7 Day Old Baby Portraits

7 Day Old Baby Portraits - Just Perfect

I just love spending time with such young babies. They are so lovely and tiny and so much easier to work with when creating baby portraits of very young babies. Until they are old enough to hold their head, make eye contact and intentionally smile it is easiest and most attractive to photograph them as very young newborns. This is the stage when we can photograph them looking peaceful and sweet while they sleep. And they do so much of this at this age that it only makes sense we capture it in a beautiful portrait to be treasured for a lifetime.

In order to do this it does take some planning on the parents part. The parents of this little girl came in for a consultation a few months ago so they could see what is on offer and I was able to tell them that they need to ring me as soon as baby is born so we can fit them in while baby is less than 2 weeks old. We can do older than this but its harder work and sometimes baby just won't stay asleep long enough to get all that we want. And although its nice to see their eyes open too, if we don't get them looking into the lense or in a direction that works the photograph isn't particularly attractive. If awake shots is what you prefer then it is probably best to wait until they are 3 months plus in age or ideally sitting up unaided (but not crawling or they could end up everywhere but where I need them).

The image below is still one of my favourites. It is such an appropriate prop and it gives a very accurate measurement of baby's weight at the time of the portrait. And I love the tones and look of the chest of drawers which is probably my favourite eBay find to date. I get so much use out of these. They seem to be a favourite request from parents.

When it comes to photographing Mum and Dad, its rather easy to get them to smile naturally with their tiny baby in their arms. And as such I just love the results of these images. I can just imagine how much this baby is going to love looking at these when she's older.

And its even easier to get the perfect smile when they are looking at their baby instead of the camera. The portrait below will always be one of my favourite poses for Mum and baby portraits. Again I really wish I had something like this for my daughter.

If you managed to get this far in reading the blog and happen to be interested in portraits such as these for yourself please do get in touch. You can contact me via our website at http://www.christinalauderportraits.com/contact-us or ring me on 01455 611069. And you are always welcome for a no obligation consultation to meet with me, see our studio and products and discuss your requirements before making any decisions.

Comments

Ray H said…

Hi nice reading youur blog

29 July 2022 at 09:23

My Work Experience Week by Hester Sharpe

A week in the life of a Photographers assistant, is not all about saying cheese! I’m Hester Sharpe, currently at JCC but took a week out of normal school life on work experience to be a photographer’s assistant and learn the bits behind the camera, photograph and the process to get to the end result. During my week of work experience in photography I have learnt that there is a lot more than just taking the pictures and printing them. The steps in between are the key to getting the perfect photo. For example the photos have to be cropped, tweaked, edited, colour corrected. That is just a taste I have had in the processing of the photos and there is a lot more than just those things. Those processes are the most time consuming part of the photograph and a tremendous amount of detail is put in to the picture but all the hours spent are paid off with the end result; a perfect picture. It isn’t just how the picture looks; presentation is a key to photography too. Selecting the best ...

Wedding Workshop in Nottingham

On Wednesday of this week I made the trek up to Nottingham (which wasn't actually much of a trek compared to most of the other delegates who travelled from as far as Glasgow, Portsmouth and South Wales) for a workshop held at Crash Taylor's home. Crash, a very talented photographer, specialising in weddings is someone I can highly recommend to anyone. Apart from spending the morning getting to know the other photographers we then spent the afternoon photographing a hired model, in her own wedding dress, as we wandered through Nottingham Castle. It provided me a chance to see how other photographers handled their weddings as well as a chance to experiment with equipment I haven't had a chance to play around with. Like in this image to the right. Here I used my flash, mounted on a tripod off to the side. This allowed me to achieve studio quality lighting out of the studio, a technique I will be using in my environmental portraiture. I can't seem to make up my mind on whi...

More Newborn Baby Portraits

This time we worked with a more alert baby, even though she was within the 2 weeks we recommend for newborn sessions. But to be honest, I do like getting a selection of both. Its nice to get the chance to see their eyes as well as those beautifully peaceful sleeping portraits. Making eye contact is just difficult and smiles are nearly impossible, which are only wind related if we managed them at all anyway. I always try to get a few detail shots in order to capture their tiny little fingers and toes. These can be quite difficult with an awake baby as they move so much and I need to rely on autofocus to make sure these details are in focus and with such a narrow depth of field this can be difficult. And rather than just a hand or a foot I like to get some of baby's face in the shot as well which poses another problem with an awake baby, they just don't stay still for very long so their hands and feet aren't always in the right place....

I Shot My First Wedding

I finally did it, my first wedding. After years of saying I would never do a wedding I finally decided to have a go. I don't know what convinced me. Maybe it was the thought that if I did one I could say with authority that I don't do weddings. My husband had been on my back for ages trying to get me to give one a go. For me I would have to say that the most difficult aspect of wedding photography is the pressure and stress caused by the importance of the day. I worried about this since the day Dawn emailed me to say they had decided they wanted to book me. I hadn't expected to get this wedding given that I had no samples to show them. And I certainly didn't give them a hard sell as I still wasn't convinced that this was something I wanted to do. I kind of figured that if I got this wedding, with no samples and no experience then it was meant to be. Well I have samples now. In the weeks prior to the wedding I read and I read and I read. I read books, magazines and ...

Portraits of a Newborn Baby Girl and Her Family

Its always so nice when a family return to have their latest addition photographed in the same way as their first child. Its a great feeling knowing they cherished my work so much the first time that they want to come back to continue the tradition. I also love it when I'm given permission to share the portraits I've created. Its not often that I'm asked not to share but I never take this opportunity for granted because I know how sensitive people can be about sharing personal moments. And I'm especially grateful here for being allowed to share some of the more intimate ones. Although I always ask permission to share the standard stuff I create, I always make it known that I am fine with and fully understand if there are any private portraits that should remain so. In this case I was given full permission to share everything and I'm so pleased to get the chance to show some of the other work we can do for families. I really love how skin tones turn out ...

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog