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Q&A and The Challenging Toddler

I want to perfect it a little bit I like I think I have a couple more where your hand is in more he is very john listen that photo because of the the white and the creams and so we will definitely be selecting him and adjusting for the tones on his skin obviously um and you know with kids just try to get it quick when we do a newborn session I literally bring him in for like five minutes and they're out if I was doing this at the studio I would probably bring her in a couple more times and I would maybe shoot the toddler two to three different ways to get one money shot okay ready for internet question great thiss one's going out to simply bliss and me or um I've heard an nsa how important it is to pose the baby in the in your hands first before setting them down is there a trick or technique to this I've never been able to quite get the baby relax enough in the hands first can you talk to that yeah let's bring the next baby over I'm afraid to say her name alaia she's ten days old alai...

a that's a pretty name where'd you get that name he made it out but it's hebrew way heard it and were like that's fun so she's asleep she is not a small girl she is ten days old how many pounds uh she was ten six theun sick if I had an award I would give it to you right now I'm giving a virtual reward did you have a c section we heard you had a home birth where's the award does anyone have won oh wow in a time wow okay well come here come here she just give me a big group came here I don't know let's do let's do what's to want whitewood dude do you like levels likes bubbles like bubbles mr john has some bubbles mr john has bubbles so here's the thing about posing I knowthis is a good example because this is a ten pound baby so I don't think I could do this baby in my hands but what I'm trying what I would normally d'oh is think about the pose that I wantto get them in and position them for example she's really happy I need like give me apple box mama wow I'm a wimp I have no strength ask my assistant randy she'll tell you I've got I haven't excused you have iron deficiency I have no strength so I'm gonna sit because I'm a weakling so if whoa girl wow she's just well she's gonna be tall where's dad yeah give me tall big babies they're usually tall okay so you know what we're doing quite yet but we'll we'll just kind of loosely tie that so if I was positioning her in my hands I'm gonna show you what I would do can I give you that for a minute let's say want her on my her tummy let's do without the hat so I can show you what I'm talking about I would say I'm going to turn her over to see how our hand my hand is on her head and I'm gonna get her in position in my hands this is the wrong baby to do an example with but it's okay it's okay we can do it and see how I'm getting her on her tummy in my hands this's how I would position that so you don't necessarily it depends with oppose that I'm doing but you don't necessarily need to position them standing in mid air on one arm you have to think what's the pose I'm gonna be doing okay let me think about this I'm gonna be putting her on her tummy then it's really a good idea to get her in her tummy in your hands first let's say if we were doing like more of an egg then I would put her on her back I would get her legs tucked in nice and close tuck in her arms and I would hold her like a little egg in my hands so that's kind of what we talked about with positioning of babies body in your hands plus you can feel them if she jerks I can feel where it's coming from if she's going to die or have gas I can feel it I can feel it when she's already in the proper a bean bag so I would much rather do as much as I can in my hands and sometimes I'm holding a baby for ten fifteen minutes I'm shushing them I'm talking to them by the time I'm done there nice and sleepy I would rather do all of that in my hands and then pose later but you have you have you and your tummy and I don't think we're gonna photograph you in your tummy I'm gonna turn you around well there's two never pass if I want to take one more quick question uh allie kay would like to know if you have any other suggestions for working with bigger basis yes like this little mama sit down don't try to do it standing up I actually like bigger babies because once they sleep there usually out like a light froggy pose I actually get really well in in a bigger baby she's kind of awake right now but look what I'm doing right now see how I'm leading her forward if I was doing froggy pose look what I would dio I'm seeing if she's gonna lean forward right that's what she's doing and what happens in froggy post this hand is up right and this hand is up she's not gonna do it but I'll show you the idea and normally I would mean forward see look at her valium and babies actually love this position because it gets out gas bubbles if they're burping this is a very common bird position see him holding right under here if I go one step further and just pat her back they usually really get very comfortable but what this is doing is I'm feeling her tummy and she is a little harder than most I'm feeling right here so I would say to the mom I don't know if she's going to do a froggy or a taco because I don't think she could get over her body but if I take her bum out she can easily do a bum up pose do you know what I mean and I'm taking my hand and I'm turning and I'm just resting her and look a lot of this she's just doing to she's just going with it and I'd say okay I can get your tishia I'm holding her she's not going anywhere and I have my lap for support I would not do this in midair like I did the other babies not helpful absolutely most as when they see me doing this like I do this at home all the time I swinger by one arm she loves it you know so ask dads dads are really good at like finding good baby positions so anna are boys or girls generally easier to work with at this early age is it's kind of fifty fifty and that's a question I'm cherry hubs sherry boys are easier just a fact I had a boy first and