Tag / newborn

I really do have the best clients – they come perfectly dressed for the best possible images!

I had a special request for this session: add in some sweet soft vintage to the regular mix of proofs.   And I have to admit, when a family has this much love, it is very easy to be a photographer!

I am surprised that, unlike other countries in the world, in Finland newborns are rarely professionally photographed.  That age is one of the hardest of all children’s portraits to really capture – it takes years of training as a professional to know how to light and shoot a newborn to really capture those soft skin tones and sweet expressions.  It’s very rare to get ‘lucky’ and get a very good shot of a newborn – if you don’t get the light right, it’ll never come out beautiful.

I welcome sweet Elise to the world.  Here she is, 5 days new in her heirloom portrait finery!

This sweet little boy was so easy to photograph! He was awake for half the shoot (charming his grandparents for the images) and then slept happily when it came time for the baby art shots.

When I arrived with all my newborn set up (nothing takes more hands than everything needed to do baby shots!), I was greeted with tall windows in an “L” shape. That made getting the light rather tricky since I had less directionality. There was also a lot of direct sunlight spilling into the room onto the wood floors – and reflecting up with strong color casts. One of the first things we had to do was close the blinds a bit (which unfortunately kills some of the light) and then lay out black fleece on the floor where the light was still coming in. I’m very lucky in that my clients are always really nice about moving furniture when needed – and this time we moved a large ficus and some miscellaneous furniture to make sure we had the best light and a clean set up.

The grandparents arrived right on time and we started with their shots. They were so proud of their grandson (the first for that family!) and I just loved photographing their happiness. Both grandmother and grandfather took turns holding the little guy and he was so happy to be in their arms! I have the most beautiful shots of the baby looking up adoringly at them as the ‘coo’ and love him. He is one very lucky little boy!

After the family shots, we brought out the props for the baby art. Our little guy was kind enough to fall right to sleep for us! He was easy to position and looked so happy resting peacefully. I don’t do the more extreme ‘head on hands’ shots and instead concentrated on the beauty of this perfect and very loved little person. He was fortunate enough to have been born to be cherished by a great set of parents and I think that peacefulness is what I wanted most to capture. Each family has its own vibe and personality and it is the job of the professional photographer to understand that flow and photograph it respectfully. All the props chosen for this shoot were reflective of that family’s style.

Newborn work is surprisingly hard – even though babies don’t exactly run away from you. Portrait work is so much more clicking a shutter and requires a huge amount of concentration. I think as runners are ‘in the moment’, so too are photographers. And photographing a newborn shoot is just as exhausting as running several miles. But photography has the advantage of producing such beautiful results!

A huge congratulations to this wonderful family on their firstborn. He’s a lucky little man to be born into so much love.

A wonderful shoot with such a great couple!  I love that they are so different and fun.

Ajaton Joki: Newborn

Ajaton Joki: Newborn

Ajaton Joki: Newborn

Ajaton Joki: Newborn

Ajaton Joki: Newborn

He wasn’t interested in letting us pose him much – but when you’re this cute, you get to call the shots!

Ajaton Joki: babies

Ajaton Joki: babies

Ajaton Joki: babies

Ajaton Joki: babies

He was such a trooper – ate a lot and then fell right to sleep for us.  In the meanwhile, we enjoyed the beautiful nature of a Finland in full Spring bloom!

I love it when I arrive at a house for a newborn session and everything is all ready to go: extra blankets, snuggly warm room, plenty of space with no clutter, a sleepy baby, and two wonderful parents who made the shoot a dream!  Some were shot with window light and others I used my photographic lighting.  Can you tell which was lit with a window and which was lit with a strobe?

I was given two requests from the parents – lots of Andrea Joki color and some black and whites.  Hopefully, I succeeded on both counts.  Here’s the sneak peek (and a big thank you for being such nice people).

Here’s sweet little baby M – he happily slept through most of the session and was the sweetest little guy.  Not all newborns are tough.

He was so perfect – and slept like an angel for the entire session.  Big thanks to his mom and dad for doing creative poses with the little guy!