Thursday Thread #80

 

 

It’s baaaaack! I don’t know if any of you missed the Thread as much as I missed writing it, but we are officially back in business, folks, and I am pumped! I’m going to ease back into it though, if ya don’t mind, returning to our regular Thread format (complete with Thread Tunes, High Fives, and CDP news of course!) next week. I’ve got to research a bit and plan some more silly stuff to write about since I’ve been immersed in all things baby lately 🙂

 

If you didn’t already know, I became a mommy since the last Thread, welcoming a healthy, beautiful baby girl into our crazy world: Breelyn (Bree) Alyse. She’s everything I could have ever imagined, and so much more. The blessing of being a parent is tremendous, like nothing else in the whole world, and it has made me look at my photography (along with everything else!) in a whole new light. I have always had so much respect and love for the families I’ve been able to work with, but now I really do get it — because now, I feel it. I want to capture every last adorable moment with my girl, even the crying, messy, won’t-stay-still-for-a-photo-to-save-my-life moments. It feels so incredibly important now. Because after only 8 weeks of motherhood, time is already flying by waaaay too fast and I find myself pleading with the clock to slow down a bit. Since that’s impossible, I have been trying to preserve this time the only way I know how, with my trusty camera.

 

It’s not always easy to do either. Wait — who are we kidding?! It’s hard as heck to do. Being a photographer, I felt (and continue to feel) the pressure to produce page after page of gorgeous photos of my kid for everyone to ooh and ahh over — ‘my best work yet’, but that just ain’t happenin’ y’all. At least not yet, not by normal standards.

 

When Bree was a week old, I realized I was about to break my own rule of photographing newborns within the first 7-10 days of life, so I had better get on it, and fast! I had daydreamed about Bree’s shoot for months, but without really doing much. I figured I’d be able to handle it just fine, after all, my pregnancy had been going great and I felt really good. I shoot all of my client’s newborn sessions with a lifestyle feel — mommy and daddy (and even the pups) doting over their newest family member, baby cozy in their natural environment with very few props and setups. Low stress and lots of love, that’s how I like to do them. Easy peasy, right? I should be able to handle this when doing my own photos, no? Ha. Sure.

 

It’s is a fantastic idea when you aren’t the one who, just a week prior, had labored for 38 hours to deliver a 40-week, 8lb 11oz baby, undergone the biggest emotional experience of your life, host dozens of visitors and get little-to-no sleep in the midst of it all. Give this worn out momma a camera and YOU see what happens! I really thought I could do it too, and I sure gave it a valiant effort, but… I didn’t fare too incredibly well. That’s right, folks, I don’t have a folder overflowing with dreamy, adorable pictures of my little one cuddled up on a plush blanket or perfectly posed on dad’s arm. I was tired, sore, and so not in the mood for photos 🙂 Needless to say, I realized pretty quickly that shooting my own newborn pics was widely ambitious (to say the least) and I won’t likely make that mistake again! It’s just too much for a brand new mom to undergo, and from what I’ve read from researching this topic around the photography community, many other mom-photogs would agree. Do I have some sweet shots? Absolutely. In fact, the motto for the ‘shoot’ was “all I need are a few good ones!” We ended up with a nice hand full of images though, which I love, and that capture our first week home with Bree (by the way, my mom totally deserves a giant gold medal for playing main photog for all of our family pics — she really did do a fantastic job). And at the end of the day, I decided that’s really all we need 🙂 Next time, however, I will be more prepared.

 

 

The good thing is that I can keep shooting, again and again. In spite of the crazy newborn session experience, I have vowed to stay the course and snap photos every day, no matter how hard it may be. And if my iPhone is the only camera I use that day, I attempt to make those images as good as I can. I also try to be in front of the camera more (eek!), and to do one ‘shoot’ a month (definition: intentionally use the ‘big’ camera to get more than just one random snapshot of Bree). The one month shoot turned out pretty great — short, but great. That’s where I got this image from. And yesterday, I attempted shoot #2. Shortly after starting, the reality of shooting your own newborn/baby pics reared its ugly, unfogiving head again when B had two dirty diapers, a craving for a snack in mom’s arms, followed by a sleepy meltdown. But I hung in there, rolled with the punches, and worked through the crazy 🙂 I ended up with more technically bad images than technically good ones (ha!), but I truly adore the ones I did get. There’s just something so incredibly perfect about a chunky, wide-eyed, 8-week old bebe…

 

I just kept snapping away at my camera, and somehow, I think I love these images almost as much as the ‘good’ ones…

 

Mom-photog lesson learned: you don’t have a lot of images to have good images. All it takes is just a few 🙂 Oh and hire someone to do your photos! Hehe 🙂 At least the really important ones. You’ll take a lot of pressure off of yourself and your sweet family, trust me!

 

 

 

Glad to be back, folks. I missed ya 🙂