Category: Baby Portrait

Jeremiah isn’t quite six months old yet but ….. why wait when you have such a cute baby.

We photographed Jeremiah in our baby-friendly (& warm) home-based studio with mom right by his side. She was able to get more than a few funny faces. Here are a couple of our favorites.

Jeremiah has such deep and dark eyes – we had to highlight that and I think we caught it in this photo. That cute baby “tush” adds another feature to this winning photo.

We wanted a little variety for the parents so we processed these two photos as B&W with a touch of sepia tone.

Doesn’t he look great with the tiger fabric?

Baby photography is always fun and unpredictable. With baby boys there’s always some “excitement” when you capture the pose in the left hand panel above. And Jeremiah obliged. We captured the moment but decided not to share ALL  the details. But you can see from the photo below that he was making a mess.

We were prepared to clean up the scene so it wasn’t an issue for mom and Jeremiah was oblivious. Of course he’ll have to deal with the uncropped, “private” photo. It will be shared amongst family for years to come.

Oh yes, Jeremiah, this expression is classic.

If you have a young one they are surely growing faster than you can imagine. We would be honored to capture your child’s expressions and personality to create family heirlooms suitable for large prints or personal slideshows to show all your friends. Just give us a call – we’ll put together a package for you that will last a lifetime.

It’s hard to believe that it has already been six months. Nathan was born June 5th and it’s now December. That means it’s time to capture his playful soul at this once-in-a-lifetime age. And being true to his personality he was very playful.

Rebecca spent time putting together this XMAS-themed setting and what does Nathan do the moment we place him – he attacks Rebecca’s work with a passion. We were able to get a few photos, with and without his sweater, before he totally destroyed Rebecca’s handiwork.

We changed the set up around just a bit and got some classic shots of him “sitting up”. Truth be told, Shannon is in the background stabilizing him for these treasured photos.

We gave Nathan a rest and let him relax on  his tummy and he rewarded us with a classic baby smile.

This photo will make a great addition to his “Baby’s First Year” triptych frame.  We’ll slip it to the left to replace one of the infant session photos and fill in the spot with a photo from his first year photo shoot. The anticipation is palpable – lot’s of development will occur between now and then and this Baby’s First Year package will capture his progress.

We decided to capture a quick family photo of Mom & Dad  with Nathan. To get Dan ready and prepped we took a few impromptu shots. The left panel shows the simple set up in our cozy home studio. You can see why it’s so easy to capture a baby’s natural expressions. There are no intimidating or unnatural elements to this studio – it’s baby cozy by design.

We ended up with a nice photo of the three of them.

We will put together another triptych of family photos in six months. It’s exciting to consider – will he be walking, talking, teething ….. We can’t wait to experience the next stage of Nathan’s growth.

Jeremiah is 2 weeks old. We like to capture infant photos by the end of the second week since infants change so fast in the weeks that follow. Of course, Jeremiah was a few weeks premature and he’s still only a bit over 6 lbs – even with a wet diaper.

But we made the mistake of rushing things. That doesn’t work when you’re dealing with an infant. They have their own immutable schedule and  you are well advised to adapt to it. We’ve told numerous clients that when it comes to these early photos the infant determines when and at what pace. Rebecca wrote a free Resource Article – Photography Sessions with Babies – meant to help parents prepare and understand this “law”. Well, we figured we could work around it with our grandchild. Think again.

We did get some nice shots but we first had to wait while Jeremiah take a short nap. In the meantime we had the “two most photographed” grandchildren all gussied up and ready for photos so we spent Jeremiah’s nap time photographing/playing with Ben & Destiny.

When Jeremiah woke up we were able to capture a few photos with all three of them. In this first photo I love the way Rebecca placed Destiny’s hand on Ben’s arm. The connection between them makes this a “special” photo.

There were some funny moments that ensued with all three. These may not be the best posed portraits but the expressions will make these family favorites for years to come.

But this was Jeremiah’s infant session so we tried very hard to get some moments with him. We had a family event scheduled – our time was very limited.  Nonetheless, we were able to capture a few nice infant photos. These two are our favorites.

We’ll try again next weekend with out trying to squeeze the session in between anything other than Jeremiah naps. He’s the boss next weekend – we’ll follow our own advice as well as his schedule.

