Behind The Scenes Newborn Baby Zara

So I had the Ultimate Extreme Pleasure of being with my *bff* last week during the birth of her second child ~ Zara.  Isn't that the coolest name!


And even though I was super excited for Sharon, I have to be honest, I was more excited for me that I had a newborn to photograph!  I've never done an "official" newborn session before but I've been blog stalking some sites lately and studying posing and props so I've been waiting for this gal for a while so I could try out all my newfound knowledge.  Well let me warn you....IT'S HARD!  


Yes, babies are bendable and are supposed to sleep thru anything during those first days of life but my experience wasn't all smooth sailing~  No matter how hard I tried she kept curling her fingers and I couldn't get those knees to bend for anything!  But in between the feedings and cranky faces she posed like a dream  and now I'm positively in love with newborn photography.  And with Zara.  


Here's some lovliness...just 6 days new~

And for all you Behind the Scenes junkies, here's my humble set-up in my living room...

I feel compelled to tell you that I only used that little stool for a few body part shots while mom was safely holding baby...the rest of the time I used a mega huge ottoman to lay the baby on.  It just looks so tiny from this photograph!  


And for you hardcore Behind The Scenes junkies I made a video!  Yeahh!  
Here's a quick peek with me basically showing you the scene above while trying to keep a hungry newborn from screaming in my arms.  Ohh these models....quite the Divas!!


Enjoy~

Video Tutorial ~ 40 & Pregnant

I've made another video tutorial and it's kinda fun!  
I talk pretty fast though and I've actually tried to slow it down for the videos but then they'll end up being 3 hours long so that's been a challenge for me.  Plus I tend to ramble so I'll just apologize now because I don't think I can stop doing that anytime soon~


This video features a portrait of my Cutie Pie Pregnant BFF Sharon.  She's expecting her 2nd baby girl soon and about to turn 40 so we had quite a memorable day celebrating all the great stuff going on in her life right now.  I'll be sure to tell you all about it in another post where I'll feature a normal step-by-step edit for those of you who aren't fans of the video.  


Also, I've asked a question at the very end of the video about a problem that I've encountered recently with several of my portraits and I'd love to hear your feedback.  I think it's weird to have my reflection in my subjects eyes and I'm wondering if any of you ever experience that?  I've explained it at the end so you can check it out....Enjoy~

My First Video Tutorial!

Wanna know what I learned while making my first ever video tutorial? 

~ It's harder than you think!

It took me about 9 tries to record this thing!  I'm not used to actually explaining what I'm doing and why I'm doing it when I edit so it was really weird for me.  But I tried to make sure to tell what tools I use (like the Liquify tool....the Brush tool) and also mention all the actions I was using and where I got them from.

So if you actually make it thru all 11 minutes of my rambling I would love your feedback!  Let me know what was good....what I need to improve....and what you'd like to see next.  And here's a huge "Thank You" in advance for watching my first ever, super cool, way awesome video tutorial on 

Using Actions to Enhance Your Images!!!! 

{and if it doesn't work just humor me and tell me it was fabulous}