my first newborn attempt...

Adventures in photography here.  Two of my friends just had baby boys and asked me to take some newborn pictures.  Out loud I said, "Sure!  Awesome!  Of course I'll do that!"  Inside I said, "Oh man.  I have never attempted a newborn before.  I need a class!  I need blankets!  I need a beanbag and a soft box and fancy wraps and props and And AND...!"

I wish I could say I realized I actually didn't need any of those things, but I did take a class, well, sort of a class.  More of a guided forum, but it was still awesome.  I did buy blankets, and an el-cheap-o beanbag (must. have. a bigger one. for. future. newborns.), and a basket, and some awesome clamps from Home Depot to hold up my blankets/backdrops and some other tricks I learned and picked up.  I did stay up late crocheting little adorable newborn size hats that turned out to be not so brand-newborn size.  I did not buy myself a soft box, but you better believe I have my eye on one, but that can wait until my external flash class come January.

Shooting newborns is a l-o-n-g process.  There's no rushing it.  I went in expecting to spend half the day there, and I did.  This baby boy was a little outside the ideal age for a true newborn shoot.  Can you believe that at just three weeks old, he was "too old" for this?!  But after shooting a one week old the next day, I am now a believer in the two weeks or less rule!  He was wide awake, which is great and I actually like awake baby pictures personally, but you can't mold a baby that is awake and checking out everything you're doing.  And when it's your first time, you really get a bit frazzled when you can't follow your cheat sheet you've brought along.  It makes those neck-ed (you heard me, I said neck-ed), posed shots darn near impossible.  They sense their mother's presence and want to nurse the whole time if possible.  It's tough...but I still had fun.  And I learned...a lot.

So in my very first attempt at photographing a newborn, I didn't get four hundred gazillion pictures.  But I did get a few and a few is better than walking away feeling like it was just an epic fail all around!