Lessons

Lesson Info

Creating an Efficient Studio

All right, so we're going to start with creating an efficient studio now you have seen sort of actually I think you know, kudos to let's give a round of applause to brandon, erin and all the staff here they're doing all this wonderful stuff because, um I don't think anybody especially out there in the virtual world I sit and watch your faces and you all kind of look overwhelmed they can't even imagine what's really going on in the chaos and you guys can see I'm like power housing through this and it's it's hard because at this point I don't feel like it to be a social and creative relationship, but you can see what's happening we're doing a very large scale production here, which is very, very impressive, so let's go back to reality here and let's try to figure out a really studio you're going to see very soon how incredibly organized we are we're not talking, you know I have stuff in a pile it is absolutely labeled you and I think you'll be very surprised. I would also like to note th...

at that's not me that is not my natural style that's actually helen over the eight years she's been with me she has labeled and boxed everything between her and my husband, creating an efficient studio obviously organization being prepared and the comfort and care is priority that baby and it's not just the baby. It's mom teo typically working with newborns. Mom just had a baby when that mom walked in and she had a six day old, it was holding that car seat. All they wanted to do was get her sitting down. I'm like let's just get her over here and get her sitting down because you all if you've had children know that it six days, you are absolutely not comfortable. And so here she is taking this big risk it's our first baby and I just wanted to make sure she knew that we knew that she was not comfortable couldn't really change much. She still had to go through the process, but at least you knew that we cared. Um as you can see, we have everything that you see that we've thrown all over today. We don't work like that everything is labeled and box so that if I need a headband, if I need a hat if I need any attire that's the way it goes fact I'm gonna cue up a little video here on dh show you kind of, I believe it's next I'm gonna show you ah, little bit about what the world looks like I'm gonna talk you through it, you can use your imagination which areas you can see it's probably maybe eight to ten feet across now this is something that you could do in your own home if you have a home studio, you could build a scenario like this toe actually keep things organized now we have our computer editing station, which is of course where we go when we are done with the session but let's kind of go through the shelving here we're pretty fanatical about organization we have several photographers and the main thing is we want to know where everything is and we don't want to have to work too hard to think about it and find it so as you can see everything's labeled everything from tube tops, newborn hats, headbands, newborn cute stuff this one always fascinates me unusual head attire I'm not sure if that's for a child with an unusual head or if it's I'm not sure I never go in there it scares me too much ah hair rates, anti cat bath hats and so on and so on so forth tea sets, birthday candles, pedals all kinds of fun things and these are the things that we use every single day it's also important to note that we have a big candy box because that, of course is how we get through our sessions from here kind of circling over this way we've always had a small refrigerator in every studio the reason we have that as we always have water bottles on hand, and that way, if we have a mama nursing mom, our mom, that's pregnant or dad or children that are thirsty, we can cover them. We also keep popsicles in the upper shelf so that if we have a child that may be the candy boxes not working, we have some extra ammunition there as well. Another tip that we have, we buy really cheap combs and we use the combs to give to our clients because a lot of times they'll come in, they forgot something to come the child's hair and I don't want to have a hairbrush around that mom might be uncomfortable thinking that somebody else used it, so we've got these cute little combs, their giveaway combs on dh they have our studio name and phone number on them as well, so we can give them away. They don't really cost us very much and it's a great little tip. Yes, in addition to that, we have several items that are really important things like cheerios, fish, crackers and little containers, and that way, if we have a hungry child or we need teo pacify a baby, we could do that pretty quickly and back in the back corner here we have a few things like clorox wipes keep our keyboards clean ah, hand sanitizer is really important. That's something we talk about on tour a lot when I'm working with babies. You know, if the baby has an accident on the floor, I'm gonna clean that up. You scored a little hand sanitizer on me. And that way mom and dad know that I care about their baby. What else? Everything shoe polish, nail polish remover. Everything that you could possibly need is back in here from there. Going down, of course, are standard supply of sticklers. These air really important. As you know, everybody always asks me where I find them. And honestly, I go online. I usually google a feather duster extension pole, and I always come up with a solution of these were purchased. I think it cost me maybe forty dollars, for a case, wholesale. And it was forty of these. So