Last week, I started a mini series of case studies called Throwback Thursday.  My husband laughed at me and thought me a nerd when I used the term “case study”.  I blame it on those pointless Master’s classes I took seven years ago, where we read Case Study this and Case Study that.

Last week I talked about my very first family session ever. Today, we are doing a Case Study in Newborn Photography.  Particularly, my struggle with newborn photography.

Four years ago, Carter came into this world.  I was literally just getting my feet wet in the photography world, and I decided it would be a good idea for me to take some newborn pictures of him. Ten days after he was born, I made a makeshift setup in my bedroom and took the following images.

Now. . . I know a lot of my readers aren’t photographers. And I know sometimes it’s hard to tell what a good photograph is.  Even now, after being a photographer for a few years, I can look at an image that won some sort of award, and not really “get” why it’s a good picture.  Sometimes one picture looks the same as another and there is nothing between the two that I can differentiate anything between. But I know that most of you would look at those pictures above of Carter and KNOW that those are not very good pictures. There are a plethora of reasons why, but I will let you be the judge for yourself on what might stick out to you as being pretty poor.

A few months later (3.5 years ago), my friend had a baby. I desperately wanted to be a newborn photographer. I looked at many images of newborn photography and thought how terribly easy newborn photography must be. Seriously? The baby sleeps, and you pose them and take pictures. The baby sleeps.  That’s all brand new babies do. They SLEEP. My friends came over for dinner, and I asked if I could practice with their daughter, because we all know that newborn babies just sleep and this was going to be a piece of cake.

She didn’t sleep. And it wasn’t easy. And I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, I thought it was going to be so easy that I thought I’d be able to put her in a little hammock sling thing and take an image of her hanging, like so many cute images I’ve seen. Boy, was I out of my mind.

First of all, the whole sleeping thing? Yeah, throw that out the window. Put a naked baby in a “setup” without warm, snuggly arms, and that baby isn’t gonna sleep.

Secondly, babies who don’t sleep DO NOT pose in those cute little poses. You know what they do? Kick and flail and twist and scream and do everything that looks unnatural and awkward.

She did finally fall asleep though. . . AFTER we put her clothes back on and left her alone for awhile. So I took these images below.

Still though,those aren’t the kind of images that people who invest in newborn photography want. And after that particular situation, it was clear that newborn photography was not the piece of cake that I had the impression it was. In fact, it was definitely, by far, the HARDEST type of photography I had ever come across. I most definitely had a lot to work on, a lot to learn, and a lot of practice to tend to.

Three and a half years later, I honestly still struggle with my newborn sessions. But the problem now is that I see these amazing photographers that I follow–some of the very best in the world–and I am constantly comparing myself to them. I have yet to perfect my art. I am still refining it.  And that’s okay–I definitely have come so very far, and I’m proud of where I am compared to where I started. It hasn’t come without a lot of work. It hasn’t come without a lot of 3.5 hour newborn sessions. Or without a lot of pee and poop on me (yes, one time I actually caught the baby’s poop in my hand to save it from going on my blanket). It hasn’t come without a lot of frustration. But it’s getting somewhere, and somewhere is where I want to head, even if that means two steps forward and one step back.

I’ve learned many things, about what works and what doesn’t. But I’ve learned that all babies are different and what works for one isn’t going to work for the next. It’s about having the baby take the lead if need be and go with what is working, and scrap what isn’t. I’ve learned a bit about posing, and what looks and doesn’t look natural.

This summer, I will be traveling all the way to Colorado Springs to take part in a newborn workshop from a wonderful photographer. I hope to gain more experience and bring it back to all of my wonderful clients in New York, and hopefully in three years I can write a second post like this, using my current images as “throwback” pictures!

Here are a few images from the past few months that I’ve taken at newborn sessions. I have another on Sunday, and have booked newborn sessions already for the next few months. Every time I get a newborn inquiry, I get simultaneously excited, and want to puke at the same time. Because truly, they still make me nervous. James tells me this is a good thing–that it’s a problem once I get “too comfortable” with things because that means I’m not striving to become better. The nerves come from the thought that this session might be the one where I take a big leap forward.  Where I might nail a pose I’ve been working so hard on. It would be A-okay with me if I could arrive to a place where I specialize in newborns only. But, that’s a whole dream in itself, and one that waxes and wanes with the moon, depending on how my last newborn session went.  I’d love for it to become a reality.  But I’ll update my status in that department after Sunday’s newborn session.