Classic Newborn

Yesterday was my dear friend Tracy’s birthday. To celebrate she asked that it be the day she viewed slideshows. I recently (2 weeks ago) shot the birth of her son, Peter. What an amazing experience. I was honored that she let me be there, and that she wanted the slideshow to be her special birthday event! I loved her reaction, and her husbands. I’m hoping to share the slideshow this week, but I have to figure out music licensing and the best way to post it. For now I want to share with you a few of the classic black and whites I shot for her son’s newborn session (at ten days old). Details below the photos.







I shot all of these on location. I love to use furniture and rooms in houses for real slice of life shots (and I did that for Tracy’s maternity shoot). Sometimes though it’s nice to do classic photos like these black and whites and not worry about what the house looks like (for example if you have a ten day old and a two year old!). I always bring a backdrop with me, and here I’m also using the poof. I always select what goes in the frame, no matter where I am, but it would have been funny to pull back on the last shot. Tracy was holding up Peter’s head under the blanket and Tuesday (my lovely assistant—no she doesn’t usually come with me!) was trying to crawl up the beanbag! Photography often amazes me, but the last shots of the morning reminded me just how wonderful it can be. Lachlan only wanted to be up there for two minutes. I took five photos of him and I love everyone of his changing expression. The tiny sliver of time (1/125 of a second) can be perfection in chaos.
So my footnotes for today are:
1. Don’t be afraid of in home photo shoots. They’re fun, you’re more relaxed, and a change of clothes is always nearby.
2. I can take out baby pimples and the like, but I love that Tracy wanted to embrace Peter’s flaky skin. “It’s only like that for such a tiny amount of time,” she said. So true.
3. Peter slept like a dreamy little munchkin not only durning this shoot, but today while his parents watched the slideshows. That’s nice and all, but looking at photos of little squish-able babies all day and then not getting to hold one? TORTURE!!!
4. More from this shoot on Life in Color’s facebook page.

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10 Comments

  1. Oh Amber. These are fantastic! That baby has the greatest bottom lip/chin combo 🙂 I love the photo of Tracy holding him (3rd pic) so you can see his wrinkly head. Ugh, babies! Too cute.

  2. oh goodness. peter is adorable! loving these photos: the sweet baby yawns, his flaky baby skin (so glad you didn’t take that out) and that sweet kiss from big brother. totally sweet. just looking at these photos has me wishing i was holding him!

  3. Lachlan kissing Peter is priceless. What a beautiful photo! These shots are amazing and I can’t believe this wasn’t done in a studio! Holy cow! You are so talented! I think if you keep this baby photography up you will end up with one of your own sooner rather than later. You have the bug!

  4. It is pretty amazing you got that shot of Peter and Lachlan with all the chaos going on. You have to be a very talented photographer to do that! Thank you for these amazing moments of my life captured in such beauty.
    So this next part could be seen as a downer but let me see if I can find the right words. With what I do for a living, working with people living with Alzheimer’s disease, I know how precious these memories are. Lachlan is only two and I forgot about the flaky skin! So when you take these pictures it’s so much more than just a photo to me, its a moment in time I can reflect on and cherish always. What an awesome gift you have the extraordinary ability to give.

  5. Tracy, so true, so true. As my grandmother slipped away from dementia the only way to find out about her were through her photos. I love looking at them still now that she is gone. Time is a crazy thing, and anything that can freeze it so wonderful!

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