about a dollar apiece. If you do a little research, you can definitely find them. Um, our chickens are down there, as you know, moving over this way. We have a lot of flowers and books and things that we keep on hand for different sessions. And we also keep a selection of small tutu's in here because these are the ones we utilize the most during the day. I also have a lot of blankets we deal with a lot of babies, so when mom comes in, we usually take a fresh, clean blanket, lay it out on a couch, and that way mom has a little changing area where she can get the baby ready and keep all of her things. We're also pretty fanatic about fabric. I love playing with fabric with pregnancies, with newborns, so we keep a really nice selection in each studio, and that way we can grab it real quickly. We keep it organized, and we're pretty good to go now and you make sure that I don't miss anything. This's the ugly baby we refer to this is the ugly baby because it's an ugly baby. However, we have learned painfully that if mom and dad are outside the room and you say get the ugly baby when you go to open the door and you walk out, they will have a very concerned look on their face, so make sure that they know that the ugly baby it's, not their child. We've had a couple really funny experiences calling the baby the ugly baby, but we use this baby doll she usually has closed, but we use her to teach parents how to hold the baby comfortably in the different positions that we have in that way. Instead of trying to show them with with an actual child it's a little easier to go through this way so that's our ugly baby now you really think about it that's an entire baby section right there everything we have in that corner is set up so that we can very quickly get baby work done everything from the cocoons, the wraps, the headbands they're all placed right there now another thing that I recommend that you have in your studio a and especially if you work on location is an emergency kit the emergency kit has every single thing that you possibly could imagine how this comes from my wedding days this little toolbox stayed in my car at all times but we're talking everything from gaff tape teo combs two screwdrivers teo mosquito repellent lotion, gloves, glue hot glue guns the list is incredible in fact, I can't remember if I put it in that it's possible that I put it in the, uh, free catalogue that we're going to give you guys if I didn't, you can yell at me on facebook or something and I'll find a way to get it up there because this is a list that it took me seriously fifteen twenty years to perfect I collected from different photographers and then I every time I needed something I wrote it on this list so it is really, truly all inclusive I can't imagine forget anything but if I can get you that list and now I'm gonna have ten thousand post on facebook so we're going to re think that actually tomorrow we're going to talk about it and I'm going to make sure you have a place to go get it we'll put it on you can do or something like that where it makes more sense so I don't wanna leave anybody hanging so scratch what I said I will make sure that's available to you in fact I will get it in the catalog since it's not going out till wednesday did you get that brandon yeah yes please thank you I'm alright done you're getting it in the catalogue it will be there uh thank you okay so this is one of our studios I think you saw this image earlier you can see we literally cut out entire walls to get the north wedding that we want. This studio is probably forty by maybe forty by fifty I believe so it's pretty large um we're collectors of chairs that was the thing I couldn't bring here my work as I said traditionally is a chair a child on a wall uh very simplistic helen's work is more what we shot today which is a lot of props and things both worked very, very well it is absolutely true helen outsells me on our products all the time period because and that doesn't mean her cells average their higher but when it comes to actually selling art products she absolutely outsells me because she takes the time to do that to the to that very full creative process um lots of things and also helen and brandon we're going to be showcasing some of the things I actually think we you know what scratch that we touched and held almost everything we brought so I think we have to pull a whole lot less I think of something but some of the essentials that we have obviously blanket gods is huge I'm trying to get a supply of that on you can do because I get asked probably four hundred times a week so I'm trying to find a supplier that will actually get it on there really inexpensive because it's not easy to come by you can go buy cheesecloth it's not a sturdy do not hang a baby from a cheap cheesecloth but god is really important for doing hammocks which we're going to show you in a little bit in a video as well as wrapping those diapers yes we do naked babies but nine out of ten times I don't because honestly the effort of you are going to get wet so that adds an extra fifteen to twenty minutes I love little baby baby bottoms as much as anybody else but if a baby truly is not in the right space meaning perfect that perfect scenario where they're absolutely out asleep there's really no point in doing that because it's probably going to be more effort than it's worth or I will try to get it with the diaper and then I will take it off if everything works my way tool little skirts you're going to see all this stuff coming up ah, heat is very essential. We talked about that somebody asked how warm should