Reflections of My First Newborn Shoot

It has been my intent from 2005 to be a newborn photographer. Anne Geddes was really at her peak then and a huge influencer to me. But I had no resources to purchase much material nor contacts to work with that could sew. There was a lot of trial and error and that felt like it was creating a hole in our family budget.

With no knowledge of what a vision board was, no youtube for creative step by step guidance and Amazon was still known as an online bookstore, the internet was still still a hit or miss place I had no interest in jumping into. Hard to believe how it turned the corner so fast.

Having somehow found very rudimentary blogs from photographers like Scott Kelby and David Ziser, I learned the more technical stuff before learning the creative secrets. And maybe I learned it in the correct order, like learning music theory, notes and chords instead of memorizing Stairway to Heaven.

Happy with the learning I was getting from the guys, I veered off into the direction of concentrating on the technical aspects of lighting. I started out with very warm duo-set of construction lights. Not only warm but before LED so they got SUPER HOT. (I melted carpet once when they fell over). And flashlights for creating interesting light. A light pole made from a Home Depot paint extender stick. I ended up a strobe photographer before I learned natural light photography.

November 2010 – a baby dog and my first “photo booth.”
In a cold, cement bunker garage with a red curtain nailed to a wood beam and a set of construction lights.

I am not sure exactly when my first newborn photograph was taken but my first dedicated newborn shoot was in 2012 and those images are some I still love to go back and look through.

two days old, my first dedicated newborn shoot, baby Declan, February 2012. This was a home shoot, I brought a strobe, a 36″ deep octa softbox mounted on a paint stick and “grandpa” held it for me. I also bought a large piece of black velvet cloth at JoAnne Fabrics on my way to the shoot.

The baby was very fresh and somewhat jaundice so I converted many of the files to black and white. Strobe feathered from the right from the top of the head down.

Home shoots are usually lifestyle oriented. Studio shoots I do in my home and utilize my new windowed “cabin” for beautiful natural light shoots.