New babies thrill me. I think if my heart and passion weren’t in the poses and portraits, I could have been a neonatal nurse or midwife in another life. I see women with swollen, pregnant bellies or hear about someone going into labor and get a little jump of excitment all through me. There’s a miracle being born at this very moment. And when that baby gets placed into that family’s arms, their lives will never be the same in such a wonderful and remarkable way. I’ve had this particular post in my brain to do for months and have hesitated because of its length. It’s been five years of learning and still newborns continue to teach me. Forgive me in advance for the length as I ramble on about what I’ve learned so far.
Be Confident, Gentle, and Encouraging
I think back to the birth of my own little girl (why you’ll hear me refer to most unknown babies as female). I had been a newborn photographer for some years, at this point, and thought I knew my way around a baby. Knew what they like what they don’t like, how they feel, how they move. Had learned to anticipate how they may react or what “rooting around” really looks like.
Like I said, I thought I knew my way around a baby and so was unafraid as I fed her for the first time, changed her first diaper, etc. Not only was she a newborn, but she was my newborn. I thought I was handling her with expert hands.
Until I saw a nurse do it. There’s a nurse that gets to come by and give your baby his or her first bath. I watched anxiously from the bathroom door as the woman turned my girl first this way and that, deftly supporting her neck and body with one hand while scrubbing the soft-bristled sponge through her hair with the other, talking softly to my crying child as she did so. You could tell she wasn’t afraid of a crying baby. And just the way she held my baby – just so. As a new mom, I probably wold have never handled her this way, especially on the first few days. But as a professional photographer…I was watching avidly and learning.
Newborns are tougher than you’d think. There are limits to what they can do, sure. For instance, you wouldn’t toss a newborn in the air or bounce them soundly on your knee. But there’s a beauty in the way you can turn them and move them, and that beauty ends up showing in your portraits. At first glance, those that handle babies all day long can seem cold and distant to your fragile, adorable bundle of joy. Even I had the new-mommy anxiety with the hospital staff, as if they didn’t do this all day long. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that they know what your baby is capable of. I say to babies, as they cry a little while settling into a pose, “You’re strong, baby. Look what you are doing. You’ve moved mountains today, look how strong you are. You are all brand new, and look at what you’ve already accomplished. How beautiful!”
Parents can be just as anxious to hear these words. They want to know, from the second they entrust this precious little thing into your care, that you are taking their baby seriously. You aren’t ignoring the cries or the limits of their child, you aren’t asking too much of them, but you are encouraging them and working with them through it. It may sound silly. But as I watched from the bathroom door and felt my heart tug at every upset cry of my child, still I knew she was in good hands…and the words that nurse spoke, so similar to my own, were soothing to me.
Go Slow and Be Respectful
I put a 2-4 hour time on my session for a reason, and that’s so we can go slow throughout all the poses. I encourage parents to make a morning of it…don’t make hasty lunch plans, don’t invite people over, don’t expect us to be done after just a couple of poses or baby’s first cry. The odds have always proven that these sessions won’t take up more than 2 hours of your time, tops. However, we work on baby’s time. In fact, take this time to relax on my couch (or yours) and have a few hours of not having to entertain visitors. It can be a relief to some parents when most have just gotten out of the hospital less than a week before.
Plus, think about it this way. A little baby has had such a rough week in existence. First is the process of beign born, happening in a whirlwind. And then they’re cleaned and measured and weighed. They have to undergo tests and learn how to latch on and all these other new things that greet them into the world. Then, when they just started to acclimate to their environment, they get visitors from family and they get to go on their first car ride, and then they get home and get to meet more family, maybe even passed from place to place, person to person, and go on another car ride to their first doctor visit. I know it seems like baby sleeps through most of it, but still…it’s exhausting!!
After baby has accomplished this mountain of tasks…we ask her to climb another mountain. We ask her to pose for portraits because you’ll never again be able to capture how tiny she was or him sleeping like this. Again, it may seem like baby sleeps through most of these, but sometimes we ask her to move her arms away from her body, or cross her ankles while her tushie is in the air, or unfurl her fingers when all she wants to do is cuddle nice and warm in a fetal position. And once she gets settled into the things we ask her to do, we move her again into the next pose.
This is why I go slow. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes, when I’m anxious to get the next shot to work, or if Mom or Dad is in a hurry to be done with a session. Slow is conscious of this little life and what we’re asking him or her to do. Slow shows the proper amount of respect for this precious little life and its anxious parents. Slow makes it more comfortable and easy to go from one position to another. Most importantly, slow is safe. Safety is the number one concern when photographing any age, let alone a newborn. Rushing through the session or rushing to take your hand away from a pose when the baby isn’t ready, only makes the pose risky…and any risk is too much risk.