the room b really, really, really, really warm the hotter the baby little the less they care we use blow dryers as you can see any props that we use like that little metal bucket we used, we would've warm that up, but be very careful of global blow dryer and a metal bucket could make a mighty hot seat so um certainly we've never burned anyone, but you do have to warm it up check it check that temperature a better way for things like that is a heating pad we actually used a heating pad. The problem is the cord coming out of it if you can find a way around that with god's or something that's the way to go because a little heating pad is nice and warm on the bottom and that way they're really happy ah lot of the shots you see with the baby sleeping like this, they're actually on a little heating pad another thing that we should note here is there is actually a dad's arm in this picture that was removed and I'll talk about why later I'll show you actually how and why we do that justus and f y I I think everybody caught this one today right everybody's getting a pom pom yeah really I should I should sew those on you can do because those are hard to find you know we've had this problem for probably eight years and cannot find another one cheerleaders have pom poms but anyone's we've ever found they shred super easy so this one's a really tight uh and I don't even know where to find it or where we got it but that's going home with us all right but I'm sure if you google that I'm sure they're out there haven't put enough time into it but pump up it's the sound and it's the light reflection is what's catching a newborn's eyes a three month yeah three month olds attention and a six month old for sure it's all going to be interesting even a one year old will be captivated by it for a few minutes so I think you saw really my arsenal of toys um really and truly the tickler the chicken what am I missing tickler chicken on the pom pom those three are always within arm's reach of wherever I'm shooting we do have other little toys and rattles I I don't think I ever helen I'll see her with a rattle everyone so I don't think I've ever touched one ever because those three toys just constantly revolving them, you see like assumes something gets boring, I threw it away get the chicken, go back and forth um we'll talk about it later, but really and truly if you are watching what I'm doing, I'm completely overwhelming the child and confusing them so much that they literally don't have time to think every noise I make every stop, every clap, everything it atonality I changed the tone constantly, so I go teo oh, no and I control them with my voice because every tone has on emotional connection, something they've gone through at home even as he even is a three month old they've heard y'all done oh oh no you know those air sounds they're familiar with so pom pom is important we saw the ugly baby way of great stories I'll tell you some later about the ugly baby but the ugly baby is an a the baby but you saw how we use it to teach our client's howto hold their babies so much easier everybody also needs a doll um easy shots the posing pillow I mentioned this today by wicker by design where to go I thought there was one in there I thought we had a picture of it but you saw how I use that pillow. Um, you know, photography is an investment, but I am as much as I talk about every sponsor in every person that I used, I absolutely do not want you to think you have to buy anything. I started my company with a camera thirty five millimeter camera and a piece of cardboard that I took aluminum foil and duct taped it all over it and that was my reflector and I had to work that way for pride three or four years, so and that was all of a few dollars and it worked perfectly well. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, I remember when I finally first I got my first r z sixty seven and it took me three years to get a second body of backup body and I was so nervous at weddings you can imagine with one camera does that for three years. So I finally got up enough money to get that second body and not even the very next weekend when I got the second body, I dropped the first one on the ground and destroyed it. So I'm convinced the first one was mad at the second one so because with this relationship thing going but unfortunately I destroyed that body and it took me a very long time to get us second backup body so you know, I wouldn't recommend that anybody I'm a much smarter photographer now I think I would read camera for a wedding, but back then it was kind of, you know, at the time, I just it was a money issue I wouldn't even have known you could rent cameras back then, so and I didn't think it was easy as it is now as well. So posing pillow is definitely something you should need. Doors and chairs I mentioned the chairs we also have a siri's of antique doors that we use we just buy them I pay probably no more than twenty to twenty five dollars you'll see him in the show all the time they're actually behind these young ladies here. Um little trips are tips on that the door that we purchase we actually put two hinges on it and we cut a triangle piece of wood I wish I want to put the video about triangle piece of wood in there so that it actually constabulary pendant lee but it's very heavy and very dangerous so we never let it stand independently there's always an adult holding it however a t least gives it some stability there so we but we never let them hang alone otherwise all of them lean up against walls we can shoot them all day long on the top of the door you know the pvc