Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Parent Pose with Newborn Part 2

Let's go ahead and bring more in in and see if we can do something help you over here lauren what lauren why don't you help lauren walk over here and we'll work with her a little bit we'll try the same go to post so you know that work but when I want to understand here is the pose of the baby is like we're looking at the image on the screen come on over here sweetie you're doing awesome let's go ahead and have a seat pose on the screen with the baby is not perfect okay, that little boy right there could be much more curled up his hands could be better placed okay, so could his feet but the connection he has with his mama his mama breathing in and loving on him there's there's a sweet moment there that I'm not going to sacrifice for the post. Okay? Okay. Hi welcome. How are you? Very good. So she doing? She just she just fell asleep. Okay, awesome sauce but what I did is with lauren as I just wrapped her in some fabric. Okay, I'm on ly worried about this area up. Most newborn mothers do...

n't want to have this photographed who would you know? You have all of us even though she's tiny and petite all of us have twenty pounds to lose after we give birth so I really reassure moms that we're not going toe touch don't worry about the bottom that's so that's why it's just kind of address down here don't really care what happens to all the curious from the bus the bus line upward okay so this is another look that we do in our studio all the time it creates that skin on skin appearance it's very soft and sweet and miss mama you have beautiful skin on dh most moms can't fit into their strapless bra so we just have them take down the straps and we and we tuck those in okay okay so let's see how she doing here she was four weeks old okay, so she's asleep is she naked under their diaper perfect um she she just fell asleep so we're going to try to doing a key post okay naked naked but if she starts making up again I'm going to wrap her up like a little top maker all tightened cute okay, so with an older baby like this I may be tempted to do that a lot of people ask me to older babies are always awake not always I've had six weaker sleep through the entire session I've had five day old be awake the entire session it totally dependent on personality all kinds of stuff like on just the day and the time of day how the baby's feeling etcetera etcetera you're beth a bet is between five and ten days old teo really increase your chances but it's not always going to be the case okay? All right, so I'm going to go ahead and take him from your lot. Lauren take him from you. She already she sure, but I'm going put that banking back in her mouth. Okay, um and miss lauren gonna have u turned towards me, okay, since she is four weeks old and I'm going to consider the risk that she wakes up greater okay then most I'm going to go for easy poses, which includes what I normally do, which is embraced so we'll try embrace one more time and then we'll move on to something different if she's good with us. Okay, so this hand's going to go like this? Just like before when I want you to know with every newborn baby post we do there's three contact points for safety and for your security so one two in your chest is the third. So she's always going too close to your chest. This is the tough hand. This one comes all the way up and around and I know it is a little awkward, isn't it knows you're going to be like, well, where's, she gonna fit they're totally different woman look how short my shorter her arms are, she's so much more petite and rachel was so this baby is going to be a lot more scrunched in here so you need to take that kind of stuff in the consideration it's gonna work but baby's going to need to be pretty well sleeping for me to do that okay but we're going to try it so this hand the fingers I want topper head forward so I need you to so that we're not shooting up her nose which isn't the most attractive thing in the world okay, let me do the work try not to help me okay? Okay okay you don't have to do is listen and I'll tell you exactly to do some good and I love parents who are okay with yankees um that would be awesome. Okay, little miss she's only seven pounds she was born well, primi wasn't she like a couple weeks? Not too much three weeks primi okay, which isn't too bad I've had five week er's five week pre mies um pre mies air usually actually a little easier to deal with it just honestly it just depends um they usually sleep a lot better you don't want to make any more ok, we could take that out now remember this blanket it's super warm and I'm about to pop her out of it so she might complain at me a little bit but hold that no, they're naked by now oh good try diaper well it's not poopie good job, sweetie. She's looking at me like, who are you? You're not my mother get her back into that sleepy state a little bit so you know, I ten to do parents laughed in a session and it's for a good reason when we work on the beanbag we usually start wrapped so we wrapped him up tight. You get some real sleepy nice and warm and cozy and they fall asleep and kind of stay asleep for the session that we can transition easier. So then what we do is typically feed between the alone shots and the family shots so then right after they feed their just like more drugged out it's great they're just milk comma central. So it's really easy to do family shots at that point so we're in a little