The first step for me in choreographing my sessions is to review why I’m dong this and what my clients came to me for. My clients are here for a very special reason - they believe that I am the right person to capture and immortalise the miracle that their love created. It’s as simple as that. They do not have a check list of poses that must be achieved (I’m not say that there are no clients who have a mental, or even Pinterest checklist, they are just not my clients), they do not have a sack of props that we must use. They are here with the loves of their lives, looking to celebrate the greatest romance of all time!
Having had 4 kids myself I know how precious and at the same time exhausting those first days are. For some families, dad has only a couple of days of paternity leave, for other older siblings come with and are in sore need of attention. For all of them they would rather be at home, sleeping, eating, gazing at their tiny baby - they value the art I’m creating but they do not want to be creating it all day!
This is why I created a workflow which is at once Respectful, Easy, Authentic and Loving (yes! It does happen to spell REAL - because that’s how I like to roll! ;-)
By preparing the baby as soon as they arrive (with the nappy on and fully fed), I can easily transition through the series set moves, allowing the baby to stretch, reach, yawn and generally dictate their own style. I’m quickly able to create a full gallery (25 images) with very little disturbance to the baby. My average session takes about 1 1/2 including chit chat(!)
Here are a few examples of full galleries.
