Lessons

Lesson Info

Safety and Newborn Psychology

do not attempt poses you are not comfortable with period always composite specialty images I don't even do these anymore but because I'm teaching a course on newborn photography I wanted to make sure that I know did this all these images you're seeing here are raw images that were composited into final image baby never actually was on the scale or hanging in there very very very important um it's just like I remember that whole liability insurance thing I was talking about you just don't want to risk it simple as that hygiene is extract incredibly important and there's something that's a little controversial here and I know that the internet might blow up with this but I'm going to say it anyway um and that's about vaccinations some people don't believe in vaccinations the cdc the central centers for disease control recommends that you get vaccinated for protest sis if you are working with young children there's an argument there about protests and how it behaves if the cdc is going te...

mperamental processes produces whooping cough it is now pandemic in california on the west coast it is a very horrible disease for young babies who are not me into it and many children die from it before they're three months old there is a lovely photographer named natalie hill natalie cole norton thank you out of arizona visit arizona who's young three month old died thrifty reform ethel died of whooping cough um and so she is a huge advocate of of getting vaccines for protest is it's just not worth it to risk it in my paint same with flu so if you are working with babies you should treat yourself like a nick you nurse really um hand sanitizer apu pile a dirty laundry hamper I mean that shows mom that you are conscious of safety and cleanliness and all that good stuff that comes with that okay so clean blankets and props clean your stuff with with baby soap don't use harsh chemicals harsh laundry soaps that might you know irritate baby skin used like charlie soap or draft or something that's you know made for babies don't use bleach and things like that that that could harm so that's always a good thing posing safety I am very adamant about the three points of contact with parents when you're doing poses the parents the two hands air points one into and the chest is typically the third point of contact okay so you want that baby touching the chest at all times there are poses out there we're the babies like hanging on the arm it scares me a little bit it's not that dangerous but especially if you're starting out there's no problem just bringing that hand closer in for a beautiful natural posts okay so be conscious of that always the three points I tell my parents this you guys will hear me say this tomorrow parents are usually nervous there stiff intense so you have to walk them through that I have occasion we have a really uncovered parent and we have something called rachel williams out of kansas taught me this stop there were a little better and we put the bear in mama's arms first so she kind of sees how it is and then put the baby in and that's a huge stress relief it's very helpful so use tools like that your confidence will help talk apparent through post so if you're confident about it and you know what you're doing than then go for it if you need practice with this just make sure you have multiple assistance on hand I don't work now without an assistant I don't work without tiffany is my perfect I will turn down sessions if I can't have tiffany with me or I'll find someone else to help me because the value of four hands is just so much greater mean and I'll talk we'll talk about finding assistance later but a scrap going on the next slide here you will be amazed at how much easier life as assistant and I know him like I can't I can't afford an assistant I don't have time of excuses excuses yes you can do it college student intern anything like that okay so before I get too heavily into that finishing up with posing safety here always at least three points of contact it creates a secure pocket for the baby to be in which is what you want it also calmed the baby to be close to mom and dad okay so to find that assistant there are doulas lactation consultant midwives all nurses training at the local college there's all kinds of people who handle babies on a regular basis who could help you don't necessarily go to another photographer but they might be happy to help you for trade for pictures of their own baby or their own family things like that and honestly I mean the minimum wage right now is what around ten twelve dollars an hour if you're if you've got your sessions down to two hours it's going to cost you twenty thirty bucks to have an assistant and with the two hundred dollars session fee you can afford that and you will love your life so much more tiffany and I are now so in sync with one another that we just I mean we're gonna actually have to talk a lot tomorrow or two this afternoon because now we just know what each other's thinking and we just move kind of in this little dance around each other when we're on the beanbag etcetera etcetera um so find someone to help you it will be extremely beneficial and you will see that today when we next segment when we work with her new baby coming in okay baby psychology one on one intro to the new born mind it's an insecure cold quiet still unsteady place but yes that's the world to a baby welcome to the world of newborns the moral reflex is something you guys have all seen if you work with babies it's a startle reflex they'll be sleeping off a normal fling and they'll wake up okay it's classic moral reflex it's a security safety reflects for the child it's ingrained into almost every baby okay it's instinctual it's not something they can control but you can simulate mommy's womb tto help calm or sue them and the way to do this is with the five s is and I'll talk about this more as we get into shooting this afternoon with baby swaddle and they should be applied in these order this order swaddle side or stomach position swinging