Don’t look at your watch when photographing newborns. One baby may grasp a pose with lightning speed while another you may have to coax into for a good ten minutes. A pose may be perfect and beautiful until you touch this baby’s sensitive little toe, or this little finger on the left hand, and it all comes undone. All babies have thier own special quirk or sensitivity. Laugh it off a little. Parents love hearing you’ve discovered something new and wonderful about their little wonder. Don’t be afraid to start over at the beginning of the pose again. When I was first learning these poses I would catch myself becoming tense when the pose wouldn’t work or I would have to start again. I would get a little nervous at baby’s crying and try to rush through so I wouldn’t have to bother baby for long. Baby feels that tension, and she doesn’t want it to be over so much as she wants to be comforted. Let it go and remind yourself to slow down a bit.
With every session, I also remind myself how I felt as a brand new parent. Be respectful of meal times, routines, and concerns of the parent. Not every parent gives their newborn a pacifier or is comfortable with pictures without a diaper on baby. Some parents may ask that you sanitize your hands between backgrounds or outfits. And that’s okay. Live in the moment and respect the lives around you. When you go into their home, leave it the way you entered it (put back the furniture you had to rearrange); and remember that it’s okay to put down the camera, let baby get a little snuggle break or a full tummy, and pick it back up where you left off. And even if you know what you’re doing, let the parent know what you’re doing. It gets them involved so they know that if there’s anything they’re uncomfortable with you doing, they can speak up.
Create A Sanctuary
In an effort to stay organized, I lay out all my blankets and props ahead of time. My home studio is always clean and scrubbed down and ready when you walk in the door. My blankets are all washed in hypoallergenic detergent. There’s a bottle of sanitizer here, a bottle over there. Everything looks and smells fresh and clean. I’ve got soft music in the background, I’ve got a clean waterproof cloth laid out on my couch for easy baby cleanup and changing (and another on my changing table if the parent prefers changing there). I’ve got a heating pad laid over my blankets to get them warmed up and a heater going well before you arrive to get the space nice and warm. I’ve shooed my husband and toddler out of the house for a morning so that the space can become…a santuary. Warm. Inviting. Safe.
And, most of all, warm! When baby was in the womb, she had a nice comfortable home of mid 90 degrees. Which means, even though it’s sweltering for us, it’s comfortable for her. You can always tell by the tone of baby’s skin. Purple or blue and splotchy, the baby is cold. Peachy or lightly pink, the baby is just right. If the skin starts to turn lobster red and the baby starts to sweat, it’s a little too warm, back down the heat a little.
This is good to know and teach anxious parents. There are some parents that are concerned the baby is crying because she’s cold. I gently and kindly explain it to them (after all, it is within their right to be concerned…be respectful of that concern). Knowledge is power, and teaching a parent that baby’s skin tells you she’s warm or cold gives evidence to your words and puts their minds at ease. It lets them know that you are also tuned in to what baby needs and right now she may just be crying in protest to what you’re asking her to do. Also, I’m a compulsive heater-checker. With every new position, I make sure that where my heat source is does not get too close to burn baby or too far away that she doesn’t feel it. That’s another good place to educate about the baby-skin thermometer and respect a parent’s concerns.
Here’s another tidbit. In the womb, baby was cocooned in the sound of a heartbeat, a gentle thrumming white nosie. She even heard the sounds of voices on occassion and learned that the sound was soothing and safe. It’s not necessary for clients to be perfectly quiet while we’re posing, even if we’re making a shushing sound. On the contrary, light conversation is soothing to both parent and baby and can make the time go by faster for waiting parents. I make sure my helpers are sure and confident in what I’m going to ask them to do so as not to break the feeling of the sanctuary I’m trying to create.
There’s that word “confident” again. Confidence. Babies feel it. Parents respect it. That’s why with every newborn session, I learn something new. I gain more confidence by pulling off certain poses and mastering a certain technique that I was learning. newborns are still my favorite age to photograph. It’s hard work, like any other session. It takes confidence and it’s time-consuming. I get to hold and touch a new baby. I get to be a tiny part of this tiny person’s life and photograph him or her in a way that he or she will never be photographed again. You’ll meet all sorts of babies and parents out there. not every client is goig to want a huge portrait to cover half their wall or want every single pose that’s in your portfolio. But each session is still a work of art. And the end result is uplifting to my soul.
Neeshanoo Photography 