pipe coating that you put over pipes in the winter time we take that across the top of the door and we staple gun it on so that as we're leading them along the wall we don't scratch the walls because they otherwise you're going to be re painting a lot so um working with sets you saw all of the things we used I try to show a good range of expensive props and fun things and really nice clothing that we've invested in all the way down to really basic bare bones a piece of fabric I mean that last session we were using a four by four piece of cloth a chair and a floor and there really wasn't much to it so um it is an investment but it does separate you it creates that uniqueness that you want so the question is what should you buy first and I always want to start with the basics now when it comes to props there are all kinds of fun things and you go nuts you could lose a fortune actually buying things oh there it is I had him twice sorry there's awake or by design and this is one of the this is that posing pillow in the original wicker basket this is the basket that I'm not kidding this kid is in college now but I have been shooting that basket for the entire life line of my company now these this is actually like an original watch me grow in and this is where I was hiking background white basket white pillow and that was very, very much my siri's now since then we try to stay away from it it's not that there's anything wrong with it but it's just it's very it's very pro sumer now I mean it's something you could find in a lot of the, uh stores that are in the malls and things like that so we really do try to separate ourselves. However the funny thing is and I have to be very honest with you everybody says, oh wicker or oh, you know, white background that's so last year hi key backgrounds outsells every other background in the baby program period bar none in every session I photographed three backgrounds which we'll talk about it one is usually high key um and you know why? Because it sells if I lay out all these gorgeous things that I do mom and dad half the time we'll buy the white background. The question is should I even shoot the white background? Obviously if I don't give it to them, they don't have that choice but it's something you have to determine it is very popular people like that clean classic white look um we want to talk about the sets and designing sets that work a lot of it has to do with the color tone and styles. Uh, as I mentioned, I give about three choices per session to clients. It's not a choice. I should rephrase that. I photographed three different unique sets today we did about to if I weren't doing I believe was forty three year forty nine babies way weren't doing as many babies. We would have gone through three sets within that hour period. We're gonna kind of show you some of those now this is some of helen's work you can see. Helen is very much into the props she has she collects everything no matter where she goes. She's got ah, little cowboys and fly I love this little pirate when I had never even seen that they sent me to that to me last night but this is just a plethora of stuff that she finds here and there and you can see this one has the doors behind it. This one actually is using one of those little rubber floors and she's using it as the background and the floor as well. This one is just the floor down flat, but you saw us working in spaces that were approximately four by four feet for a baby so we're talking you could do this in honestly a master bath probably if you really want todo eso these are the kind of beings the little sets and things that she builds and she and they they sell so well I cannot I literally cannot compete with it how well people love these particular little sets and one more on dh some of them are silly like that cereal bowl down there is one that I swear to you I cringe every time I see it I'm like oh don't get out the serial bubble butt oh my gosh people buy it every single time like they always buy it I would be more in tune with the one on the far corner here with the antique looking bull in the fur if I were going to do a set and I do by the way because I know they sell that would be more my style but again it's that evolution its finding different backgrounds it's creating something unique every client that walks in like what are these babies doing right now? What are they doing? They're sitting what were all the babies that you just looked at doing sitting there were all six month olds sitting but you know what? Your mind didn't tell you how boring all they do is shoot sitting babies because everyone had a unique story so they looked very unique and individual even these here have ah very individual flare on yet every baby is just sitting and that's what's making us different than everybody else's yeah we just sit babies too by the way but we try to make it unique to us so that so that there's something there clothing is also imp poor and we love as you can see now the clothing I am a big fan of this is my work here all of this is my work so you can see virtually no props if any simple chair very classic clean and tone ality if you look at the backgrounds grays and blacks and the high key white is what's drawing you in here browns on browns greens on green's creams on creams and then a little bright poppy one I love the vibrance of the backgrounds but obviously it's a matter of just simplicity being my style and there's no right or wrong believe me we go back and forth this is one of the companies that I meant to mention share cherub cheek uh they have great little all the fun