bit of a destroyed rhythm now with a sibling, an older sibling. I will do those images first, and one of the reasons is is when ah young toddler comes to see you when they first entered the environment. I mean, my little boy does this too he's kind of like what he checks stuff out he wants to see what's going on first before he before he's super comfortable in an area and, you know, like like, oh my gosh, you're taking advantage of their discomfort yeah, they're going to listen to me a little bit more than less comfortable. They are with me, it's not. I'm not trying to make them feel, you know, intimidate them or anything by any means. It's more about just you know how your child tends to listen to other people better than you, the parent and it's it's. So my son is exactly that way. So that's why? I tend to do those images first before the toddler really gets cozy. Can you put that blanket up over my arms so I can get it out? There we go. Just hold her feet together. So that was your finger so that she doesn't show the world her. Here you go, that's. Perfect. Very pretty. Okay, so you're just gonna go ahead and twist her? Yeah, keep those legs in their ego, mama. I know. And this is the reason it's tougher mama because she's got she's petite, so try her hands are small so she's trying to keep those feet in there but her hands were on the small side and I want you to see how I'm kind of she's a little fidgety but she's good. Put your hand your fingers behind her head a little bit more there we go, perfect, okay, mama. Well let her settle for a second okay, I'm going to put your cheek owner and fall asleep up here we go you just go ahead and listen to my voice and remember that this is probably the last time she's gonna fit like this you know she's so they're so little and I grow so fast okay go ahead and where is your next figure that that one there we go hold that like that perfect okay and go ahead and what you bring your nose towards me here you just listen to my voice very well you're doing office ready and she's going to fidget a little bit she's a little bit awake but she's doing good and I want you to relax she can feel your attention there we go hang on door but it doesn't matter if she gets fussing we can't shoot it it's okay don't worry about it. Okay okay when I want to do is take this thumb and kind of put it back there so we can see your face perfect. Okay, mama, you're doing awesome just hang onto those feet. Don't let him go. Okay? Babies a little fidgety but I'm okay with that okay, now mama's hands this hand in particular is towards me I'm seeing this ok but we also noticed that babies like they love to do this they love to stretch like that um she's such a little thing. Okay, go ahead and help her fix way. Okay? And sometimes you just have to wait for him to settle. So that's really? What it's about it's just she's not upset she's just kind of instruction and do anything and this is classic four weeks old. They want to stretch out. Ok, let's, go ahead. I'm kind of wondering maybe should rapper so we can get a shot. At least I keep wavering seem like I was just gonna do it. Like now is just not you know, since one those things where you just have to okay, so we're going to go ahead and rapper, you can turn the lights back on so you guys can see this let's go ahead. And tio, this referee here we'll do a full wrap, see if she can do that so they could turn the studio lights back on if they want to see this. So I just have a little bowl underneath you go ahead and grab. Is she asleep now? Of course. Murphy's law. Okay, you know, typical. Okay, so I do what notice she's like this and I'm about to shoot up your nose, okay, it's not my faith, I could get it, but I think I'm going teo fix it okay so relax mama yeah let's go ahead and rapper thinks so does she have here she's got a hole like that okay, I'm sure people want to see the rap anyway so okay, so I have this little bullets from jd vintage props that's on the resource is list that's called it's called go to bowl or something like that and it's just a little round ball that I put underneath by we'll call you to help me wrap okay, so I kind of stuff it in there it gives me a little pocket to put the baby in so you see when I think about this I think okay I want the tale of the rap going away from the light the main light this light here so I'm going to make the long side on my left here have you go on this side, sweetie. Cute little it's funny how when you're in a new environment you do everything in your own environment all the time wait go okay, so we're gonna wrap with a knot over on the side do you want okay, so I'm just gonna kind center in here and lawrence job is to help me get the blanket off but we've got to keep her feet in place, okay? We don't want to let her I'm gonna go ahead and lift her up never with my kid beautiful grab onto my shawl pretty girl okay, so then what? I'm gonna have a family and bring them the scarf around her shoulders. Lawrence job is to help me. You could do this on your own it's just till it takes a lot more time. Let's, go ahead and wrap that around like that and I create this like, circle around the baby, okay, and then bring the shoulders and on this side, bring the top part of the scarf over the other tail on the bottom. And all I'm doing is tying a basic square knot. She's. So cute. And you want to make this pretty tight. They liked to be tight, okay? They like to be snug and secure. And then I take this so it's right over