shushing and sucking okay I don't always use sucking but sometimes I need it ok these are magic they are recommended by two pediatricians around the country dr harvey karp is the man who coined the term and he wrote the book the happiest baby in the block that outlines this most mothers who get any kind of burning education have read this book if they're sending it to moms to read you should read it okay it's a great book and we'll teach you a lot about soothing babies you can also go on a youtube and reese and search dr harvey karp and you'll see him in action doing this and the swinging is a lot harder than you think it isthe okay obviously there is something called shaken baby syndrome which we don't want to dio but it's I liken it to jiggling like jello like remember your mom made a bowl of jello when you're a kid you want to kind of move it like that don't make the jello crack that's how hard you jiggle just enough to simulate like sweet emily here is pregnant how many weeks are you twenty six twenty five twenty like that so someone who lost count do august fifteenth I was due august fourteenth anyway you got pregnant thanksgiving hee why don't I know that anyway so what she's running around moving around that womb is an equus environment and babies bouncing in there and that's comforting to them that's what their whole life has been about so if you khun simulate that once there outside the room you're going to sue them and make it feel better and calm him down and a lot of different ways okay swallowing has to look good we love it and it's some utilitarian thing for moms but for us we got to do it in a way that looks nice right so this is the classic swaddle it's just ugly look you know what's with a forty inch square blanket it's what we're taught in birthing classes when we're pregnant on how to swaddle well I'm going to teach you how to swaddle beautifully okay so we're going to run rapping techniques in the next class so the swaddle demo will take place then okay so next we're gonna talk about newborns on the beanbag and then tomorrow of course we're going talk about posing with parents on how to do gonna kind of some go to poses that will work almost every time baby's asleep or a week so to find me here social media pinterest dip in it to win it constant contest is still going on follow me there you'll see the boards that were pinning thie prizes so all you have to do is go follow me and then pin the prize is you want to win and we're going to pick a winner on saturday or winners on saturday is going to multiple winners so and then you can also get the freebie for the course on our facebook page how do you feel about color composition line you seeing how it's kind of coming together now how you can use these little rule rules teo help you take your imagery in a direction that's more subconsciously pleasing you see that excited excited makes me happy yeah kind of backing up to composition a little if you have parents that just don't do the naked thing or like my style just isn't the raps in the bare skin for the parents what do you recommend as faras clothing like what kind of advice do you give them a ce faras what type of shirts are whatever very good question I would recommend very similar to what I would recommend two dads and neutral I don't I love this gun on skin as you can tell most of my mom's almost all of my mom's I just wrap it kind of like a strap there's a reason all wedding dresses or strapless because it's pretty much flattering on almost every single woman even if you have thirty pounds to lose after giving birth it's still going to beautiful and also later tomorrow we're going to a photo shop and I'm going to teach you how to liquefy in ways that are pleasing and not changing the mother too much but in ways that how she feels good so I don't mind doing that I would definitely recommend neutral tones and tio act as if the layers of clothing we're all going on one person so you don't want too matchy matchy you don't want to be in the same thing but if I was in this and dads and a grey shirt that's got a different line two in a different style it's gonna work and not take away from the baby but everybody still be dressed I love like sun dresses for little girl's mom would be the same way tomorrow we're going to a concept shoot and I'm gonna dress mom I'm not going to do like strapless stuff on her so it'll be more of ah addressed thing but I was still stick to those neutral tone so that baby's face stands out and yeah she could be in her normal clothing but just keep it so that the focus and now that you know more about color and intensity and value and how things could be shocking and jarring to the eye just based on color and texture combine those so that your eye goes to the face first thing whether it be mom or baby that help I have a question from online this is from dragon studios photography being a male photographer how can I assure I don't touch a child in any way the parents will worry about you have any advice to male photographers I know they may be considered a minority and yeah you know and that's why it's so much I feel bad because it's really a lot harder for male photographers to be in the newborn world but I do believe it's possible I know a lot of very good newborn male photographers and I especially think rapping is going to be a good technique because yes babies naked but you're wrapping them in a way that's very demure I guess our modest that's what I should say so I would suggest learning some good wrapping techniques but most parents aren't so worried about people touching their naked baby I would be more worried about wrapping mom and fabrics and dealing with mom being nude so if that's the case you may have to get a female assistant to help you with those kinds of things or have dad help mom um you know say hey we're gonna wrap this fabric amara mom and show her dressed you know put the fabric over her while she's dressed to say hey dad what you mind doing this for me and then fix it when she comes out re clamp it or do what do what you need to do so that you're