New Jersey Newborn Photographer EMA Photography – The Studio Blog » EMA Photography – The Studio Blog

She was a bit more fiesty then her big brothers but I had a blast photographing her and chatting with her super sweet mommy and daddy!

Had lots of sweet newborn girls in the studio this week… this little sleepy head was perfect for us!

and something a little moodier then normal from me

She didn’t give us many smiles but with a face like this who needs them!

I love when they bring props for me to play with (oh I mean for him to play with)

It always amazes me how fast a year goes by!

Baby G a year ago:

And here he is enjoying his First Birthday Cake!

Lots of babies this week reaching this big milestone!   How precious is she?

I first met this family a few years ago,  before baby Bennett was born.   Right away you can feel the love they share.   It was my pleasure to do updated family photos for them .    You can read more of their story here:  http://www.libbynathanandbennett.com/

I have teamed up with a bunch of amazing custom portrait photographer from around the world to bring you a “blog carnival” .  What is a blog carnival you ask?   Each photographer in the group will be writing a post on all things photography related and working with a custom photographer.   After you read my article on “Newborn Safety”,  please click on the link below the article to read the next in the series.

Newborn Safety has been a hot topic amongst photographers lately.     With a huge trend in capturing newborns these days,  there has also been a trend on pushing ourselves to be more creative.   When the reality is that most parents just want cute shots of their precious baby.   All too much lately many of us have gasped at watching babies be put in glass jars (that could easily break) or suspended in mid air from a tree branch or stick with no spotter.  Often these shots are done by an untrained photographer.   Babies are not props and one should never risk hurting them to attempt to get a “cool” shot.   Babies safety should ALWAYS come first.  Even if you “think” they seem safe.   When searching for a custom photographer for your newborn,  I strongly suggest doing research and choosing a photographer who has plenty of experience when shooting a newborn.  As the saying goes,  you really can never be too safe when dealing with a baby.   I know my clients appreciate the extra time I take to make sure of that as well.

Most of these shots can be done by doing a “composite”.     What this means is simply combinging parts of 2 images to make 1 image.   In the sample below you will see what I mean.   Babies can’t really balance on their own.   Their heads are too heavy and often this puts excessive weight on their tiny wrists.   I know many of us cringe at seeing a baby propped up on their elbows,  heads on the tops of their hands and it looks like their poor little wrists are purple.    In the sample I created below you will see that I had Mom hold the babies head as to not put excessive weight on the hands and to keep the baby balanced and then in the second shot she held her arms so that I could get a clean shot of the babies head…and again keeping safety my main concern.   With this shot we could have attempted a “ok, let go”  but then chances are the baby would have toppled over and that is just not safe.

Then I simply merged the two in to a composite and with a little photoshop magic I then had a final product such as this:

As I said,   I feel very strongly that I’d rather have the baby safe then attempting to get a shot just to look “cool”.    In this one below,  parents wanted a shot with the baby on the scale.   If you’ve ever seen one of these hanging scales,  you’d know that they are very wobbly and to put a baby on this and suspend it in mid air is well,  just plain irresponsible.   So here is what we did:

We took 3 separate shots.

And again with a little photoshop magic,  here is our end result:

Sometimes all an image needs is just a little bit of photoshop.   In this image the baby didn’t want to keep upright (and rightfully so which is fine) so mom put her finger on their head to keep them steady.

I hope you enjoyed this article!   Please remember,  babies are this little once and capturing them should always be done with the upmost care.

Please click on this link below to view Lauri Bakers article on “Volunteering your talent vs. Working for free” a must read article for any photographer!

I photographed big brother not too long ago,  as always fun to compare the sessions.  Big brother slept the entire session,  this little guy made us work for it but the end result is just as wonderful!

Ahhh isn’t he the cutest with that red hair!