left, left, over, right. Make a nice square. Not pretty it up a little bit and voila! She's wrapped. Okay, so mama can have you put your hands on that exact same position. She's. So cute. I'll help you. Just a second. Hi, peanut. I feel like I don't remember that's like that's. Like that's. Very a good girl. And sometimes a wrap helps mom, keep them in position. Okay. Much better. Okay, then we can take the ends here, resumed spiritus and make it pretty drape over, mama. Still show the feet and I want you to keep her head just like that beautiful and she's awake and totally happy okay, we gonna shoot this because I wanna get some images from mama okay, good job. I want you to listen to me as much as you can lauren okay yeah, thank you. I want you to bring your cheek around her just a little bit more good girl chin slightly up what you just close your eyes and a slight half inch move with your nose towards hers towards her head there we go. Good girl a little bit more more now I want to turn your whole body a little bit to your right girl awesome stunning and little miss charlotte is wide awake in there okay he's starting off all say but notice how less fidgety she is so if you have been awake baby okay, now I'm shooting up baby's nose just a little bit so I don't have mom dropped her elbows just to touch if you can there we go beautiful and I want you to turn if lauren if you can help me turn her face towards me just a touch there we go and mama you can help brace sir, but shut up for me shin option up there we got beautiful and then you go and fix your hair for me learn beautiful and you know you could do all this without assistance just a lot it's a big work out up and down up and happen down beautiful gord is okay and now I want you to just think about how lovely she was way go she's just atmosphere nineteen years turn and just touch your lips to her head where they land there we go beautiful don't move I'm coming in closer we're doing lovely lovely lauren okay with her hair to touch she's your first and you could even talk behind her ear if you want your first morning was she um an accident or where she planned on dh perfect now when I want to do is turn your nose towards me close your eyes for me a little bit more turner knows chin up just a touch good girl feels awkward looks great okay a little bit more chin up just a touch beautiful sweetheart count ofthree eyes at me one two three gorgeous beautiful okay so you know I've got the blanket a little awkward you can see the blanket kind of coming cutting across the baby on the bottom I'm very critical of my work can you tell the consulate ripping apart oh she's all sleep now I love it perfect okay so let's go ahead and just pop her out of your arms well and the other thing I want you to note that I don't get her teo happy baby just kind of keep her curled up in there. Another thing that I wanted to I should have known it before we took her out. But go ahead and pop your hands in the position that they were there. You just that's. Fine. You can have daddy come in and wrapped his arms around her and snuggle her. And all of a sudden, you've got a beautiful family portrait where everybody's on the same plane. Okay, so and the opposite can be true to you can put down this position and then my mom come in. Okay, so, let's, try to teo how asleep she is. Some of the stuff we can't do if they're not sleeping. Um, but I'm not against trying, right? Who says you can't try? Go ahead and stand up for me, sweetie. Okay, some sauce when you never hear from me. Okay, straight in the south. So it's not so huffy. Okay, we're going to try something called platter pose. Okay, so what I want you to do is kind of turn this direction. And have you ever been a waitress? Yeah. It was many years how I got through college. I want to have pretend you're holding a tray, tables, hands. You know you have been there done that got the t shirt nice and close to chest so it's going to feel a little awkward appear but I want to close your chest if you have to move your elbows out to get close to your chest or back you know, like this I really want your safety factor to be here. Okay, so how and again really small hands and larger baby but she seems to be out we'll see what happens feisty feisty girl that come from you. Yeah, okay, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put her in your in your arms kind on her belly so that she's touching your chest okay? And then I'm gonna go there this this post takes me a few minutes to get her into just be patient with me if it doesn't work it's okay, okay and we'll move on, eh? So the biggest thing I want you to just think about focusing on relaxing okay? Keeping your energy down okay, I gotta go ahead untie that not kid. Thank you. A lot of new photographers tell me, but yeah, you have an assistant? Yes, ideo I worked for five years without one, okay it's not impossible to do without without an assistant did I say that right double negative anyway um and I also button once you start working with one you won't want to stop it's just too nice of a thing to have and trust me, you confined doulas, midwives, nurses, child psychology students who need internships, artists all kinds of things, and don't be afraid to hire the photographer down the street really don't matter fact, I have another photographer in my town who fills in on occasion when we need her, okay, I'm trying really I'll go ahead and put up to really know. Okay, keem, I'm not trying to help me too much. I