then to girls do you think we're gonna wrap her all of our friends had girls and told us how hard girls were way had a baby boy and everything is perfect and great and we have no idea what they were talking about we were amazing parents and then I had my beautiful girls and girls the difference to me is girls love to be held more to me every baby is different so what I'm saying is not a blanket statement in my experience the majority of girls they love their mama girls want to be held rocked to rap they want a nurse on your boob fall asleep and wake up and do it again boys to me they're more the company when they're hurt tired or hungry fita boy put him down there usually okay I do have clients with pussy boy's so I'm not saying this is everybody that can we get the fuzz off here and then give me a wrap um and give me a cheese wrapping was away rap over it so in my experience when I have a day of all girls I know I'm it's going to be work I know that mom it's gonna be work and boys they're just they're just generally they're just easy I mean and I've got two girls and a boy girls are prettier yes and I think my daughter's air amazing but they definitely gave me a run for my mother my mother gave me a run for my money when I became a mother to them you have two girls and two girls and a boy but everybody's different people that say my boy was a piece of my boy was hard my girl was easy so just a quick comment from the chat room yasmin mason says I'm I'm in england I'm from england it's almost midnight there but I would stay up all night to watch this thank you ana thank you that's fun yeah and I'll put something else on it we'll do a white white rap we have a white one I think it's hanging although she's wearing pink and what are we doing he's holding her let me ask a question so how would he is best holding her is he best sitting crisscross applesauce and putting her in his lap and were spotting your legs out okay but he's probably not sturdy enough he'll fall back right so someone needs to hold his back okay is she generally a grantee baby she does grunt not gassy she just grunts she just is nice okay I just like to know if when the baby's air grantee I want to know is this a new thing is this justcause me so I take it personally or they just granted I just kind of need to know and so mom will be like she grunts or no this has never happened before I ate something so if mom's like it's kind of cold over here if mom says yeah she's a little guarantee the reason I'm gonna wrap her is why why do you think you guys exactly we need to cut down our variables right he's a questionable variable so let's get this one all wrapped up you know this pacifier working we're not sure if we like the pacifier home mom are you nursing mom are you nursing and so the pacifier is just a question she doesn't really love it she does yeah she doesn't seem to love it today could be me now we're keeping the pants underneath if I was alone in my studio I would probably do the same thing why because it's a second outfit right then if she sorry did she go we'll keep the feet out I think if she goes to sleep I can strip her down but like I said I kind of save the stripped down to the end when they're just tired of me they're usually after a while they get word of me it's a big girl we could keep the little ruffles in the pants sound that's fun okay so many questions we're almost done with baby day you guys we're almost done I feel like I have so much more to tell you we were ready for a question over here um so what kind of this is from me remove what kind of props do you use for boys there's so much out there for girls but wondering what to do for the boys and same about color sort of color how you deal with color with well all the props we use today works for girls and voice because if you think about it we use the moon now even though it came with a blue star doesn't have to have a blue star we used well came into the promise girly but these rod iron baskets are totally boy what can you show that one there's there's two other all for these things that tip is going to show you are all great for boys boy boy and then this bucket and also thiss and that one is great for either pissy props I believe that came from she's got great stuff for boys but you know what go flea markets oh I love flea markets how do you not love flea markets goto a flea market my kids always like are you putting food in that or a baby you know it's like look for just more things that are a little bit more rustic being careful that you know they have to be safe for the baby color like grey's really really re screen all the time give me a another rap over here you know I guess it's just your white one of the white shells or something the scarf kind I think they're hanging by maternity you know what I hear that a lot about boys but I think boys are really easy I think girls are hard because there's so much you want to use everything where his boys I actually prefer boys just naked on a bean bag with you know I didn't do well I didn't do like taco pose or froggy pose there's a lot of poses I didn't do because today's point was showing you more of the workflow working with children siblings working with lighting it's kind of like either or you kind of to spend a day just going over baby poses where you kinda have to spend a day going overflow so it's hard to show you everything in one day was just not enough hours in the day but if if we had more time I would probably show you a million transitions with just baby on beanbag baby on prop just very basic basic things less colors less fuss I could spend a whole day just showing you how to work with a baby of that any props you know because if you think about it you want to go back to the basics of the baby I love babies that are just pure fresh natural not so property when I do props it's only like so I think just one or two segments the rest is just basic basic baby basic simple it's not I don't spend I'm not a photographer he spends the whole time doing props I do one or two and that's it the rest is just kind of naked baby beanbag I think she needs a cute