Miss Hannah, 8 days old.

l.k.madison

My first newborn shoot!! ... Well, sort of.

My day job is photographing newborns while still in the hospital, this was my first "out of hospital" newborn shot. I actually got to play with one for longer than a few minutes and didn't have to battle hospital room lack of/wrong color lighting.

Her mom hasn't seen these yet, I *just* but them both up on Facebook so mom will see it in the morning. I immediately had someone send me a private message complimenting me on the black one.

C&C Welcome

I took the photo, HusbandMan edited.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lkmadison/4317573883/&quot; title="Hannah on Black by L.K.Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4317573883_fc1440f164.jpg&quot; width="500" height="333" alt="Hannah on Black" /></a>

Photo and edit by me.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lkmadison/4318305742/&quot; title="Hannah on White by L.K.Madison, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4318305742_4f3c3d76a9.jpg&quot; width="500" height="333" alt="Hannah on White" /></a>

kidzmom

LOVE them! Just adorable. I agree the B/W is awesome and I love how you've posed the earflaps in the 2nd shot! Nice work! I'm sure a ton more fun than the hospital room I know the Mom will be thrilled!

jeffreaux2

Hey Lauren....

These are both awesome!!!


The BW is a beautiful conversion.......I think the color one could benifit from a push in contrast. Punch it up a bit.


Great job!

kris10jo

Both are absolutely lovely. Especially love #1 as well. The lighting, prop, and everything just works. Mom is sure to be thrilled with these!

sweet caroline

Precious! And good team work. I wish I could outsource the editing sometimes. Of course, other times I love it.

Caroline

l.k.madison

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Hey Lauren....

These are both awesome!!!


The BW is a beautiful conversion.......I think the color one could benifit from a push in contrast. Punch it up a bit.


Great job!

Thanks!!!

I was struggling with her skintone, she's still a little jaundiced so I had to soften her to make her look less orange. Her hands are slightly purple so that was killing me, too.

Kidzmom, And yes, it's WAY more fun than being stuck in the hospital room, and if they fuss, mom can sneak away and feed them while I get the next set-up ready. Besides, moms are in a MUCH better mood when they've had a few night's sleep under their belt.

Kris10jo, Thanks!! I have a prop buying addiction and my husband found the bowl, and MADE me buy it, and those floors, oh my GOD I love my floors.

Sweet Caroline, Husband and I are a team effort (hence the Squared part of the name), He loves black and white (he still shoots B/W film) so I let him go to town on that shot, we both just fell in love with it.


As far as I know, mom hasn't found the pictures on Facebook yet, her mom did though and it was compliments all around. I'm quite pleased with myself, definitely worth the 5 hour round trip to her house.

l.k.madison

More of Hannah.
Here's another one, fresh out of Photoshop!!!



She liked this prop so much, she "christened" it for me!

Oh, and Hannah's mom found the pictures, her words: "Holy MOLEY is that sweet angel really my child? They are stunning!! Can't wait to see the rest".

I'm proud of myself, it sounds self-centered, but I REALLY love the way these came out. I've already booked a gig because of these shots, (I left her house 24 hours ago) which makes me love them even more.

*And I know there's a spot on her back, it's a birthmark, her parents were just in love with it, so I don't have the heart to erase it*

Agnieszka

Precious!!! Love the basket btw! Just beautiful!

kidzmom

You should be proud! There is nothing more satisfying to me than taking a picture(s) that you love!! These are fabulous. I have enjoyed photographing my child so much that I want to start photographing babies as well. He is now 12 months but will still pose like this for me. I'm busy practicing and trying out new props and positions. It is SO fun photographing little babies! You should frame these for yourself too! Congratulations!

l.k.madison

kidzmom wrote:

You should be proud! There is nothing more satisfying to me than taking a picture(s) that you love!! These are fabulous. I have enjoyed photographing my child so much that I want to start photographing babies as well. He is now 12 months but will still pose like this for me. I'm busy practicing and trying out new props and positions. It is SO fun photographing little babies! You should frame these for yourself too! Congratulations!

thanks!!!! I think I'm going to specialize in babies, I just love to just cuddle and snuggle up on them!! (of course, I'm always up for seconding a wedding with you, Jeff!!) She was so much fun, it doesn't hurt that she was just BEYOND precious and perfect, coloring was the only editing I did, no retouching or anything.

