Having seen many beautiful pictures of babies in the past, as a first time dad I wanted to get some pictures of my newborn daughter. Unfortunately, the photographers I wanted to use weren’t available, so I thought I’d give it a go myself. It was an interesting experience.
In August of 2022, I became a dad for the first time, like most new dads, I loved my baby daughter, Poppy, and spent a lot of time just looking at her. that. As parents, we’re very aware that they don’t stay small and cute forever, so we’ve always wanted to capture those early moments to remind us how small she used to be. There was a local infant photographer I wanted to use, sadly our daughter arrived a little later than expected and had to be hospitalized for a few days before going home. Happy to say that mom and baby have gone home in excellent health. Sadly, the photographer we were planning to use was no longer available during those first few weeks, so I thought I’d give it a go myself.
How difficult could it be?
I have extensive experience in portraiture, as well as product and food photography, I have a portable studio light. How difficult could it be? Very difficult, it will work out.
We’ve watched a lot of videos online showing experienced newborn photographers carefully posing for tiny babies, who will then sit or lie down as required while the photographer takes as many pictures they like without making the baby flinch. Only one guide suggests that there’s about 20 seconds to snap before a baby needs comfort. Armed with all the information we thought we needed, I set up the studio lights in our bedroom and made a small nest with blankets and pillows to put baby Poppy in. Myself and Tasha are very lucky that we have a baby that doesn’t scream or cry a lot, and also sleeps pretty well for a newborn. Taking a picture of her would be easy, with almost no inconvenience. Or we thought.
Despite having a very warm room, a comfy bed, and a sleepy, well-fed baby, Poppy doesn’t want to be photographed, and doesn’t like to pose at all. I immediately have a newfound respect for newborn photographers, they have to be some kind of childish person to get such lovely, calm poses from babies. Infant. The online videos make it look so easy!
We had planned to take some classic sleepy, curled baby photos, but these poses simply didn’t happen. Poppy was moving around and getting more distressed, so we stopped, helped her calm down, then tried again a bit after another nap and a big meal.
The second time Poppy kept her cool and looked lovely in some of the photos, but she didn’t like being posed, so we ended up with some nice shots of our daughter’s poses. choose but no pose that we pose grab.
I like these pictures, but they are not what we want. Tasha actually opened up about some composite photos of our baby girl, lying on her stomach, but that’s not going to happen today. I started thinking about what other classic newborn shots we could do at home without stressing our baby girl?
Photo of father and daughter
I have always enjoyed the images of parents and babies almost in silhouette against a completely striking background. This shot was pretty easy to set up and I was able to comfortably hold Poppy throughout the entire shot. I placed a 100cm octagonal box on my back with a 120cm silver reflector next to the camera. The camera is mounted on a tripod with the center of the dish box. I started with the 10-second shutter timer, but Poppy was unpredictable so I asked my partner to press the shutter button for me. I’m happier with these images than the previous ones, but I still haven’t gotten the cute newborn photo I wanted.
Photography of the hidden mother
When I was on paternity leave, I stayed home with Tasha and our daughter all day every day for several weeks. This gave us a lot of time to think about how we could set up a newborn photo session and get the cute images we wanted. Poppy sleeps very comfortably on her mother’s chest in the super cute head-up position we wanted to capture, but she wouldn’t hold that position anywhere else.
I am reminded of an article on Victorian Hidden Mother Photography. Family photos became more and more popular in the 1800s, but exposure times are still pretty long by today’s standards, which is one reason why so many photos of people sitting in chairs stare at each other. stare at the camera as they do their best to stay still until the photographer says they can relax. You can imagine how difficult it would be to keep babies and children still for long periods of exposure, so mothers often disguise themselves to be out of the picture, but still be able to hold their babies. for a long time. of contact. Some of these images are just funny with moms disguised as furniture, or hiding in curtains, because this is silly because they gave me an idea.
We used Tasha as a pillow for the baby with a blanket over her and did a modern version of the Hidden Mom photo shoot to keep Poppy in a comfortable position while I took the photo. I’m pretty sure we can disguise the mother in our photographs more effectively than the mothers in Victorian family portraits. Tasha lay on our bed, with a blanket over her, and Poppy on top of it. As long as Tasha is under the blanket and I consider the angles I can shoot, this can be successful.
Using an eight-box behind the mother and baby with the second light pointing up towards the ceiling to create some sparkle, we carefully placed our subject and tried to keep her calm and as comfortable as possible. Tasha was able to give Poppy a lot of cuddles during the shoot and made small adjustments to pose for our baby and keep us both comfortable.
Finally, we have cute newborn photos that we originally intended to take. Poppy remained cheerful throughout the shoot, she even got a little nap during the shoot.
I never thought I would find a place for techniques that have been used for over 100 years when trying to take some pictures of my own newborn. Tasha thoroughly enjoyed the images, we were both delighted to have captured some pictures of our daughter during those precious first few weeks. And what proud father would I be if I didn’t share them with you?
Am I happy with the shots?
I’m so glad I took some cute pictures of my newborn daughter in her first few weeks, I’m glad I captured the poses my partner really wanted us to have Okay. The images we received are purely for family albums and maybe some Instagram flex, and for those purposes the images are perfectly fine. We don’t have the props, experience, or set up a professional newborn studio, but these are better than the pictures taken of our baby on the phone and they didn’t cost us anything but time. ours.
That makes me appreciate even more the work of professional newborn photographers, some of the images we’ve seen are simply stunning, more so when you consider posing how hard it is to take pictures for a newborn baby. My newborn photos are not up to the standards of full-time professional newborn photographers, but we were delighted to have them.
Have you tried taking pictures of babies? How did you get in? Have you ever successfully tried something like taking pictures of the Hidden Mother? Let me know in the comments section.