hat or a bonnet any more questions yes they're quiet the day's almost over no want to go just gonna sit in the studio all night just talk to myself how are you guys feeling is it fun how is it different from a workshop tell me cause but two of you have been the workshops with me well we're just watching now where were you know workshop we'd be we'd be doing it we'd be done you feel like you're learning more cause you're observing ideo you d'oh it's not I mean I'm workshops you learn you know a lot is well but just watching you I'm learning about you could just sit and observe right that's good for those that are buying the course because they can't you can go back and look over and over and over again and I feel like workshops are obviously invaluable because you get hands on experience but then you leave in your life what did anna say here you can replay yes actually I think during the workshop I learned a lot about lighting and then some about posing everything but sitting here watching aiken really soak up posing and rapping and all the things that you've done today where is the workshop it was all lighting and I hear you flow posing which yes with babies with different coloring for instance john dis or a real pink baby do you let that drive your color palette or do you work do you deal with that in photo shop yes that's it an amazing question because let's try that one because if you have a very john this baby I mean this baby looks from extra jonah's on that screen not jonasson person but if if you okay here's a good example if you have a very pink baby don't put him on a pink backdrop because it's gonna be even more pink and you're gonna be pink correcting all day and all night if you have a very john this baby don't use a yellow background or even a green background or anything orange because you're just going to magnify that so yes you definitely need to watch the tones um and also for color correcting later if a john dace baby is on a pure white or a pure cream it's not so hard because it's easy to notice the different colors versus if they're on a yellow you're trying to adjust that you're gonna lose your mind a very pink baby I like white colors I do like rosie colors but they just can't be too pinky um I like purple's I've even used blue on a baby but yeah it does have an effect and baby skin there so see through and translucent that ifyou've ever look sometimes if you have a really strong color blanket like a cranberry but changes their skin color you can see it well you can see it I've seen it before we like but baby's faces blue or whatever you know like that stream is one of thanks creative photography for such a great question thank you it was a great okay here we go this is gonna be really tricky yes this is gonna be really tricky because kai is too and this is a big baby and I have a hard time holding her so here's my thought tiffany we're gonna try him sitting in holding my backup you know my backup would be my backup would be her on the beanbag and him leaning over that's my backup this's questionable kai john can we take a test shot with kai sitting down hi communion can we come sit down we might need bubbles for the smooth or just putting her in a basket next to him and he could just sit next to her that'll be a backup fifteen minutes I don't know about him holding her yeah why don't you put it let's go safe he's two two year old is not to harsh relating john too is not there not the age of reasoning yet they don't know they just know here you know I took child development when I was in high school and it was invaluable tto learn the different stages of child development you know the age of bribery the age of reason you know you if you don't know them you don't have kids learn the different stages of child development of how they are one two three four and five and six because it'll help when working with them and sometimes you may be asking something that they're not developmentally capable of doing and that's really important who don't want to ever try to exceed what their development capabilities are because you're just not gonna win okay so we're going to put baby in a basket I think the egg baskets too small can we do this wrought iron one the gray one and let's get baby in here and then he can just come and and um lean over baby but that great for great first from one of our vendors might have to flip over behind she's awake we are wide and chicken hi I say hi everybody so any questions what's happening how the chat rooms chat rooms are doing fantastic so this is from jasmine okay have you ever had a sibling just refused to have the photo taken and what do you do in that situation please I don't promise anything to mom I say we will try so that mom knows if her child's going to do it or not come on mom is no more than I do when it comes to their children so I will say the mom let's try and I will do every the power of my mean you get that shot and I will say I've got a very good success ratio ides perfect john thank you I would say ninety nine percent of the time we get him we sometimes just don't and when I say I tried everything in my power we have a lollipop tree which kids love but again they have to be the age of bribery we have the bubble game that tiffany might be playing with him we hide cheerios behind the babies the baby because sometimes the mom's like I just want them in the same frame right so sometimes we'll put a cheerio right here and they look at the baby that's a curio looking at but they look lovingly at the baby later you know so we have like probably fifty he tricks up our sleeves and if all else fails and nothing's happening we tried but most of the time we get it and my clients no I will do anything get the shot obviously in a safe manner but if I have to bring in six assistance and were hanging from the chandeliers we will get that shot and I'm a mom so I'm just like I go into like mom power mode like oh I'm getting this shot you know the dads will be like we're done we're done they're not gonna do it or the mom's air exhausted I'm like oh no work we're getting it it's happening what's happening