Earlier in the year, I photographed Paul and Hallie as they were expecting their first daughter. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to photograph the freshly arrived Baby Julia in their home in Fairfax. At only 7 days old, she was a great subject to capture for her excited parents.
As with my last baby photo shoot, I planned ahead a set of different shots that I absolutely wanted to get. This let me plan out and orchestrate each photo quickly and efficiently. After we finished all the different “must have” shots, I worked with Paul and Hallie to come up with a few different, on the spot set ups.
For this shoot, I mostly used one light (a Nikon SB600 triggered via Nikon CLS) with a shoot-through umbrella. I had my wife Cheri help me out as an assistant and she helpfully moved and angled my light as I requested. I think she’s starting to get used to assisting for me as she is beginning to understand my grunts and gestures more easily.
The only shot that I took with natural lighting was with Baby Julia on Paul’s shoulder. For this I had Paul sit near a window and had Cheri hold up a silver reflector to the left of the camera frame. This filled in the shadows nicely.