little hats and things even on our lunch break we were still shooting babies for fun and these are all the fun, crazy little things one of the places we get them and they'll be in the catalogue as well they're also sets out there that you could buy that our custom for many years there was a company that produced these large walls in fact that image behind you is a set like that with the orange well, in fact that orange wall there with the little baby in the green that is actually the back side of this set that you're looking at here so most sets are designed to be multiple use you could swing them around so this is this set this custom said when you look at this image it actually looks like a pretty big set um it looks like a large room but I can show you here in a second actually what that looks like on a video this was awesome. This was four uh I'm sorry. Yeah four eighteen month old no three eighteen month olds and a two year old so this was crazy they were good kids but you can kind of see how look how small those walls really are and at what a small space we're working in so this is just diversion tactics. You can kind of see me running around trying to get them to look at me and doing crazy things we'll see just scaring them at this age with boys you just scare him so they don't dare do anything. I make a loud scary noises and try to get them going okay, so you can kind of see this is how small that said it is the back of that set is actually that orange walls here comes the brother good deal. So let me see if there's a little bit more there we go. So now watch there's the candy got it. We nailed it. So you saw that was literally candy shot. I'm dropping the candy and somebody is getting the, uh here we go. Here goes candy again. Is that magic shot? There we go. We just got lost it, but we got the shot. That's, why? Your shooter's got to be ready when mom could drop the candy. By the way, there is no way that was god and you do have to bribe them a lot along the way and I'm talking to them I'm saying, do you want some people want a piece? You want a piece already? You sure you want that ready? Here it comes. One teo bam there's the shot. All right, so we're good. So this is what we're looking for. You would have never thought that shot was going to come out of those four boys moving that fast so it only takes one so and that's really and truly what we're working for is that magic that moment I guarantee you I could tell you right now, that's a chicken shot. I guarantee you that we use the chicken technique, which is an actual technique, um, that I could show you later typically the chicken technique we use on eighteen months and older on dh so you might see it you probably will see it with the one year olds tomorrow but I'll talk about it later but what it is is that you saw whatever I brought out the chicken it stops motion and so this is one of those that we have everything ready and then somebody squeaks that chicken and that's what you get is that one second of motion stopped uh, backgrounds I showed you barbara backer has a lot of our vendors have some discounts that I threw in here however they're going to be in the catalogue too but they're offering twenty percent off any purchase is so that's that little drawer which was great I loved that drawer esso and that's new to me as well they're code is sandy put all one world ah word silver like photo dot com these air all the backgrounds that you've seen me playing with today and probably almost every background you see in this show is silver like they have fifty percent off that's incredible by the way fifty percent off backgrounds is nuts also those new baseboards I showed you fifty percent off those two and those fake floors that are all over the place so this is a company there they travel with us on tour um and we live and die with their stuff honestly so I don't you know, when I put companies in here I want to make sure you understand we are so very careful about who we will actually represent. We'd never speak about anybody that we don't actually use in the studio and we turned down by five far more sponsors then we ever accept because we will on ly work with people that we actually truly use their products um we're gonna go through the backgrounds I told you we use three tone ality zor three different looks ah, high key that's just pure white, clean, simple. We do them both in pregnancy as well is in the first year siri's there's a million ways you could do it paper there are differ flooring systems, white fabric draping it you know, high key is a great seller. Mid key tends to be my favorite. I like things in a medium tone. Those neutral browns and creams. I just think there they look well with skin tones they also looked great and cpm black and white um, you ease them on adults pregnancy sessions as well as the first year siri's uh, cream is actually an incredible cellar as well. The high key was really, truly got the strongest seller for the entire growth of my company, but I've tried really hard to tio we consider it sort of the, uh the emergency background I try really hard to stay away from it now because I feel like that's how I want to separate myself. So cream has become really the strongest color tone ality palette that we have outside of that. Yes, I was going to ask, is, uh, it's high key? Just white? Or do you have, like, bright yellows and bright pinks? Just bright white high key would be considered just pure white. Ok, anything else? I mean, you could have pastels and neutrals and things like that, but high key is the word high key is truly just pure white for at