After taking some time off this year, I finally had a few sessions! Even though I've done plenty of sessions over the past year, I'm still always nervous heading to sessions. I was on my way to this session and stopped for a coffee on my way, when I got back into my car, my "Service Transmission" light was on, which only made my nerves even worse! I had already rescheduled this session once or twice and was REALLY looking forward to getting back into it. This transmission thing had been happening on & off for a while, so I wasn't letting this get in my way. I headed off to the session and just hoped that my car would get me all the way there and home (spoiler alert... it did and the transmission issue is fixed, but that's a story for another time).
It was worth the stress, Baby J was just the happiest (almost) 8 month old I've ever seen. You may recognize this little guy, as some of his newborn photos are on my website. Here's one from that session, back in October. I think Baby J was about 1 week old in this photo, and even then he was a happy little guy!Â
Fast forward to our more recent session, not only was Baby J a happy little guy, he was ON THE MOVE. Before our session, he recently learned to crawl and was loving every second of it! This made for a challenging session, but I was up for it. With the unpredictable New England weather, we planned for an indoor session... I'm not sure if that made it easier or harder with this little guy - he twisted and turned so quick, at times it was tough to get his smiling face in the pictures, but I think we managed to get some amazing shots that really showed Baby J's personality.Â
This picture is one of my favorites from the session, he was being so silly and laughing and I was able to get one shot mid-laugh, eyes closed and all. I know some people prefer a more posed photo, but these types of photos are why I love photography. I love being able to look at a photo and really feel the emotion.Â
I'm still learning a lot about how to engage clients during sessions, that's probably the most difficult part for me. I have a lot of prompts that work well for toddlers, but little ones aren't as easy! I find that children can be both the easiest and most difficult subjects to shoot. They are easy because they don't have that same sense of self consciousness that adults have, but they are more difficult because they can't follow instruction like an adult can. Add to that the fact that this little guy had just started moving on his own, and you've got a subject that won't "pose" for you at all. While that can be incredibly frustrating for some, I try my best to just work with it and capture shots like this one, that show this little guys beautiful eyes so perfectly!Â
 This shot is another one of my favorites from the entire session, the happiness I feel looking at this family, just melts my heart. You can just see how much these parents love Baby J and how much he loves them. Getting families to interact on a more intimate level is one of my favorite ways to capture a family. I love being able to capture these types of memories for my clients!
The smile on Baby J's face in this next picture is just the best! I like how he's not actually looking at the camera, it gives the person viewing the photo the opportunity to think about what he was smiling at... What was going on outside of this picture? Were his parents making silly faces at him? Was his favorite toy over on the other side of the room? In this case, I can't quite remember, but I think his parents were probably making silly faces or silly noises off the camera.Â
Taking shots of this fast little mover required me to continuously change my cameras settings, because the room we were in offered different lighting from different angles (plus I only had so much space to move around during the session compared to an outdoor venue). Indoor sessions can be difficult for me, because I prefer natural lighting in my photos - I use a flash if absolutely necessary, but really prefer not to. This was a great session to get me back into the swing of things, I love a challenge and something like this only helps sharpen my skills!Â