Impromptu Newborn Photo Session

THESE ARE NOT PHOTOS OF LUCY.  And I am an amateur photographer.  Those are my 2 disclaimers. 

Just so there's no confusion:  Lucy is still inside.  She is 5 days past her "guess date" and there's not much else to report on that subject.  The plan is still to wait for her to come on her own.   



My friend Meagan came over for lunch yesterday and brought her beautiful baby Jimmy.  It was so fun to hold him and remind myself what a new baby looks like.  He is 6 weeks old, but his due date was actually in June just like Lucy's.  For getting an earlier-than-planned start, he sure is doing well!



Just for fun we did an impromptu photo shoot of Jimmy, and then I had fun experimenting with some of the processing options available on Picnik.com, a site I recently discovered that is great for editing photos.

Like I said, I am an amateur photographer.  I know that you should use natural light and get really close while taking photos.  But I learned a lot while taking these newborn photos. A few learning points just from this one photo:



1.  Must prop the baby up or half his face will be hidden.
2.  Must take off clothes 10 minutes before photo shoot so as to avoid clothing lines (see his arms?)
3.  Taking off baby's clothes and diaper while he's sleeping isn't actually as hard as you'd think... as long as you let him stay in his preferred posture (curled up, in Jimmy's case) while you do it.
4.  Not from this photo, but from several others:  PAY ATTENTION to the background.  A diaper showing in the background can pretty well ruin an otherwise adorable baby photo.   

Simple props are fun.  

Can you imagine turning your head this far around?  Amazing.

Meagan didn't come to lunch expecting a photo shoot, but I love her dress!  So classy.

Here is a perfect example of the magic of post-processing.  The photo on the left is natural, and I airbrushed the one on the right so you can see the difference.  

Nice, modestly posed fully naked baby, if I do say so myself.

Really like this one of the two of them.

Tiny tushy 



Above is an example of one where I wish I had cleared that stuff out of the background beforehand.  Sigh.  

A future Aggie... Whoop!

So sweet.

I love, love, love his little grin in this one.

Thank you, Meagan and Jimmy for the practice and for the lovely afternoon!