least for my world, loki, which would be a dark background, typically a black background. We use this. We talked about how it hides and shapes, especially with pregnancy, all of the parts that moms don't want to see. This is another thing, these little jackets, these little bolero jacket that they were really popular about six, seven years ago, I bought us many as I could. You're looking for long sleeve versions, but a lot of there are tons of them out there that you could buy that you wear over t shirt and tank tops watch out for them because these make really great pregnancy outfits. Um you khun since him up and keep him nice and tight fighting long sleeved ones that's the hardest part but they are wonderful because they would get the arms covered the chest covered in the belly showing and there's not a bunch of fabric bunched around you know that's really the way to go um also loki for baby work is fun as well. So and very, very popular seller we sell a lot of collections little collages with the black and whites this way window light is probably my favorite light period I love natural light I love working with natural light we talked today about why I would choose studio strobes why I think it's important to have them when you're working with children and babies natural light you you have you get what you get if it's a cloudy rainy day I couldn't even imagine trying to use natural light in this city because it's been raining every day and it's been quite a few incredible windows in here so we've got great light but if I were in my original studio in a rainy environment like this it would be very frustrating and and yes I could make it work but I want beautiful light I want high quality light and so my goal is always window light if possible but I used the continuous light almost everyone to let you see now has continuous light as an accent kicker like this is actually way before we had tv fives and sixes. This is true natural life now with the baby plan siri's I live in colorado, so as much as I loved window light, what would happen is if they came in the spring and I did the window with three months by the time six months it was wintertime, it was fall, and by the next session by the one here was winter. So the tone are the color of the light would actually change every single season. And so I could have, you know, beautiful, uh, more of an amber tone light at one point, and then in the winter time, it would be blue light coming through the window. And yes, you can color balance to a point, but when you color shift is different than color balance of trying to fix skin toes, that's balancing if you're trying to shift backgrounds to match each other, you're playing with skin tones, then so we just found that it does happen. Clients. Dubai window light your use window light as their siri's for their three and six and one year session. But there are discrepancies in the look. I am looking for a finished product that looks amazing. So I want each image to have the same tone ality that the same skin tones. So if I start with studio strobes and the client comes in and they say this is the one I want for my three month session, then the next time we actually save those we have in our server, we save the baby siri's by their names. And every time I do a six month old walks in, I pop up and look at what they did for three months. And if usually we let them pick, too, just in case. So if they have the little cowboy set for the little boy over here is one that they picked. And little, um, let's. See where? Cooper we're using cooper shots, the cowboy shot and the little blue shot that we did one with studio one was continuous light. I would for sure. So you shoot something on a blue background? Not the same one, necessarily, but something in the same tone with studio light. And I would photograph something with continuous light on on earthy tone background so that when they come into place that order, they get something at that birthday that's gonna look really nice together. It does take a little research. I mean, you have to take the time or a little effort, I should say to make that happen, but to me, it's well worth it, I don't like to see oh, it's, just it's a huge frustration when I see a client that comes in that somebody allows them to buy three totally different looks and put them in a frame and it's just a personal thing for me, but I just think it's like a train wreck to me and then to find a math that matches at all and it just it just does not have justice. I wanted image to dry you in, I don't want one thing to like be screaming at you, let's talk about the totality is the neutral tone is my favorite tone to work in that mid key, creamy tone. It's soft, it's, sweet and everybody looks good on cream when people ask me, what background should I buy? First, I always say something black background is always helpful on dh, then a cream tone background. It would be my second choice and then probably a neutral gray or something like that, and again, we're talking, you have no money, you're just starting out and you just need the basics, a gray, a cream and a black background, and then white paper and you would pretty much have a great start to get your business going over time you're gonna want to add all these cool, eclectic things but that's going to get you through all awful lot of sessions and certainly did for me um we also do in this siri's something we call gender specific which means if it's a boy he's probably gonna have a football or a baseball or something like that if it's a girl there's going to be flowers and tool and hats and things