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100 Days Old | Professional Baby Photography NYC
We’ve talked about a baby session celebrating being 100 days old before, but there’s no better time than 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 old and schedule the session in advance. Like all of our sessions, we require preparation: the best time of day for the baby, themes/outfits, etc. There are a few downfalls with this milestone, compared to having a baby as close to 4 months of age: a child cannot sit on their own, thus propping the baby up is unrealistic – kids this age do not sit on their own. Another setback is, that kids aren’t masters of Tummy Time, typically.
Although the skill is mastered by 6.5-7 months of age, by four months, most children can give us about 30 seconds of continuous tummy time and that’s more than enough time to capture a set of images. Last but not least, although a 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 the reality of what the baby can and cannot do.
This blog is about Evelyn. We discussed various aspects of her 100 Days Old baby portrait session before it. I chose two images to demonstrate the best from this age milestone.
The first advantage of photographing with a mirrorless camera is having an LCD screen and fast autofocus 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 in this age group, kick and twirl around – the 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 make the person think about the images.
This profile view is another one of my favorites. Having a vertical viewfinder would be an asset, but I haven’t used those since the 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 than 3 feet of room from the wall is hard. Once again, this angle was made easier (not easy, but easier) using a mirrorless system.
Overall, the session went as follows, we started with the family and 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 session, she did a good job and we were successful.
