Cool Uncle Alert

Baby Charlie has a cool uncle. Fact! How do I know this? Well because he purchased a gift voucher for Charlie’ parents at Christmas for a Newborn photo shoot at my home studio 🙂

Low Expectations

Typically to get those swaddled, squishy baby pictures that a lot of parents want the baby needs to be about two weeks or under. I like to describe it as before they start to unfurl! Charlie was 10 weeks new when he came into the studio. During the pre-shoot consultation, his parents said they didn’t want wrapped or prop styled pictures. In fact, Charlie’s mum said, “we’ll be happy if we get one nice family one and one of Charlie’s smile”.

Challenge accepted!

When two become a family

Not only did I get more than one lovely family shoot, as well as pictures of mum and dad individually with Charlie. I also managed to get some of this cheeky chaps cool expressions. What a little dude!

Smile!

Capturing this baby boy smiling wasn’t an issue because after he’d had some milk and a nappy change he was all smiles.

A proper Charlie

Being 10 weeks old baby Charlie had a whole range of facial expressions that he was happy to share with us. I just loved this one 🙂

As usual, the two-hour session went by in a flash and after some snuggles, with his photographer, baby Charlie left the studio.

In other news…I’m an Auntie again 🙂

On the 22nd of January, my newest little nephew was born. At 8:55 pm, weighing in at a whopping 9lb 6oz baby Teddy entered the world.

Due to work commitments, it took two weeks before I could get to see him. TWO WHOLE WEEKS people! Finally, I packed as much of my studio as I could fit in my car and made the 320-mile trek down South to get my snuggle on!

He is my brother’s third son and he wanted a picture of all the boys together. Okay, I thought what are my options here? I swaddled Teddy nice and snug, but who to hold him? As my eldest nephew (12) is on the autism spectrum I thought it might be easier if they all lay on the floor and for my middle nephew (2) to have Teddy resting on him. But no, my usually easy going middle nephew was obviously still reeling from no longer being the baby of the family and definitely DID NOT want to hold the new baby!

You definitely have to be aware of all the family dynamics when posing siblings. My eldest nephew surprised us all by being willing to hold the baby but I knew I had one take and that was it.

Lucky for me I got an image my brother and sister in law were happy with. Phew! Straight after that take middle nephew jumped up and was out of there!

Teddy by name

As soon as my brother told me my new nephew’s name I knew I had to use my teddy bear bonnet on him.

I know I’m biased, but have you ever seen a cuter Teddy? I don’t think so.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice a new logo on this image. The Digitally Altered logo is a safety initiative created for Photographers (specifically Newborn Photographers) to easily mark and identify images that have been digitally enhanced, altered, combined or stitched together in post-production to create imagery that would otherwise be unsafe to reproduce straight out of camera. If someone clicks on it they will get the following info.

“If you have been directed to this page by another photographer or you have seen this logo displayed on another artist work, it means that the image you have seen has been created by combining 2 or more images together digitally to ensure baby’s safety.  The Photographer wants you to know that this image was created safely and that no baby was put into a dangerous position during the creation process. They also want to ensure that for those wanting to recreate a similar image or style, to not do so without further investigation into how to do it safely. “

I think this is a great initiative and I will be using it going forward on any image I manipulate to allow newcomers to the industry, parents and creators alike to understand that the image/s they are viewing requires further investigation into its creation process before trying to replicate it on a real baby.

Just hanging around

Back to the gorgeous Teddy.

Cute, huh?

“You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes.” – Wally Schirra

Baby Hugo was two weeks new when his parents brought him into my studio and it was love at first sight. Well for me anyway 🙂

Hugo slept his entire way through the session. Only stirring for the briefest period for a quick milk stop and nappy change. His parents had done an absolutely sterling job with my pre-shoot guide and as a result, I was able to provide them with a gallery of over double the number of pictures I quote for this type of session.

We started fairly traditionally with him swaddled. Just look at those kissable cheeks!

I had been wanting to use a vintage suitcase I had for ages. I had procured it on one of my many antique shop forages. With baby Hugo still fast asleep it was just a quick change of swaddling and he rocked the set like a total champ.

I couldn’t get enough of his pouty lips, so gorgeous.

Usually when I take the swaddle off the baby is when they wake up. So I approached the next set up with some small amount of trepidation. Not handsome Hugo though! He carried on sleeping like a total dreamboat

As a result, we were able to get lots of gorgeous pictures with mum and dad as well.

The only downside of all this lovely sleepiness. No real cuddles for me. *sigh*