Newborn Photos of Mateo - and Stuff I'm Learning

My neighbor Christina had her son Mateo about 4 weeks ago, and I got the chance to photograph him the other day!



Mateo is so cute and has so much hair. 



Just holding him made me anxious to hold baby Elliot, though I'm not anxious for Elliot to come before he's fully baked.  Lucy was 9 lb 4 oz, and while I don't want Elliot to be bigger than that, it was nice having a well-done newborn who could go a good 3 hours between feedings from the start.



He looks like his daddy in this one.



I love his sweet little pursed lips.



I did lots of Googling to find out how others shoot newborn photos, and this was my set-up (it looks pretty much the same as the images I found online).



Ironically, this might be the best shot I got.



Newborn photos are trickier than you'd think - especially if you haven't done a lot of them (which, I haven't).  I was somewhat comforted after the shoot when I read that photographing "old-borns" (babies older than 2 weeks old) is particularly tricky, partly due to the fact that they're not as flexible as new newborns and because they are much more alert, which makes them less compliant with posing.



I found particularly difficult the posing of Mateo for the "head in hands" type pose that is really trendy right now.  I read afterward on this blogger's site that that particular iconic image is usually a composite of 2 different photos: one where mom supports the top of baby's head and another where mom supports the chin.



When the two photographs are merged, you get the resulting "head in hands" pose.  This site explains the process more thoroughly.  I might try it with baby Elliot when he gets here next month.



I wanted to get a shot of Mateo's little feet, but this is undeniably the weirdest feet shot I've ever seen for a newborn.  Something went wrong.  I think I need to do some more looking before I attempt this shot again.



This one is better.  More... normal looking. But still I think his foot should be positioned closer to her fingers and further from her wrists.  And I think it needs more editing, but I need to do more looking about how best to edit it.



This one I like, minus the fact that Mateo's fingers are a little motion-blurred.  I need more lighting to prevent this kind of slow-shutter motion blur.  But since I had planned on Mateo being asleep, I didn't think I'd have to worry about it.  Lesson learned there.



Like always, I learned a lot during this photo shoot - some of what to do and lots of what not to do.  It definitely seems like the most efficient way to learn :).

Thanks, Christina, for letting me photograph sweet baby Mateo!