Newborn Safety

Lately I’ve had a few images that other photographers have asked me “How did you get that shot!?”  and I realized, that some of them might look risky, and so I wanted to show everyone how they were done, and what they REALLY look like when they come straight out of my camera, before the magic of Photoshop happens!

If ever you see something in my portfolio (and in many many other experienced photographers portfolios) that looks a little on the risky side, you can rest assured that it’s what’s called a “composite” image.  Generally, there are at least two images combined (or a lot of “cloning”) to make the one final work of art that we share with the world.  For example…

“Heart Baby” is probably one of my favourite newborn images to date.  In the final product, it appears that dad is balancing the baby upright in his hands.  Nope!  I personally feel like that’s too risky, so this particular shot, for me, was accomplished by making a big well in my jumbo high rise bean bag and positioning baby safely on his side while moulding dads hands around him.  The rest was done in photoshop.  Baby was safe the entire time, never at risk of falling.  Also, by the time I managed to get this little guy into position, I was a sweaty, out-of-breath mess (seriously anyone who thinks this is easy should come and watch a session one day! lol!)  So I missed that his boy parts were playing peekaboo with my shot.  In an effort to maintain his dignity, I’ve edited them out.  

When I’m working with a basket or bucket, sometimes baby will settle in nicely and their little heads will just naturally lay where I want them to go without any need for hands holding them up.  In this case, he kept pulling his little chin in towards his chest, plus he was a little unsettled and I had positioned him off a little farther to the one side of the basket than I wanted to.  I didn’t want to attempt repositioning him since we didn’t want to wake him up again, so I needed mom’s help to just prop his head where I wanted it to get my shot.  I should also mention that this basket had 10 lbs. of weight in the bottom to counteract the baby’s weight in the top.  I always have a spotter no more than arms length away from a prop at all times. 

Sometimes I will flip a box or flat bottomed basket upside down for a different look to a prop shot.  In this case, even if baby is nice and settled into a pose, there is always someone no more than arms length away from them in case they startle. 

Working with siblings can be especially precarious.  They’re still little too, baby usually isn’t wearing a diaper, and if the sibling gets scared or peed on, they’re apt to forget about baby and bolt.  All of my favourite sibling shots had dads hands on or very near baby at all times for safety. 

Whether it’s a police hat, fire helmet, cowboy hat, or Uncle Joe’s favourite beanie – babies do not balance on top of these things on their own like this. 

Sometimes, the shot you see never even really happened!  In this case, it was right after a tornado literally devastated the street that this little guy lives on.  His dad was part of the volunteer fire team that was assisting in putting everything back together afterwards.  It was really important to him that we got this shot, but no way, no how was that baby going to let us put him into that bucket.  Try as we did, he just wasn’t having it.  Not all babies will do all poses, and that’s perfectly fine.  In this case though, since it was so important to dad, I took a picture of the set up, and then arranged another pose on my comfy beanbag that baby was happy in with the intent to merge the two together later on.  Dad never even knew the difference!  

So it should go without saying that a newborn should never be left without a spotter throughout their session, but what about older babies?  They’re sitting on their own, they should be cool, right?  Not if they’re in a prop.  I never ever ever leave a baby without a spotter within arms length if they’re in a prop. 

This little guy was just barely sitting on his own, so put him into a wobbly prop and there was no safe way that he could safely balance by himself.  I just had mom help him out a bit.  

So the moral of the story?  If you’re a photographer, always have a spotter.  If you’re a parent and have hired a photographer to make portraits of your child, always ensure their safety.  If a photographer puts your baby in a prop and then steps back more than an arms length away from your baby, speak up.  No shot is ever worth sacrificing the safety of a baby.

Thanks for reading!