A Year of Newborn Session Photography – Reflection
Happy new year! This past year was a challenging one, with ups and downs in website performance, google compliance and a custody battle. These things don’t ever come up in our newborn session, I prefer to keep these matters private. However, gaps in communication, delays in galleries, and editing can be simplified down to one simple factor – sometimes life kicks you down.
Having closed a difficult chapter last year, I am eager and optimistic about the new year. Dedicating myself to my craft for another lap around the sun with new goals and a different perspective is exciting. This year I am challenging myself by going mobile with the studio and focusing on in-home newborn session photography.
A weight has lifted and I feel free. I am no longer tied down by a studio and am free to travel around Toronto and the GTA. It’s liberating, and exciting, with a touch of anxiety. Will this work? Can I go fully mobile and get back my No.1 ranking in Toronto for newborn photography? We shall see, to be continued. The year is new and the journey has just begun.
The Perfect In-Home Newborn Photography Session
Yes, the perfect in-home newborn session does exist! It is one where there is ample natural light and light walls. That’s it. That’s the requirement. The rest is up to me to create using your baby, some studio essentials, and a few things I find around your home including pets. Have I mentioned I am a huge animal lover?
The Backstory
This is a Toronto-based client. They requested a lifestyle newborn photography session, and this room, I was told, had the best natural light in the house. Naturally, I wanted to see it first. The front of the house was fairly dark and unsuitable for a natural light session. I did not need to see any other room. It was perfect. It was minimalistic, styled tastefully, with white walls, white sheets, and beautiful drapery against a large south-facing window. Additionally, there was a blank wall next to the window that offered a blank background for portrait photography with the parents. It was perfectly bright with the sunlight pouring in and bouncing off the soft-white painted walls. You can’t ask for a better setup! The photos speak for themselves and additional images can be viewed in my Newborn Portfolio and Instagram.
In-Home Newborn Session Gallery
Space Considerations
I do not need a lot of room to conduct my sessions, despite popular belief. The bed took up most of the space and I had just enough room to shimmy around, with a bit more space on the sides.
Lighting & Setup Considerations
Using natural light for a setup on the floor was not possible. Everything had to be conducted on the bed, or on a readily available surface. I always look at how the room is set up relative to the window light and spot opportunities to photograph. Sometimes this vision includes moving existing pieces around to create the scene I envisioned. Sometimes, everything is just where it needs to be. In this case, the changing table was perfectly placed in the window and it had a very pretty cover. The bed was set up perpendicular to the window so I shot most of these portraits standing at the foot of the bed, with the window to my side. Everything else was free-flowing creativity.