We’ve talked about a 100 Day old baby session before, but there’s no better time like right now to revisit the topic and discuss the new gear while we are at it. This blog, unlike others, I’ll discuss how it was approached
There is a tradition in Asian cultures to photograph the baby when the little one is 100 days young. Typically parents reach out to us when the little one is 2 months and schedule the session in advance. Like all of our session, we require preparation: best time of day for the baby, themes/outfits, etc. There are few downfalls with this milestone, compared to having a baby as close to 4 months of age: child cannot sit on their own, thus propping the baby up is unrealistic – kids at this age do not sit on their own. Another setback is, kids aren’t masters of Tummy Time, typically. Although the skill is mastered by 6.5-7 months of age, by four month, most children can give us about 30seconds of continues tummy time and that’s more then enough time to capture set of images. Last but not least, although social smile starts around 2 months of age, if the child is uncomfortable (in tummy time) smiles are unlikely to follow. Being a studio of full disclosure and realistic expectations, we tell this to all of our clients who want to photograph their baby at the age of 2-3 months. Nonetheless, we can still have a good session, as long as parents accept reality of what the baby can and cannot do.
This blog, is about Evelyn. We discussed various aspects of her baby portrait session prior to it. I chose two images to demonstrate the best from this age milestone.
First advantage of photographing with a mirrorless camera is having the LCD screen and fast auto focus speeds (unlike DSLR Live View focus speed). I raised my hands, looked into the screen and took that shot all while being a hand reach away from Evelyn. Despite not being very physically active, children at this age group, kick and twirl around – safety of the baby comes well before any images, therefore being ready to capture the image and ready to catch Evelyn is extremely important. I particularly like the square images. Square images aren’t common, they bend the rules of composition and makes the person think about the images.
This profile view is another one of my favorites. Having a vertical videfinder would be an asset, but I haven’t used those since early 2000s on medium format, getting this shot with DSLR is tough because bending down to 4-6 inches of the floor, while having less then 3 feet of room from the wall is hard. Once again, this angle was made easier (not easy, but easier) using mirrorless system.
Overall, the session went as follows, we started out with the family, did combinations with the parents. We had another theme of Evelyn on the moon and my favorite set, of her on the back. For the limitations of the milestone, she did a good job and we were successful.