that goes back into them paying for a session having an assistant we used to charge more for the toddlers there used to be a higher fee because it required a staff but then when I adjusted my pricing we took that away so children children are included well I wanted to put her on her tummy I don't know if she'll go for it but I can try it right here so we're we're wrapping up right we only have like ten more minutes so I would say any last minute questions I have a question that just came in from gretel sardinas uh ideas who says I'm a newborn photographer based in luxembourg I only can do this in my free time and I don't work a lot and I don't have a lot of clients and I have two kids this class is amazing it is helping me with a lot of issues I've had several times I just bought it because it is going to be my bible on gretel says thanks and she also has a question and the question is for example in the froggy position I normally focus on the face but then the feet are out of focus is that okay or shall I do a composite to have both in focus we haven't really talked too much on focusing she should be on all point focusing so that her focus points or have a range of focusing but yes her her focus points should cover the head and the feet yes so the feet should be in focus of correct correct and then also there was questions earlier when you're shooting a toddler and the baby what do you actually focusing on well again I'm in all point focusing so my focusing points on the mark three I've got a lot of them they're all going and when I'm you know compressing my shutter and I'm seeing the focusing the red dots you know the focusing points I'm making sure that those red dots are you know how you're depressed it halfway and you can see the focusing points john if you could technically say this a better way but I'm making sure that the baby's face and the toddler face are kind of a line in a way that I could get them both sharp is there a better way to save them I said ok thank you that's the word I was looking for so it's getting them on the same plane means a pillow so you're gonna have a harder time with the toddlers way over there in the baby's bigger I'm all about bringing people closer on the same plane same with the parents to when they're holding them notice that I was bringing them in closer to the face notice I was trying to bring them in the same area I don't want a lot of space between my subjects for that reason and I like everybody and focus yeah so I just want to clarify that there's still a lot of questions coming in about the all the focus points and the five mark three has many many focus points so has too many how many points so it's people are still asking are you toggle ng are you focusing and recompose looking my camera john I'm all focused points yes I'm all of them on so that is a special feature in the mark three well helena's humor has all focus points right don't all cameras have the ability to put on all focus points but when I'm suppressing the shutter the lights are beaming on where I want them to be is there a better way to say this e I just think people are just a little bit their lives it's a little it's a tricky subject it is attributed to jesus because if the camera's selecting the focal point that is not then they all of them then the feet and the head would not be in focus so they would be in focus because okay because elaine what five six between five so we're not talking about aperture why thank you because there's shooting at two point a right no can't do it stop shooting in two point eight that's the problem is people are shooting at two point eight and they cannot get the head and the feet and focus and they've lost the toddler at two point eight you know the old adage that your aperture should make sure toe cover the higher number of people in the frame you know saying so if you have like a group of eight you cannot shoot anything less than eight or six three if you want to play I only shoot at those apertures to point a three point five when baby is alone and I'm more focusing on just the face and let's say everything else is wrapped when that baby is in a froggy position or I need more full body I'm I'm a five six girl you guys when I'm out of the house and I've gotta pull it because the grain is so fine and mark mark three I picked the aperture I want to shoot at so if I'm on location and I'm like you heard me earlier I was a two point I felt like it was soft and I hear that from photographers all the time they're like my images there sir soft and I'm like why because I'm always on two pointy why are you always on to point a sometimes oh two point eight isn't isn't always the perfect aperture I can shoot a five point six to get a nice shallow depth of field especially from pulling the subject away from the background and if I'm getting the baby and I'm getting froggy pose I want to get all this area I've never shot the froggy posted less than five point six so find a five point six my cameron knows the range and the depth of field that I want and when I depressed that shutter and the focusing points are coming is going do to to to to and I'm usually with pregnancy at six three and seven one and like I said unless I'm alone and I'm just zooming in that that baby's face or before when we were wrapped and I was just focusing on the baby than two point eight is fine but I think we need thio experiment to different apertures and if you're having a problem and you realize it's only because you're a two point eight change your aperture is that helpful is that better I'm glad we covered out things that's what okay wait get somebody to spot her in your work okay let's do a test shot with baby I'm feel like I'm losing her face she needs to be up over this corner there we got a different student that hasn't spotted wei have too much light because baby is gonna be here so I think you need to be over here it was too hot she's sanitizer john rock oh yeah just scored at my hands any other questions thank you I have a comment from darlene who said I have been a foot a photographer for twenty years in upstate new york and