keeping mom and her modesty and you know respecting that yeah this has more to do with nursing how do you deal with a nursing mother knowing what she's comfortable with like I mean I'm totally fine with mom just open it open it yeah totally but I know some women aren't so I usually go when I start adjusting things and like do do discuss it before her yeah I actually I do have we have a nursery in our studio is a dressing room a nursery and it's kind of closed off from the rest of the studio so they can go in there and nurse privately but nine out of ten women have bared it all in the world anyway so they really don't care after hurts especially to a woman now it was a male photographer that might be different I would keep one of those hooter hider hooter things on hand so that every mother who comes and I also have one of those little breastfeeding pillows thie my breast friend and then the what's that bobby thank you way have a boppy on hand so I have that and then I would say the fish if you have open space like that I would have the hooter hider ready and there just in case she forgets hers so that if she wants to breast feed she can in privacy yeah way did could were converted our house in the home home studio as we went down to I ke and they have those rails the curtains and for like fifteen dollars each not including the curtains which I think we got another thirty dollars we can completely have him back and then just slide him in giving the private that they need so it's a great solution what a great idea that's a fantastic idea those hospital curtain track psyche other super cheap don't you it's great yeah I wish I made like anyway okay any other questions yeah another question from the internet s r p and then I'm not sure how to pronounce that but hello out there their ass king what do you suggest for babies who just aren't cooperating during the shoot they say I have sessions that normally go for three hours because baby just wants to be awake and hungry and crying but the clients want those sleeping shots yeah I have a big preparation spiel um first of all I sent out a letter to my clients of preparation letter there are very specific instructions they are to keep that baby awake for two hours before they come see me that's hard to do they think I'm nuts and I always tell them you're gonna think I'm crazy I am but do this anyway keep the baby awake for two hours before they come see me and schedule it so that when they feed their feeding at the studio right before the session so sessions at nine a m ok they will keep that baby awake from seven am until nine now it's hard to do in the car because when you put the baby in the car that motion puts him knocks him out and makes him sleep but then when she gets here I get the baby out of the car seat strip him down wake him up get him a little cold okay I tell mom keep your baby a little cold give him a bath or anything you can to keep that baby awake for at least an hour preferably two before you come see me and then when she gets there we get the baby down naked strip it down and goes on the breast and we feed full full feeding both sides it takes a half an hour usually but it's great time for me to do pre consultation she's sitting on the counter all this talk has helped your delivery go h ad about everything anybody blonde talk to me about you want to do with your portrait's and we have this great little conversation okay it's a pre console is all it is really and then when she's done feeding that babies usually either already asleep or very close to it if I have a baby that's awake the first we always start on the beanbag and that's why we're starting with the beanbag today we will wrap that baby tight and swaddle him up and usually with that nice heating pad underneath to being back they just can't go and fall asleep by the time we get the second or third pose okay doesn't always happen I've had babies awake the entire session and it's so unpredictable sometimes it'll be a seven day old five day old who stays awake the entire session sometimes I'll get the random three week old that I just took because I need the money kind of thing I'll sleep the entire session so it's it's sometimes preemies air harder than regular babies I've noticed that baby boys who are full term right around the seventy eight day mark and are rather heavy tennis eight pounds or more tend to sleep better not always sometimes personality dependent what I've learned over the years is calm rational parents tend to have sleep your babies it's funny worked up parents tend to have babies that are a little sensitive and worked up so it's just a matter of you have to find poses that work both awake and asleep and that's what we do or your rap I mean there are times when tiffany are like this baby stay and wrap the entire session because he won't sleep or she won't sleep okay it happens to us to the goal is to get beautiful images if they don't sleep they don't sleep and so I think in your if your parents really really want those sleepy images you can wait it out if you want I mean you could wait the three four hours they will fall asleep eventually but to me that's a total waste of time and it's not worth the sale of the image so you know if you get to the point where you can still create beautiful images regardless of whether that baby's asleep or awake then it doesn't matter and all of a sudden in your policies aaron your preparation letter you say we're going to try to get you know ask your baby to sleep there are babies who just don't sleep it happens we're still going to get beautiful images of your child it's just the way the session goes and we have to plan for whatever comes our way that's in a statement if they really want sleep image sorry your baby didn't sleep it's been two hours I can't do any more I'm not going to sit here and wait for the baby to go to sleep ah lot of photographers will you get to the point where you're doing enough of them that you don't want to spend that time doing that it's just a matter of systems and business and how much time you're willing to put into it