I always chuckle a little when I’m doing a session with a brand new person and inevitably (it happens almost every single time), the mom or dad says “Wow, I couldn’t do this job.” I get it. It’s hot (really hot!), baby’s cry a lot and wiggle around while I try to pose them. The other siblings see a new person, or a camera, and want to perform for them instead of take pictures, and it can be hard when you’re wrangling them and keeping a baby asleep at the same time. It takes much longer than any other kind of session, and since baby’s feed on your energy, you have to be happy and calm the whole time. So, yeah, I know why I get that statement so often. But (and this is a big “but”), it’s SO worth it in the end. All that work and heat and exhaustion is forgotten in a second when I get home, upload my pictures and squeal with excitement. I mean, I’m talking calling everyone to the computer to come see this precious newborn (I really do that)! For me its not the fact that my artistic vision is realized or that I know the parents are going to be thrilled, it’s the fact that I know these pictures are going to be with this family, and this 10-day old human for 80 or more years. They are going up on the wall, in baby books, on coffee mugs for grandparents and all over the announcements. They will follow the kid through high school and end up in the embarrassing page of the yearbook when they graduate. Those photos will make their future spouse oooh and aaah as they wonder at the love of their life ever looking so small. Later, their kids will compare themselves with those pictures and then later still, someone will say “that baby looks just like their grandma did as a newborn!” And how will they know? Because for two hours today I spent time in a hot home with a squirmy baby and an excitable kid and made something beautiful of it. What an immense privilege.
Thank you to the Hubbard family for letting me capture this beautiful baby girl! She is so incredibly precious!