Diversity in Baby Photography
Since getting pregnant myself I have become really fascinated by the family dynamic and baby and infant photography in general. Self admittedly all I wanna do is be around children and babies right now so there is also a slightly selfish aspect to this new found passion , Haha! .. But in my own exploration of this amazing aspect of portraiture I have found a few things interesting.
One being that a lot of the photography for family and baby photos is pretty bland and all main lined and not very artistic or special in nature. Almost gimmicky and corny as well. A lot of over the top smiling and set up shots, everything seems super perfect and almost surreal looking. A lot of air brushed babies who look like angels on a mountain puff cloud.
In trying to develop or translate my own photo-journalistic approach to photography I began to seek out NYC baby portrait photographers with a much more natural approach and have been honestly blown away with how beautiful that can be.
It can be so easy for us photographers to do what everyone else is doing because it seems to sell, but that doesn’t always mean its good or high quality. I honestly want to continue to stay true to my fine art origins and my raw and natural portraiture approach to a highly commercialized industry. This means I shoot off the cuff with mostly available light and natural light. I am totally okay if the baby cries the entire time or has gas, we will still get amazing images because it’s still a beautiful mile stone in their life that deserves to be captured.
A few weeks ago An awesome photographer offered to do some couples and maternity like photos for my partner and I, and honestly right before she came over he and I were arguing quite a bit. The energy was crappy and I felt so horrible and emotional. Instead of acting like nothing happened I made some light hearted jokes in front of her that we had been arguing all morning . The minute he came in for a hug close to me, I felt so much love for him, and he whispered I love you in my ear, almost cried, some of it pregnancy emotions and some of it just so honest.
That I can love him so hard and deeply even when he seriously pisses me off. The rest of the shoot went so well, nothing in life is perfect. As a photographer I don’t expect perfection I would rather have the honest truth and deliver honest portraits to my clients, that have little bit of human suffering sprinkled in with the smiles and laughter.
