Infant Photography: Claire Amelia

The most fun in doing maternity photography is doing infants' first portraits. Babies have no idea what the world is, and therefore they're always apt to do something unexpected and totally photogenic. But they also can give you something quite magical which doesn't really exist anywhere but in photography.

These are my favorite shots from a gig I did today. I think what makes them my choice picks is not only the moment, but the composition. That red velvet fabric worked wonders, and having desaturated the images 80% makes these photos look really nostalgic.

Teddy bear chaperones.

A very squirmy Claire.

Baby hands and feet tend to be really magical for some reason. I personally find them fascinating because these digits have not yet done anything in the world. They're still fresh, untouched, unscathed... and so soft!

Tender moment with dad.
And what is a December baby shoot without Christmas gear?

What's great about my method of portraiture in these sessions is that the parents don't have to leave the convenience of home to have their infant photographed, a huge benefit when baby is crabby because she's hungry or needs messes cleaned up. All the images posted above were shot in the baby's nursery room. The red velvet images were shot on the floor, as baby Claire laid on a velvet covered pillow. I have to also owe some of the success of these shots to my new fixed length camera lens, which throws short depth of field elements delightfully out of focus, and allows for great light capture.

Here's looking forward to more kiddo shoots.