like that because we as babies sometimes it's hard to tell if they're boys or girls typically I think boys look like boys and girls look like girls but everyone seemed to get a little girl that look like a little boy on dh sometimes moms will come in and say I don't like hair bows on her head I will usually say you know what? Totally fine I hated hair bows on my daughter's going up and then I will say but you know what? Honestly and pictures it's really weird but it's muchas I never put them on their heads pictures they actually sometimes, like, really cute so would you mind if I just did a couple with it on and every time we do that they always by the hair bows especially if it's a border line you know uh more masculine looking little girl it's just that little bit of femininity that just kind of makes them go so cute so I don't force it on anybody and you'll get dad's into that say I hate those don't put that on her head and I'll even still try toe say, you know what? I know you hate them. I hated them tio I'm just gonna do two and I'll take it off real quick if you hate them, you never have to see them again and I don't mind doing that I'll push to get my way because then when he comes in, honestly they buy that they love the hair, bows and hats and things like that, so I'm not goingto do it first, though I'm always going to do what they ask me first and then I'll take it off because if I happen to get the two good shots with the bow on and then the baby freaks out and I had put the bow on, they're going to tell me they hated it even if they like it because I screwed it up so always do what they ask first ah, this is urban and eclectic we always this is the miracle shot we talked about I want to make sure that everybody knows that I do not just shoot mom's it with babies on black background we go well out of our way to create amazing shots, things that are really, truly unique, teo each a client a shot like this, though, does take a little bit of work and later on in the show, I'm going to talk you through that I am actually in this picture, I am actually kneeling next to the motorcycle in my hand never left that baby. Now, if you look at the background and you see how busy it is, you want to know, how did I disappear? But we're going to talk about this because this is one of those fix it in photoshopped moments, but safety always comes first. There are scenes like this, but I have no choice. I will never put a baby at risk, and I'll explain that a little bit later as well. All right, we're going to go through the equipment real quickly that I use. I do want to remind you if you go to sandy push dot com, we also are great friends of being h we love those guys, and we haven't entire website with every piece of equipment you saw me use today, and we're actually loading up a bunch I've got a whole bunch of new stuff, tio, including the drawers and those awesome. Baseboards and things like that so those we'll all go up on this site as time goes by, but my meters my lights if you really want to see what I personally use, go to sandy puts gadget page and everything you click on, well, actually open up in the company that I purchased it from, which is great because for us being h, we get all of our equipment from them. But there's other vendors, they're like backgrounds, some of the things silver like some of the other ones you're asking about so it's just a nice resource to get everything and have access directly to that I shoot the five demark twos you saw me using the seventy two hundred millimeter today, as well as the hundred millimeter, the other lenses I recommend, I I'm a huge fan of the fifty millimeter I love that, but more for children. I just love the natural look and just the way it changes the environment, it's that trudeau I perspective um what I did not get a chance to say that I think is critical to get out to this audience, especially seventy two to two hundred, is a luxury lens, both in expense and in usability when you're working with a newborn you saw at seventy millimeters, I was still for five feet away from every child in my studio I am never that close to a child I do have an assistant so I am a ce far away I'm in two hundred millimeters completely compressing it I have taught myself how to shoot by myself with you know at two hundred millimeters but you're talking you're good twenty feet away from a child now if the child's having you know if if they're stressing out or it's not going well I'm gonna be right up where it was today but I love compressing background so that is why that's my favorite lens and I forced myself to be far away that's why that long tickler comes in handy if you're new to photography if it's something that you haven't you're not as comfortable with working with babies if you're still struggling with camera operations and capturing expressions then you know you cannot be twenty feet away and so at that point I highly recommend the twenty four two one o five something in that range that will bring you a lot closer to the subject. Shooting at one o five is a great portrait uh look and it's gonna have you much much closer which is a good thing so so twenty four to one or five is a great place to start once you can get to the seventy two two hundred I absolutely love the way that goes this is what I'm looking for when I'm photographing uh this first images shot at seventy millimeters and of course the second one is a two hundred millimeters and without moving my feet so without moving my location I can get to completely totally different looks and of course of course most people know that this background