The marathon of newborn photoshoots for my portfolio project in my masters photography course at Savannah College of Art & Design has come to an end with Little Ava. It’s definitely NOT an end to my newborn photography, just an end to this marathon so that I can turn in my project. Though I already have a photography portfolio of newborn photography, I chose to continue with this concentration of work to continue to build my skills both with photography and newborns. Ava makes the 7th newborn I’ve photographed in the last 19 days. Her parents drove all the way from Titusville to meet for her first photo session today. Hopefully they agree after seeing the photos that our time with Ava for photos today was well worth the trip.
At 2 1/2 weeks, Ava was an active little girl. Usually the first few minutes after a newborn arrives it takes a little time to get them settled down. Usually after the baby has surpassed two weeks they are far more active with their hand movements and facial expressions, which makes it just a tad be more challenging to capture the ideal newborn photography everyone loves so much. Here are a dozen photos I took in just a few seconds between each shot.
Hopefully seeing these help you all see that it takes a lot of patience and work to capture the newborn photos you’ll see in a moment. Typically during a session I take on average 150-400 photos. Of those I end up with an average 10-20 that I share.
Knowing Ava had just passed two weeks, I anticipated the challenge of her activeness. She surely showed me early on who was in charge.
She didn’t seem to thrilled with taking photos at first.
But we did manage to sneak a few quick shots like this one.
She was definitely very content when she was with her mother. She seemed so curious and it wasn’t long until she warmed up to my nikon.
I really think she enjoyed being surrounded by so many colors. She was amazing once we wrapped her, though she still managed to break away from the wrap after only a minute or two.
It’s amazing how early you can sense a baby’s personality just through their expressions.
We decided to put Ava in the cocoon seeing how she seemed to prefer to be wrapped.
I wish I could say she was “sleeping like a baby” – thankfully the brief moment of her closing her eyes gives the illusion of her sleeping.
She quickly let us know when she had enough.
Ava enjoyed resting in the bowl like most babies I’ve photographed in it thus far.
She did amazing but did let us know when she was done.
I usually ask the parents if they have any requested poses before we finish the session. The expressed an interest in having Ava photographed in Dad’s arm. I really enjoy when the father’s are interested in being involved in the photo sessions. I have to admit that having a father hold a baby unclothed can be stressful for the father. Everyone definitely fears that the baby may use the bathroom. Little Ava made sure to break her proud papa in by peeing on us both before we took these amazing shots.
And more baby feet to share.
I really admired seeing the bond between Ava and her mother.
John & Sara I hope your family and friends enjoy the photos. Best wishes to your family – Ava is such an adorable little blessing!
by Amanda Kern
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