Her full gallery is up at www.madisonsquared.com/proofing/hannah for those of you interesting in seeing the rest of them. We only shot a few (as in 75) due to having to clean up the "accident" on the basket and transititioning shots, she wasn't as sleep as I would have liked, but that's ok.

sparky675

sweet shots, love the second shot pose,, good luck. be waiting for more to view

Jheyerck

beautiful, perfect. LOVE THEM!!! I love number 1, but I would totally get #2 if I was the mom, you can see her precious face so well, and I love the colors!! she will LOVE them!

l.k.madison

Jheyerck wrote:

beautiful, perfect. LOVE THEM!!! I love number 1, but I would totally get #2 if I was the mom, you can see her precious face so well, and I love the colors!! she will LOVE them!

Mom's still undecided on which ones she wants. She gave me the ok to use the black and white one for all of our advertising (website, business cards, etc) under the condition that she got a hard copy. Sounds like a deal to me!

I don't have a favorite, I love them all.

Snowgirl

These are gorgeous. I'm waiting to do my first newborn shoot any day now - whenever the client's baby decides to make his/her appearance in the world. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

l.k.madison

Snowgirl wrote:

These are gorgeous. I'm waiting to do my first newborn shoot any day now - whenever the client's baby decides to make his/her appearance in the world. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Lots of patience!! Expect it to take twice as long as you think it will!!

(If baby is normally breast fed and mom doesn't have a problem "bending", have her slip it some formula, it's got more calories and they'll sleep longer/better)

My sister's best friend is due with a boy any day now as well, I had to go buy a boy hat just for little Andrew - hopefully, he'll be as cooperative as Hannah was!

Justiceiro

l.k.madison wrote:

Here's another one, fresh out of Photoshop!!!

I really like the first two that you posted. Particularly number two- what a pensive look that baby has. I would have loved to see a small chess board in front of her- she has the same expression that an old guy that used to play in Washington Square had.

So that's the good news. The bad news is the photo above. The pose isn't nearly as good a the previous ones, and it needs a much warmer color temperature. Frankly, this baby looks dead, and that is a bit freaky.

l.k.madison

Justiceiro wrote:

I really like the first two that you posted. Particularly number two- what a pensive look that baby has. I would have loved to see a small chess board in front of her- she has the same expression that an old guy that used to play in Washington Square had.

So that's the good news. The bad news is the photo above. The pose isn't nearly as good a the previous ones, and it needs a much warmer color temperature. Frankly, this baby looks dead, and that is a bit freaky.

I love honesty, really!!! I'll warm it up a bit before mom orders a print of it. I stare at a picture long enough and my brain freezes up with what to do to it. I didn't intend for her to look like she's already passed, I promise, she's very much alive. Seconds before this shot was taken, she decided to "christen" that basket, we wiped up what would show in the shot and shot it anyway. I'll give it another run through photoshop and warm it up. Thanks for the feedback.

l.k.madison

Here's two edits, a warm and a chocolate/white copy.





I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so both went up!

topcat374

Fantastic photos all round IMO. You are right to be very pleased with yourself! This must be such a change to photographing in hospital and so much more satisfying. Well done

photolove

So sweet! Good job!

met

l.k.madison wrote:

Here's two edits, a warm and a chocolate/white copy.

I like this one much better than the previous edit. These look awesome!

EOS_JD

Stunning! - All of them

thebusch

Stunning images of a beautiful child!
Really, really superb work!

l.k.madison

thebusch wrote:

Really, really superb work!

Thank you!! She was my first "pro" baby shoot and a complete ANGEL in the process. Her mom didn't believe me when I told her that she was a perfect model, pooping on my basket and all!