January 29, 2019

SO CUTE – NEWBORN BABY BOY SNUGGLING A BEAR

Each week I get to capture new families in their sweet newborn baby session.

Each of them a tiny little miracle. What a dream!!

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Don’t you just love baby boys and their sweet little faces? This sweet boy was such a cutie and the first image with him snuggling our baby bear is mine (and his Mom & Dad’s!!) very favorite from his newborn session here in Victoria. Catching a sweet smile is always so special 🙂

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I love that they chose both blues and greens and these deeper colors were just perfect with his hair color! We even got to use our new pompom bonnet which is perfect for winter babies.

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Enjoy this beautiful baby boy’s session share!

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Amanda

January 21, 2019

VICTORIA PHOTOGRAPHER – THIS GORGEOUS NEWBORN BABY GIRL

I was so happy to be able to photograph this beautiful baby girl!

Sometimes we have weeks when our pre-bookings for babies shift (as they have arrived late!) and we are able to take an extra booking that hasn’t been made in advance. Thankful that this was one of those weeks and we were able to photograph this sweet baby girl!! She was just so precious and honestly such a good baby. I loved her sweet little smile in the first image here!!

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The pinks and purples are really complimentary to one another in these soft tones but we wanted to do some monochrome set-ups also so mom & dad would have a greater choice in their gallery! I love adding some sweet floral touches too through the headbands and also this lovely little floral romper by a local company. Looking forward to including fresh spring flowers soon!

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Please enjoy her session share here!

Amanda

January 15, 2019

THE SWEETEST NEWBORN BABY BOY

Wow!! I can’t believe how quickly the last couple months of 2018 flew by! SO much so, in fact, that I haven’t blogged any newborn baby photo sessions since October! This beautiful baby boy was born in October and we are just getting to his session share now…better late than never?!?!

He was such a good little baby for the entire session, which meant that we got to be really creative in his set-ups and got lots of prop photos done before moving onto his peek-a-boo pose on the bean bag.

I love that big brother joined in at the end of his session also. He was such a proud big brother and had the best expressions cuddling this sweet new guy in his life.

I am so proud to be capturing all of his first year moments. All the way from pregnancy pictures to his first year milestone. We have many more fun sessions to come with his First Year Baby Plan!!

Enjoy some highlights of his session share here.

Amanda

October 4, 2018

Beautiful testimonial from this newborn’s parents

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I really do have the sweetest families around!! I so enjoyed this session, capturing the beautiful details and ‘newness’ of this precious baby boy.

A few of the kind words I received from mom and dad:

“We were so excited to get the photos back, they are even more amazing than I could have hoped for!

Both (of us) were blown away with the shoot, your creativity and skills as a baby whisperer, I’ve already recommended you to several of my friends and can’t thank you enough.

I really can’t express how incredible these photos are!”

These reactions warm my heart. I love making families happy and creating memories they will have forever. This is why this ‘job’ is so special. Here is a share of some of the images we captured for them.

Amanda

January 17, 2018

Newborn Photos-Before & After

One of the biggest things that sets us apart as newborn photographers is our editing style. Some love a bold, bright aesthetic, some like a dark and moody aesthetic. I have always gravitated towards a light, serene and airy aesthetic in my finished images. I primarily offer neutrals and soft, muted tones for the studio’s newborn blankets, wraps, hats & headbands. Often they have an organic feel and lend themselves to a soft & classic look in the studio before I even take my images into photo-editing software.

When I began editing newborn images “by hand” an image would sometimes take me a full hour to edit and the process was very tedious!! As time has gone by and my experience has grown (as well as hours upon hours in Photoshop! ;), I try to get my exposure, white balance etc. as close as I can in camera (I use a Canon 5D-MarkIII). I often take up to 200 photos in a session so the first step is to choose around 35-40 of my favourites. The raw camera images are then opened up in Lightroom, where a few minor adjustments are made and then they are imported into Photoshop for skin touch-ups, any colour balance changes and to put the finishing touches on each of the images before the gallery is complete.

The other editing work that takes place is the merging of two images together to create one (composite). This is done in the poses where my assistant Nicole holds baby’s head for safety. Newborn safety is our top priority in our sessions, we would never want to leave baby in a position where he or she could potentially startle and not be supported. The pose below shows the 2 images used to create one final image with baby on his little hands. Voila!!

Then I get to present the finished baby session images (fully edited) to mom & dad in their viewing session. I love meeting with everyone again and seeing how much baby has already changed in only a couple of weeks! This is such a precious time to have for their memories.

I love Jenna Marshall Photography’s sweet newborn images. To see her beautiful editing style, head on over to her page, she is a newborn baby and family photographer based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

here’s her link: http://www.jennamarshallphotography.co.uk

Amanda

January 11, 2018

How Newborn Photography Came To Me

About 8 and a half years ago we had an opportunity to move to the Middle East for my husband’s work. I had traveled a fair amount as a child (my parents and extended family are British) and the idea of a move for a “couple of years” sounded really exciting! A couple months later we were on a plane with our (then) 4 & 6 year old on our way to an incredible adventure. At the end of our first year away, we welcomed our 3rd baby! I loved the time I had with my kiddos, to attend music groups, meet with other moms, adjust to life away from home and help my two older children settle into their new routines.

Photography had only been a hobby. I had always pursued the Sciences. With a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, I’d never considered a career in the Arts. I remember my Dad being interested in taking photos when we were little so I first took photos on a Pentax camera he had given me, using film (never really knowing what I was doing but getting “lucky” with a cute photo now and then). We later purchased a point and shoot camera as digital cameras were introduced and a few years after that took the leap to a digital SLR (the Canon Rebel). Fast forward a couple of years and I, like many moms loved taking photos of my own children, documenting their milestones and everyday moments. I also got really into the hobby of scrapbooking and then further into designing scrapbook papers (insert my love of Photoshop) using snapshots I’d taken over the years.

At this point, I had taken a few family photos for a couple of friends who kept encouraging me to take more. That Fall, the principal at my children’s nursery school asked me to take school photos of each of the children and without a whole lot of thought (jump in headfirst?!), I said “yes”!! With no formal training and really little to NO idea how to use my manual settings, I purchased a backdrop stand, draped a white sheet for a backdrop and got to work! Somehow, that photoshoot was successful and after another parent asked me to photograph a nursery school in Abu Dhabi word started getting out that I could take pictures…somehow the ball started rolling! I continued to take as many photos as I could, branching into desert shoots for families and not only fell in love with photography but grew to love the idea that this could one day be my career.

Within that first year, I was extremely fortunate to meet an incredible group of photographers, women who had honed their art and took pride in running their photography businesses. One of those photographers was the amazing Jillian Greenhill Photography, who was (and is) an incredible Newborn Photographer in Abu Dhabi. After months of asking (and asking and asking ;), she agreed to mentor me in newborn portraiture!! Let’s just say that after an 8 hour day of shooting 4 newborns, I was hooked. I mean I was exhausted, sweaty, head jam packed with camera settings, lighting techniques, poses etc but excited beyond belief with all the information I had been taught. I REALLY wanted to pursue this!!!

It has taken hours upon hours to learn and develop my photography. Both editing skill & style and then to develop a business I am proud of. Photography is ever changing, the people we meet, the family stories we get to share, the most incredible moments we can join in celebrating. The tools we use, the techniques we hone. I am so happy this hobby has developed into a passion and have never been more excited to “go to work”!!

– A m a n d a

Amanda