want this hand kind of underneath her cheek like that. Beautiful, perfect kind of bring your hands like you're holding a platter. You're not holding a baby. You're holding a platter. Good girl, same with the sand, but relaxed. Good girl. Can you open your hand like that? Perfect. She is strong she's four weeks old. So often times, so fidget in squiggle and they'll get into the perfect position stuff on there and hold him. Okay, so you'll notice that I kind of she got into the right position, so I stopped her and I want you just kind of hold your thumb up so her head stays a little upright. I'm trying to get her like that you go. You're not quite that awkward with your hands but that's okay maybe I'll use her other hand as a race there we go okay so lower this hand a little bit and raise this one so her head is his higher there we got beautiful okay and kind of scrunch your hands together so she stays nice there we go nice and tight perfect drop that like that beautiful okay it's pretty good not perfect but good okay so I'm gonna have you go ahead and write that she's not gonna be much longer legs so I want you just look down on her now when you look down at her I want you to turn your face towards my light your nose towards the light so I'm lauren go ahead and look at me and what your nose this way good girl good girl nose nose chin up slightly now just your eyes down it's gonna feel weird but it looks absolutely stunning she's your baby girl um uh where did the name charlotte come from? Nice. Okay, won't you take your right thumb and just kind of close in on your index finger and down so I can see your face perfect now you guys don't notice the babies right hand is kind of coming around a little bit which is annoying me somewhat but again it's a minor thing that I am not going to get too fussy about because we know is before we called, okay? And I'm gonna and I'm going to keep going in the interest of time. Ok, now, mama, on the count of three eyes that may want to three notice how I fire away really quickly. Because there's only a matter of, like, three seconds that's the most that you have before she realizes there's a camera now very gently with lauren there. I want to just bring her a little bit higher so you can interact with her. Good girl. Too much. And I want you to just good job, laurence. Helping you. Perfect. So what happens is when parents do that, they want to rule the baby towards them. Beautiful. You're doing good. Yeah, your left hand. Can you go ahead and make it more like a platter? Straighten it out. Some. There we go. Perfect. It feels awkward. It looks gorgeous now. Shoulders. Relax, girl. Now I want you to take your right hand slightly lifted and smell her. Not the shoulder. There. We got beautiful mama, can you bring your nose down her just a little bit. Here we go. Pretty. Don't move. I'm going to come in closer. I know it's awkward can you get the hair out of the face from you, sweetie? Go ahead and just touch your lips to her head perfect can't keep looking like such a temper now when I used to be in a film we don't even care where we go or whatever and now in digital were like I look at it okay? Very pretty okay, so that's platter post platter is a rendition of prayer prayer does the same thing when you're like this or platter is like this like she has here now obviously is she doesn't look like she's exactly holding a platter she's holding a baby but that's the concept you give to your clients to help them through it. Okay, okay so are there any weed went through? What three poses? We didn't quite get to shoot football. Oh, look now he's totally in football do you want to bring him over for a quick shot? We'll get him and we'll get him a good image here. I'm going to bring mr caleb back in real quick she's like I did it. I got a minute, he's all happy okay going on over here but while I'm photographing rachel, I can take questions. Sorry, no question in the studio audience do we have any question? But I was going to ask at what point do you give up and ask them to come back or what do you do if there isn't the option of returning for another session I try like head like it takes a lot for me to send the client home she's only have you seen it you're singing at all have you seen it all yet where we send someone home haven't come back the next day no she's been with me for six months now and we haven't sending me home yet we shoud about eight to ten babies a month is on average some give or take good job, momma okay, now why don't you just take this hand if you can and put it up over the top yeah can you get that hand underneath a little bit more perfect. Okay, so this is basically football post like she's holding a football ok? And some men can do it really low because they have these long forearms. Okay, now the biggest thing is tohave mama relax her her shoulders and you want to make sure that babies in the correct light okay going to fuss with his head a little bit more to get the position the way I want it okay, all I want to do is prop him up a little bit. Okay now feet wise, I could totally see his private okay, so what I would do is have mom strategically cover them? Yep good and honestly I'll have her cover his feet too because I know he's a sensitive baby and I'm gonna get the shop that I need and go from there okay so we'll try to get football here okay so I'm gonna shoot it straight on like this and then I can have you turned inside okay so um I want you to go ahead and look at me sweetie