I'm seeing the changes in newborn photography thank you so much for helping us oldsters make the change I'm excited to try the new changes well that's cool to hear that's fun seller from a fellow new yorker you know it it's it's hard because time's changing you you do have to change with them I've seen a lot of changes over the past fourteen years when I started out I had been studying and get us an ansel adams for ten years trying to master the light and the black and white and the grey and I thought the whole world of photography was black white and gray and I remember introducing color in my world it was really hard is really hard and you know all these colors and these props when I started out with newborns it was naked baby that was it and knowing your light so yeah things have changed and they're going to continue to change and evolve I don't know what the next ten years they're gonna hold you're clean you're gonna rub um but I think if I keep going back to why you're doing it I keep going back to it's it's the love of the art if you love it you're going to spend the rest of your life adapting perfecting changing I don't I'm not perfect I don't think my work is perfect I critique I've critique this whole day so far I can tell you have five thousand things I did wrong today um but I know what I know and I want to do better and learn more and my job is to continue to educate myself and if I can help people along the way I'll do it but there is no photographer on this planet I don't care how much experience you have that knows everything there is no secret to newborn photography can we say that there is no secret you need patience and you need time that's what you need there are tips tools techniques robbing soothing wrapping swishing they're not secrets they were invented far before photography came around minute babies came around in the earth how many billions of years ago shushing methods for in effect we just didn't document them all right handsome kind doing there I feel like I'm losing her her face down there um but let's let's do it mind blowing out her whites blowing at our rights uh yeah and john I feel like if we turn the left down a little bit and just feel like I'm looking at her whites way want to tuck in the diaper savon retouching later and we're gonna end this segment with this there's so much we didn't get to do today I had big plans huh but hopefully learned something hopefully learned something today if this goes well we could put a crown on her okay here we go ready can we do a test one two three high mama you're wide awake things like she needs she's gotta be out we'll just bring her out let's get her out and up and then let's get him in more of a lift okay okay okay you're almost done you're almost done yes ok same baby it's okay somehow toddlers don't like when the baby's air that you only you're only nursing thing ms tuck it he would like to know she would like her thoughts on have you ever had a parent that really really wanted to help rather than letting your assistance because they were kind of overprotective yes how do you deal with that I left them I tried to direct them and say um you know there have been situations where that's happened where they were really good bring it on there really good let's go I'll take it my assistants and plenty of things to do um if I feel like they're not quite helping because we have a way of doing things I'll say you know what if it is if it's okay let me just have tiffany come in you can just relax um I've I've photographed in probably every situation you could possibly humanly think of I've had it I would take me a year to go over every single one of them and I said before that I come from a servant attitude where they're paying me to photograph their baby if they want to help and they're effective let's do it if they're not effective I'll just saying let's see if I can have tiffany help que pasa for okay here we go hey kind watch your head watch your head watch your head watch your head past past your past your past our past fire press for classifier master okay so what happened there she should have the pacifier we lost her it's too quick of a time between soothing we're gonna try one more time she's hungry here you go here you tell me your story what happened to pay for felicia today first take a picture and all that do you think we take one picture okay you got your patting rubbing don't pull the passover till we say we're ready we're going home right now your sister okay we're gonna pop him in any moment is coming I think you might need to go get him why does it mom come lead him in and you come to me okay mama's coming in you want daddy to go in I may have lost one may watch this might be my one percent it's okay that will be the first time okay you only live across the world to worry about it no one's watching to see you oh you got some lions so maybe mom if you could just try someplace I'll bring about him and you will have a problem mom you're gonna do everything to try and get him down go go go get ready we're gonna pull pacifier can you go on his knees is there a bubble would have cheerios can we put a bubble in the basket can't get ready get ready to pull and pull back go go go get ready go go go go yeah another one can it okay that's a wrap way ah uh okay that was praying like oh yeah great job I'm excited to see those photos what I'm excited to see those photos right third day yeah yeah we're gonna we're gonna be editing all of these sodas she those are lights john lights go are you kidding baby looks our baby's face babies for baby's face he lost maybe I can always baby swap her teo can you put your cheek on her cheek can you go chief tio tio kisses o okay look over here and we can also baby swap her if we have to she's making that's a wrap you guys good job if she's making some funny faces what we would do is member we took those safe shots of her we could swap her out but thiss getting him it's priceless we you know you got to get it the purpose of doing that safe shot of her is we do a little magic do little swap and do a little little photo shop in and we're done