Mason

   Recently I did a shoot with a five-week premature baby that is now almost three months old and thriving wonderfully. At his first newborn shoot, a little over a week old, we attempted to place him in a stork sack--the end result disastrous. Poor Mason not only hated being in it, naked, but he also was too tiny to see in the sack. Last week we tried it again. At five pounds larger and 2 1/2 months older. The results were beautiful.

 

Pictures like this make me fall in love with my job. When you are able to take semi-par lighting, a toy room, and a teething baby and end with a gorgeous portrayal of infancy--it makes me passionate about the job. It makes me want to take all babies in the world and line them up side by side and see if I can get the same result. Mason makes the job easy because he is a gorgeous little boy [not to say ALL babies aren't gorgeous in some way or another], but I have to wonder if I had less to work with--if I could come up with something quite this captivating. If I didn't have this picture on my SD card I doubt I would believe I actually took it.

      Each time I do a different genre of shoots, I decide it is my "favorite genre". I had yet to do a newborn shoot until Mason, but now I think newborns will be my new 'favorite'. I have an upcoming newborn shoot for a baby named Jack and I am interested to see if I can still say it's my favorite. If I can take some pictures of him that I will love, like I love the pictures I have done of Mason. I am a very critical artist and have a hard time accepting compliments towards my work, but I have to say, as pompous as it sounds...I love this work. Newborn shoots may require more prep, more time in between takes to nurse, rock, or change babies, but I still think the results are worth it.