is called a bouquet when it's all blown out like that and I'm out of focus and that's what I'm looking for I love it when the whole background just disappears and the skin tones and that subject their eyes really become the most prominent part but when working with babies when they're moving one hundred thousand miles an hour having that zoom lenses really definitely a good good thing to do this is all so you can see the little girl that's hold closest to the chair or that the same girl but the close up this is natural light with continuous kicker art with continuous light is the main light so continuous light is the main light and what's hitting her back or those big windows that air north facing so I love even with windows you can create those separators and kickers you do not have to all you should always be looking for a second life light source should never settle for one light ever ever ever ever honestly thank you because you just can't I mean to me that the separator is what makes the image not the main light so keep that in mind uh this is the stand that I use in the studio it's a man photo product you can go to their site I'll go to my site and see it there so that sandy puts dot com I wish you'll I believe you'll see me shooting on it in several videos today, but as easy as I make that tripod look it is the tool that he used everywhere on location but in the studio this is our work course here and it you know, it is much more stable I can also go eight feet in the air so I can climb up my ladder real quick and b all right, directly over the top of a baby I could have done that here, but the ladder that we had to purchase was very unstable I have a very solid ladder to step still starts type ladder and I just was not we're willing to risk putting my own body weight over a baby with or without a camera strapped around my neck. I wasn't going to do that, but I recommend using a strong ladder and and a camera strap um stability vs the photo journalistic style I think we covered that already and I think I explained to and you actually saw that exactly in motion today where what what would you say? About eighty percent of what I did was on the camera on the tripod and about twenty percent was actually grabbed it popped off, played around a little bit climbed up the ladder and then I was back to playing around again so are back to stability again I will always choose stability over freedom if I only have one choice however my personal choice is to go back and forth wherever possible but again once that tripod becomes an extension of your body then you can't live without it it's actually much harder to shoot without it than it is for me to shoot with it uh stands we already covered the man photo stand so this usually I teach this before we shoot way have lots of babies today's that way um but you got to see the stand in action so I don't think I have to explain that again a man fertile product to three one uh and it's on my side this iconic meter we meet her everything I explained why yes, I know you could look at the back of the camera. I even know you could read a history ram and that's fantastic you've educated yourself but a meter is the direct current connection to your brain learning how to see light and I will live and die with my meter besides that you can't really meet her, um studio strobes or flashes if you're in an environment where you cannot control everything er you have it, you'll have a heck of a time just looking at the back of the cameron making that happen, so I wouldn't recommend that for sure. Tedy sixes are absolutely I mean, we use them every day, all day. They're my favorite light. This is a very similar set up to what we had today and you saw the backgrounds a lot of backgrounds we use today, we're from the west got company and I just kind of wanted to show you what that looks like and that's what the final product looks like so you can kind of see with those I used to, um, they're about three by two by three boxes and very simple clean light. This is not with natural light. This is just using the two strobes, but you could see it has a very natural light feel to it. It definitely feels more window like than studio strobe like um to me because it's much more open and light and bright, we used the photogenic today and again, I'm going to go through these really quick because we were actually backwards and went through all this pocket wizards are also how we go uh, remotely fire our lights and trigger our lights now let's, get to the phone part, we're gonna go through pregnancy having already photographed her with the pregnancy was more of a walk through with body dynamics. Now we can really talk about the more detailed information I love working with pregnant women. I think it is such an incredible I don't even think you realize what an amazing experience it is until it's long pass until you're looking at other people going, oh my gosh, I cannot believe I did that because it's just really such a miraculous time, and so, um, you know, for us to have an opportunity to work with these women a lot of times there are a lot of issues that as much as you think it's, magical and beautiful, they don't feel necessarily the same way. If they come to you, they're interested in your product or in your art. However, most people come in feeling very uncomfortable. They do not feel like they look, they look good, they're worried about things like their arms, their necklines, things like that. Not everyone could look like this beautiful mom mom and have just the perfect little petite body more often than not that's, not the case.