a huge favor and can you close your eyes ah now can you can you kiss your brother ok let's try yeah beautiful the right way can you pucker up and use those lips they're beautiful can you give him one more kiss yeah those are great lips perfect that was beautiful you're really good job you're a really good job you did really well I can't even talk very good come on up isabella that was really good go give your mom a big hug you did awesome the reason I was waiting for a quick sec before we take him off is I felt like he's gonna give us like the biggest smile ever um watch his eyes and then we're going to the next leveling that we have we're going to talk about what about the next one is four years yes two years well we should talk about what is a popular pose that we want to do we should ask the audience what kind of toddler pose do they want to see what this next baby when you guys want to see we can ask the people online like a second we're gonna break come I'm going to finish eating him we're gonna bring the next time they're in next toddler is we have a baby girl ten days old with two year old boy so if you said I want to see you do this what would it be I've had a lot of clients ask for the one where the older sibling is laying down with their arm like thiss okay and then they're the babies in the arms okay also had head to head but facing different direction okay so babies toddlers laying on the back and I'm shooting over yet oh cause she'll she will do it okay and I wanted to ask you a tough too little and a couple other people in chat we're asking where you got the toddler's dress little white dress in our steward and your store sometime in it's called the little mama just no little girl dressed little lacy girl mama dress as first in the chat room little lacy lacy little mama dress lacey girl dress shabtai open dot com thank you and anna and the chat rooms they're asking for potentially a toddler holding the baby pose okay that might be good two year old cai hmm where's mom and dad has chi ever held as a brother sister uh okay let's do this I got the moves yeah to mr mrs ko for the moon um uh here's what we're gonna do we're going to bring her back one more time isabella and we're gonna lay her down holding brother and then kai right it's chi chi chi chi oh you're hanging out with isabella I see what's happening here oh yeah she's older so kai will sit down and holds baby yeah okay so we're gonna lift lights up because I'm going to shoot down okay so I'm so used to pulling my lights down we can ask questions while we're setting up the shot if we want to see you smile always right there see now this is a shot where you see his eyes a little bit open we can close this I I can't we touch up dot com cam sometimes we do that when you have a little stink eye I mean I shot a lot of photos of him so we probably have both eyes closed at some point but if I had a little eye open I just sent it to retouch when they close the eye and you'd never know so don't worry too much about the stink eye and in hindsight if we probably would've rubbed right here when you read great here it comes down we should probably shouldn't do that closes I we did not that that's what you know I say he just keep the pants on and take the hat off and isabel er come here mama do you think we could lay down with your brother what do you think let's go see let's go see you're doing such a good job like the best little girl ever today you're the best little isabella we've had today you know that oh you're gonna lay down chi wants to lay down to can you lay down good girl this is fun huh maybe we give you a little pillow um well we can put justin arm and see how that goes would like her here sticking out mom can I just take out her clips just lift up one two three that's how many questions in the audience how do you do with kids isn't easy hard a little quiet over there a little quiet over there you have to tell anyone by name you could just tell us the experience do you have helped you guys have helped at all no okay I have a question why do we not have help start with you since you're on the end why do we not have helped but I usually have mom and dad help but I don't have an assistant of this okay okay so you do ask them to help yes okay you're clear ashley I have mom and dad hope okay good I just starting started having mom and dad helped but I was trying to do it on my own until I realized you just it's the love stuff you can't do that and then those is that they want you can't dio tell me why you wanted to not ask mom and dad because I felt like I was the photographer so I should be in charge and I shouldn't have anybody helping me I wasn't sure was professional have them help me so and I didn't want them to feel like yeah I don't want them to feel like oh I'm paying her and she's making me work so well and there is a truth to that you know what it goes to it goes to your client out because if you're if we're going to talk you give a guy a break forward doing this if we're going to talk about this on day three but let's just be honest for a minute okay just mean you fifty thousand my newborn sessions in studio or two hundred seventy five dollars I'm going your home is three hundred seventy five I'm going to your home on a weekend it's four hundred seventy five dollars so let's flip it let's just say you asked me to come to your home on a saturday and you're paying me for one hundred seventy five dollars and I have no help with me how would you feel as a mother I kind of feel like you should have somebody with you yeah right right so it goes back to the old how did you get what you pay for okay so for the photographers they're charging fifty dollars is that enough no definitely not so let's take the industry to a higher level and say we're dealing with the youngest people on the planet okay this is a miracle for a baby to come out of a body right yeah right and you want this baby photographed in the best light in the best care let's invest in the time and the money let's be a photographer and be professional in charge let's be a client that respects the cost that it takes to photograph and that does come with time and experience not saying run out the gate and say you're any born photographer and start charging that I wasn't charging that fourteen years ago but I have worked my butt off for fourteen years educating myself bringing in a staff paying my staff to give my clients the best that I can give them and if I'm not doing that then I should lower my prices no he's like cooing and talking I guess so a little um yeah anna I got another comment mine is a little bit different I think that we're very much like in the regards of being we like to be alone we liketo work I find that I don't find a lot of people who want to work as hard and I find that that would reflect on me so finding the correct assistant is quite challenging I have a couple but they've gone off to college so it's finding the correct assistant because you wouldn't want to give the wrong impression either simple I've had that too I've had the had all sorts of situations yeah does reflect on you but you don't know until you try and I have clients if any of them are watching that have seen me fire assistance I me not seen me do it but I've had assistance that I really liked personally that I haven't felt we worked well together and it's hard if we could talk about this in day three I'm not saying it's easy I hate firing people I hate it from my core makes makes him cry but I know when I'm not good with someone and it's kind of like dating right you to find your husband you go through a lot and so I feel like if it's not working with someone I'm I'm like it's not you it's me you know um you won't know until you just go out there and try and you've just got to find the right person tiffany's not gonna be with me forever you know excuse you I wish iwas by you know it's it's a matter of it's your business and you've got to make it work I love how our knees are bent let's tuck her knees in right by the bottom of his feet I love that he's wide awake let's just try it just like that can you get something underneath his head and then we got it isabella you're gonna look right at me should I d peekaboo behind the camera do you like peekaboo okay so I'm gonna count to three I'm gonna do one two three peekaboo and can you give me us little smile when I do peekaboo okay perfect okay yep let's do a test that was cute where she was actually looking off to the side he's a little john ducey eh mom tuck knees in a little bit so he is john this against her white dress it's going to be more obvious I loved what I just saw right now she was looking at you and leaning her head and she was even looking at me so if she's leading her head on him just like that and look how he's he's wide eyed he just fixed her hair a little bit he is wide eyed right there right there right there touches him good and took her hair more behind the back in the and the knees and we got it let's just do a quick two three transition with kids you've got like two minutes here on borrowed time took those feet in I'm just going to do two to three shots and we're good so isabella you're just right there can you took that right hand in a little bit more beautiful isabella can you just lean right by your brother and just stay right there one two three beautiful he looked right at me isabella where's my camera hi hi what are you doing hi can you just lean right on his hand well you know I'm a worried tease or tickle monster because I don't want to jerk we usually use a tickle monster but sometimes it causes them a jerk just do one more and tuck him in more to her so almost like they're looking at each other perfect isabella stay right there actually him looking right at me right there right there right there e a it's a ballad can I have a little little smile right there right there where's isabella to isabella she's like I'm over there right there right there got it good