All of these photos are high key with a bright white background and skin tonesthat are the darkest feature of the photos. That combination draws your eye to the baby. We’ll go the other way next weekend – low key – using dark backgrounds & clothes such that the skin tones are the lightest feature in the frame. For your portrait session we can “go either way” – just let us know which you prefer and we will help you choose clothes appropriately. Be sure to read Rebecca’s free Resoure Article – Tips to Ensure a Successful Portrait Session. It will help you and your family prepare for the session.

When you’re blessed you know it. Rebecca and I are blessed. We celebrated the birth of a grandchild on June 5th and here we are celebrating again. Rebecca’s daughter, Amy, gave birth to Jeremiah on Monday evening.

This was a “high risk” pregnancy and we’re overwhelmed with joy and happy to report everything went well. Read on for details and pictures of our latest grandchild – another cutey!!

Roman, another cute (teenage) grandchild, took Amy to the hospital Monday evening. Amy’s cousin Korina was on hand to help with the delivery.

Rebecca and I stayed home with our most-photographed grandchildren, Ben & Destiny, and waited to hear the prognosis.  Many more family and friends showed up and waited anxiously.

Rebecca took off with camera in hand when we got the call that delivery was near. I enjoyed the rest of the evening with Ben & Destiny.

Amy gave birth shortly after arriving at the hospital and is doing very well. Despite being premature (34 weeks), Jeremiah weighed in at 6# 2oz and 18″. He was moved to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Thursday afternoon Jeremiah was allowed out of his incubator. He remained in the NICU to monitor his development and watch for signs of jaundice.

Ben & Destiny have not seen their new brother – they’re not allowed in the NICU. Rebecca and I took them to the hospital this evening to visit with Amy. They had fun inside and outside of the room and I enjoyed photographing them (they must be the most photographed grandkids in Orange County).

Rebecca’s sister, Angela, has spent quite a bit of time at the hospital as well.

We’re not quite sure when Amy and/or Jeremiah will be released. Both are doing well but they will likely want to keep Jeremiah under close observation for a while longer. We were able to have some touchy-feely time with Jeremiah today. Here are some of my favorite shots.

This photo will give Ben and Destiny a good idea of just how small (and did I mention cute) their little baby brother is. We’re confident he’ll grow quickly but for now he’s our little preemie baby.

We’ll be spending quite a bit of time at the hospital these next few days. I’ll post an update as soon as mom and baby are back home. If he ends up as cute as I suspect he will be  …. well …..Ben & Destiny may no longer be the king & queen of our photo collection.

Rebecca and I had the pleasure of photographing little Ryder (5 months old today) and his lovely parents, Tina & Tyler. This lovely couple are close friends to my youngest son, Kyle. We’ve met them at many events and have always enjoyed their company.

We photographed them in the comfort of their home. We took photos of them as individuals, couples and parents. We arranged the photo shoot to coincide with Ryder’s sleep and eating habits. He is always such a happy baby we were confident this would be an especially fun session.

It was unusually cloudy, cold and drizzly today. That meant we would need supplemental lighting. Fortunately we had brought our full complement of lights. We set up our portable studio in their dining room. We used diffuse light from the patio door for fill light and adjusted the strobe intensity to serve as the key light. It was a simple one strobe set up with fill light provided by the window and a reflector.

By the time we had chatted and set up the studio gear Ryder was getting tired. Tina had him take a short nap while we took photos of Tyler, Tina and the two of them. Talk about easy – such a photogenic couple.

Tyler dressed up a bit for a business head shot. Once that was complete we spent the rest of Ryder’s nap taking these gorgeous photos of Tina .

When Ryder woke up he was his usual smiling self. He was enthralled by the studio gear and seemed to be in the perfect mood for photos. Right up until it was his turn to be photographed. He didn’t enjoy himself so we weren’t able to arrange many set ups. But we were able to grab the photos we needed.

Maybe when we return for his one-year photo session he’ll be in the mood to model. No worries, we captured some nice photos that will become family heirlooms as the years go by. As I told Tina & Tyler – he will be a teenager and in those days these photos will be useful as sanity checks.

Rebecca and I always enjoy infant photo sessions. They often times present their own challenges during the session and during post-processing. Like most things in life, the effort involved usually yields the most satisfaction.

Now, add to all that the pleasure in photographing your own child or grandchild and you can understand the fun we had photographing Nathan. So – we now have the informal birthday photos and the infant (two week old) session. That means we’ll have to wait another 3+ months before taking the next series of photos in our Baby’s First Year package. October will be here before we know it but, until then, we’ll have to be satisfied with these.