this is turn and this is tip turn your nose towards my light chin slightly forward and down good girl close your eyes let's get her hair out of the way from the learned she's so tall I love that nose towards the lights a little bit more rachel good girl and I just want you to look down a little baby caleb for me now go ahead and turn here to the side so you're going to turn towards lauren okay? And I'm gonna move these lights just a touch because what's going to happen is when I have her move the light is going to go off of caleb uh can you unlock that wheel? I think it's looked there we go step on it really hard there we go. Maybe someone can help us do that really quick get the light and locked I'm not used to these lights and you kick it open. I think here we go thank you so if I want to shoot more of a sideways angle so go ahead and put your weight on your back foot for me yes so you're going to kind of put all the weight on the back foot I want the hips to go that way okay see what I just did to mama to help improve the pose I'm going to wrap the light around her a little bit more okay shoot more at this angle to create um the lighting effect that I want you go ahead and move that light back just a little bit it's probably locked down too so there we go that's perfect and angling towards her hand if you won't mind too much too much, much, much just touch here we go beautiful okay and caleb's a little bit see how his chin is really tuck down okay, so go ahead and turn slightly this direction here we go beautiful weight on your back foot gorgeous or just a little flat light but that's okay, so I twisted mama on more of a three quarter angle. I'm not really happy with the light because it's looking a little bit flat because caleb decided to drop in china touch do you see that? So she's like I'll fix it that little quivering lip just kills me so I can lift his chin using his hand well but you see the difference and now all of a sudden I could see his face more and I get my lighting pattern more correct this arm is coming through so we're going tuck that they're almost like I'm determined to get this awesome sauce put all your weight on your left foot and pop the hips towards lauren perfect good job, sweetie knows towards the lights we need just a little bit perfect and showing up for me just pretty eyes mama has beautiful eyes okay? So that's football pose in different angles and just by shifting mom on a forty five and popping that hip that direction uranus linda rise her too. If we're done, then I'll come up and join you. Sounds good word were done. He did good little man. You're asleep, man. Such a good boy please wait thank you. Term last four we don't want to come. Yeah, there we go. Thank you so much, rachel very, very much. You come over okay with me. All right, so let's, just review what we what we just did their way worked on platter post we worked on embrace pose and we did football. So we worked through three that you khun attack with with families and you can also bring in dad so on football pose you can easily bringing down on one side or vice versa if dad's holding baby you can always what I usually do in a session is all shoot mom first with a baby, then bring dad and his family shot on the one hand the baby off to dad to a different pose with that and then have mom come into that shot as well so that gives me and image with mom and baby down the baby and then to family variety images for them toe to choose from I know when I was doing baby photography newborn photography that was one of the hardest things to know just try to make up like what order opposes do you descend so that's really really important what is the what was the hardest thing or what was the thing that you were paying most attention to with regard teo making that connection between the mom and the baby well there are a lot of looking of her gaze yes a lot of it was just having her listen to my voice and giving her the confidence that she didn't have to do anything I was going to tell her what to do and a lot of the moms tried to help me and sometimes that's not even the best thing I let me let me help you let me do the work and because we had spoken before in the other room in the cafeteria rachel had developed a little bit of a trust with me and she said okay this girl maybe knows what she's doing a bit and I'm good hands you know that kind of feeling they feel confident that when they come in the door that they'll be in good care. And then as faras connection with her. The biggest thing I really tell my moms is to is to focus on the child in their hands and that's what's going to get them away from the camera connected to the child. And then, in turn, you can quickly and it's certain key moments grab their attention, teo, you, and bring that instantaneous connection. But if you notice, I gained it and lost it constantly so she would connect with me. And then we lose it, connect with me, and then you lose it. It's kind of a push pull throughout the entire session. And it's really? In that split second I one, two, three eyes at me. She looks at me, I got it. And then it's gone. Did you see that at all? Did you see that? It happened in her eyes it's so? Sure. I'm sure she felt it too. You know it's so subtle. But if you really pay attention to it, if you're ever being photographed and someone says, close your eyes and then open them, you kind of opening the damning photographs. But if they get you right in that moment that's the moment of connection.