Newborn Safety during a Photo Session

Newborn photographing is becoming more and more popular. The resultant photographs are so beautiful and dreamy that many photographers and people with cameras are launching themselves, untrained, into an area of photography that is not for the untrained! It is not something that is fun and just anyone can decide they would like to try.

A newborn is a person, a human being, not a doll. She has needs and feelings and needs to be handled with great care. Before you choose your newborn photographer please take note of these very important points.

1. Training, Training, Training and then some more Training!

I do not feel that anyone can become a newborn photographer overnight. In-depth training and hands on practice under the supervision of a qualified newborn photographer are vital to becoming an expert at newborn photography. 

Training doesn't just include the art of newborn photography but also learning all about safety of the baby, how to handle them, how to read their cues and what poses a newborn can and cannot safely do. 

 2. Weird Poses

There are many weird and wonderful poses on Pinterest and the internet. Several of them are what is called a composite. This is two photographs put together in Photoshop to make one. Keeping a baby propped up and secure is vitally important so two photographs are taken where the baby is being securely held but then are put together to look like one photograph where the baby is balancing on her own.

Once again, proper training will teach the photographer how to do these poses safely and how to create the resultant photograph.

3. Reading Baby's Cues

Newborns have very real needs and a photographer cannot just go from pose to pose without attending to their needs. Knowing what a baby needs when it needs it comes from having children of one's own and from learning the different cries babies have. If things are not going to plan the photographer needs to know how to handle the situation, what the baby needs and how to soothe it.

4. Safe Poses

Not all poses seen on Pinterest are safe. Some are just plain insane. 

Babies heads are heavy and they simply cannot hold them up. They need to be carefully positioned so they do not fall and injure their necks. They can also easily slump down putting pressure on their lungs and closing their airways. The pose may be the cutest you have ever seen but if it compromises the baby's ability to breathe for even one moment I will not even consider attempting it.

They also cannot tell us when the blood flow has been cut off to one of their limbs. Yes, babies can fold up in the most amazing way but knowing how to fold them is so important. It is very easy to cut off blood flow so knowing where limb is and checking regularly for no purple hands and feet is imperative.

5. Moving Baby into Position

Never, ever pull on a baby's limbs to get them into position. Gently move the baby using their own movement to help. If a baby cries once in a pose, shush them softly and gently rock them in the position. If they continue to cry pick them up out of the position. Try one more time. If they continue to cry, move on!!!

Babies have their favourite positions to lie in. Some babies simply do not like having their arms up, they like them tucked in. A trained photographer will quickly recognise this and work around it. There are simply dozens of possible poses so if baby does not like one then try another.

6. Never Leave Baby Unattended

Newborns have what is called the moro reflex. They startle quite easily and kick out with their legs and arms. They can quite easily and completely unexpectedly kick themselves out of a prop or topple over if the prop is not weighted down. So never leave the baby without someone watching her and no more than an arms lengths away.

7. Never try poses at home

I heard just this past week of more than one friend who tried a pose their newborn in a prop and it, with baby in it, toppled over. The newborns hit their heads and were injured. Is injuring the baby worth the photograph?

Please be careful and choose your photographer wisely.

The beauty of pregnancy

Every session is unique in its own way but some families just stand out. The Bacalhau Family is one such family for me. Izabelle was the epitome of the glowing pregnant lady. She was positively radiant and she didn't even realise it. She carried with such grace and poise and was so easy to photograph.

A few weeks later her little man arrived such much excitement. She woke around 2am with contractions and by 3:15am was in her room at the hospital with her son her in her arms. If only we could all deliver with such ease!

And of course the whole point of having professional photographs taken is to hang them on your walls where you can enjoy them every single day. Professional photography is a luxury so why spend all that money just to have a disc or USB lying in a drawer somewhere and never looked at?

You can choose from stretched canvas, print on wood, a mounted photograph or a box frame. And I have some new products in development that I hope to be releasing soon.

I hope you have a great week!

How to cope if your newborn photo session isn't going to plan

We’ve all seen those adorable photos of new, little babies looking so peaceful and relaxed with not a care in the world.  As new parents, we want similar photos of our children to send out to grandparents, make into screensavers, and blast out to our social media pages to show off our amazing baby. But then session day comes around and BAM! – your baby does not want anything to do with it.

You’re thinking, “Why won’t you stop crying? I’ve literally done everything I can think of, but you’re still not happy. Don’t you know I’m paying good money for this session? My friend's baby cooperated in her session, why can’t you just go to sleep and let us get some nice photos?!”  If this happens during your session, I want you to stop, breathe and remember one thing: all newborns cry. 

This is perfectly natural and not abnormal. There is nothing wrong with your baby for doing it. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Unfortunately babies pick up on our stress and get even more distressed. I know I certainly did not want to be told to relax when I was a new mum; I got stressed just trying to relax! 

But don’t let the crying upset you. I am not at all distressed and have learned to go with baby's flow. Embrace this moment in time. When you are holding your crying baby in your arms and are soothing him, true emotion shows through and those are often the photographs that you will treasure the most. Your child can look back at these photos once they’re all grown and remember the solace that they found in your arms. These tender moments are just as important, if not more so, than the sleeping, posed photos.

The point of booking a newborn session is to help you preserve the first memories of your child’s life. While posed photos are cute, you’re not going to look back and think, “Remember how cute she was whenever she would lounge around the house in the froggie  pose?” because that didn’t happen. You’ll look back at these photos and remember all the nights you walked your baby around the house or rocked him in a chair and hummed lullabies to try to calm him down. Those times are very stressful, but they also help you form a bond and that’s what makes these photos treasured.

All that being said, you will not just get crying photos if things are not going as planned. I am quite happy to wait for baby to settle and become relaxed and peaceful. I am not at all rushed. Your baby is a little person and as much as we would love him to sleep for three hours solid and pose like a model he most probably won't. She is perfect in every way and even if she is awake I can still take photographs of her little hands, feet, lips and ears. You will get photographs that you will treasure for the rest of your life no matter what happens in the session.

The photos in this post are of babies that did not sleep throughout their session and things did not go according to plan. Not so bad after all.

I hope you have a great day!