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Lesson Info

The Miracle Shots

All right so we were in the baby mode so we're gonna work our way the transition to children but with the with the babies we were talking about miracle shots I think we kind of left off on these shots here so now we're gonna talk about the slings the hammocks thank heavens we got to show you a little bit with a hammock type scenario yesterday and the difficulties that actually happened when doing those because there's a safety risk and then there's just a convenience and comfort risk there for the baby I mean they're like little marshmallows and they kind of mold into things which is nice but they also flopped and fall and flounce and they're not it's not really like you compose them in those it's just a matter of working it around so I want to show you this is a little video kind of showing how we set up the sling now before everybody out there in the audience goes well that's not fair you have for assistance and everybody helping you keep in mind that the people assisting holding the...

actual we're going this time we're going toe put a baby in a hammock on a stick on a heavy stick the people holding the sticks or relatives they're not employees I do have one of them is an employee helping me but I did this for years but without any help andi I always enlisted grandma's grandpas if needed uncles aunts I always requested that they brought help in so keep that in mind this can be done it's easier to have an assistant but it certainly can be done alone okay we are going to go ahead and do a little baby sling here now a lot of people try to figure out the hammock situation I really recommend if you're going to try this to try it with the baby first I'm sorry a doll first this is the famous ugly baby of the studio if you've been to any of the other shows you know that you know who the ugly baby so we're going to try it with the ugly baby first and then get the beautiful baby in here next now what we've done I've actually tied this off on one end and I'm gonna have you hold that licks and now we're gonna try to find balance so let's go ahead and get the baby in our goal is to get something like that keep going pull that up a little tighter to that right there that's good and push it down a little bit just to make sure we've got some good faith there that's gonna put up a little all right let's go ahead and tie it off helen I'm gonna have you and lexi hold it at the not so that since we can't double knot it just keep it real tight and then she can actually tighten things up as needed. All right, I think we're gonna get this and obviously you get some toes showing that's cool, but if not that's ok too. I don't know. Do we want it? Kind of like the leaves that we want him likely like. All right, I'm gonna get myself a little more I take these down so they wouldn't be a hassle but I'm gonna take him for a second get a little more coverage in here since we're not gonna show here we go. You lost our baby all right. Now uh, let me get the cameras set up to I want to make sure we're one hundred percent ready to go with this. Okay? So that's kind of the basic set up and I lied. That was actually a different video, but the same concept those were not relatives, those were employees but we do it with relatives all the time. Now when you're doing these kind of things when you working with babies kids, any of this you have to keep in mind everything that can go wrong will go wrong periods they just have to be prepared for it on dh just the kiis smile like this is fun this is incredible this is amazing that we get to do this and again, anything is better than dead right establish that so it doesn't matter where it's going it's better than dead enjoy it just run with it so everyone so now you're gonna deal with stuff like this you're gonna release some of that fabric ways to do it in my hand no way that's him way don't care long as you don't mind uh oh I think we're about to maybe we should take this is awake, baby because I think he's gonna blow soon so you can see you get all kinds here like yesterday I got a whole handful thankyou so it happens and expect to get wet expect to get worse and just expect to clean it up it's not that big of a deal now this is the technique that we wanted to show you how do we get all these babies asleep that baby that we were working with remember he was wide awake we're going to show you how we actually called blocking it's a technique that I just figured out because I'm always I don't want to be in a hurry, but I am on a time constraint and so I need to get these sleeping babies need to get the minute almost every baby you've looked at in this show is not really truly out because I don't have time to wait for that, so I'm gonna show you a little video clip here of the blocking technique once you see it you're going to go ah that makes sense we kind of alluded to it yesterday but this will be a very clear picture you're doing a great job but about this leg out for fun that's right paycheck he's like ha ha let's get a couple before he had screaming mad there he is sleeping get a good thing I'm he's like that was also one more hanging okay but let's get a sleeping job ready pull your left hand out karen dies you're gonna close tighten it up a little bit give me that last night wait got it? Okay let's get this so baby down uh all right so two things happened there he peed all over everything but did I stop that's the question did I say oh he's peeing let's change it do you know why do you realize that that's set up takes ten minutes to set up now you put the baby in the setup if the baby goes to the bathroom if I were to do the whole well my goodness he's peeing take him out let's let mom clean him offline now I've got a wet hammock so now I've got to take a new piece of cloth and re set the whole thing and I've got to start all over again now the baby's been taken out and what is mom going to dio she's going to wipe him down and wash him down that's gonna wake him up it's gonna make him cold so now I have on awake baby again and I get to start all over so to me yes I knew he was going to the bathroom I knew that you know this is what I was getting uh it's not here yet but I knew I was getting a shot where it was wet and in fact I didn't worry about it I'll show you have to be prepared you gotta have wipes paper towels hand sanitizer right there when you do these types of shots because this is what I was going to say I knew I was getting this I knew I had that spot of wet on that but remember I also knew I had shot two or three before even if they weren't the right shot I knew I had the shot I am not a fix it in photoshopped person however safety and time are important to me if it's a matter of starting all over and losing the sleeping shot it's not worth it to me so I knew I had the shot so all I had to do is take a little piece from the other shot that was good and retouch it back in there and it took seconds we have a sleeping baby that is actually technically a wide awake. They are pretty close too wide awake baby so no matter what, you just have to be prepared paper towels, wipes, hand sanitizer because you're going to get this for sure for sure for sure way actually have hundreds of these shots. I'm not gonna lie. I'm making a point to try to get them now. When people, when people first started, when I first started photography, I'd catch these accidentally people would buy them always, they would always buy, like a for me. I'm not kidding. They always put the four by five of the baby peeing in their faces and their hilarious well, as our prices increased, it got to the point where, you know, at one hundred dollars, for a five by seven, we don't really sell four by five hundred dollars a swell people weren't gonna buy them, but they love them so much. So we tell people, when we start, you remember the part where I said, just so you know, you're going to get wet and probably get worse, and then I tell them, and if I catch it, we're going to give you that as a complementary picture, and they love it. So any time a baby peas and we get an awesome shot, we don't show parts we don't like if it's a, you know, a shot where you don't want to see it we don't give it to them but if it's something funny like this they love this this is such an album shots so and it comes up with ten year olds that mom's coming and like do you remember what he peed on the kids going oh my gosh mom I teo but they don't forget it too yes quick to the blocking do you wait for the baby's eyes to the open like get used to the dark of your hand that's exactly what we're doing is this soon as I see that it's it's basically a five count one two, three four, five and then all of a sudden there let's at one second blink now if the baby was super active and kicking and smiling, you can't do that because there there doesn't bother about your hand making their eyes closed it's not you at first you saw me going like this and his eyes were coming open every single time so this technique didn't work so he went to blocking because blocking he's close enough to sleep but he's just not going to get their great question thank you if you were working on your own is that something you'd have mom do? Absolutely that's thank you great question if I'm on my own we teach mom this technique I show them first and then of course I teach mom the blocking and also you have to show them first can't just say hey put your hands over his eyes and then when I kind of three take it away I'll walk over this okay watch this one to watch his eyes they're opening okay three four five do you see that I'm going to cash a shot when he does that so I need you to count it out with me okay ready want and so take that that extra two minutes of explaining it saves me twenty minutes of trying to get her to understand yes and just to follow up on that I'm not sure if you said it but how old do you use the blocking tech I mean really up to three months old I suppose a six month old that was going to sleep there eyes become more accustomed toe lights and the changes in light so really and truly for newborns it's brilliant three mall there after three months it's brilliant it could be done and has been done on a six month olds but they were pretty close to asleep anyway so is more that you know how kids are they're going to crash and you're just putting him into that last moment so yeah so we prepared this is gonna happen catch it what? Why not it's fun we've had people by the other version of liquid that comes out and they buy them and were like so so you never know it's um it's an ad on sale for heaven sakes make a product out of it all right age makes all the difference and patients is everything I think we've made that so clear on those timelines on the milestones you can't possibly not understand that so I want to make sure that you have any questions we can ask but we're gonna get you have a question but I just wanted to ask their couple on the hammock shot so well you know let's go for it was there a beanbag or anything under absolutely it's great question thank you. Safety is paramount with those hammock shots you saw yesterday where we never lifted the baby up I didn't lift the baby up because that hammock wasn't quite it wasn't stable enough the baby would have fallen out but I have tons of hammocks that are made that are awesome. Well, we lift the baby, we literally lift them maybe two inches off the ground and I shoot so low that it looks like they're floating. You don't have to hang a baby five feet off the ground number one, number two there always pillows underneath them always, always always if I don't think I would ever take a hammock risk shot with off solid wood floor under them and I know I've seen them before and they're beautiful but I've just got a little neurotic about safety, so haven't dropped one yet, and and how old was he do you go up to? And I'm really three months is three to four months, but three months is very, very hard, really. Those hammock shots air, that baby actually was ole around, probably two to three months, but my preferences, newborns for that type of work and if I can get them in early enough, we've already done that. So then three months, we're showcasing that milestone and so on so I can try it but probably wants to twice a month. I have a mom come in and say something like, um, I wanted to a hammock shot. She's got a big active baby, you know, three month old chuckie baby and I'll try, but it will be the end of the session, and I will have explained why it's going to be last. And if it doesn't happen, I don't lose any sleep over, try to come up with other things that are cool.