It’s always an honor to photograph a new baby, but especially when it is the baby of a past wedding client.  This is baby Cameryn.  The very first baby to the Smiths, who were married in Sedona a couple years ago.  She was born while I was out of town, so the first image was taken by my associate Robin Lee, who is a very good family and child photographer.  She showed up at the hospital to get a couple shots of Cameryn’s first day in this world.  I think that any infant portrait is “more complete” with great photos early on in the baby’s life.  So when I book an infant portrait, I want to get some images from the hospital.  Most people think they will just get a couple snapshot of their own, but they don’t ever turn out very good, and it is such a historical moment, it just deserves to be captured right.

Thanks again to Robin for getting to the hospital to capture this first image while I was out of town.

We then scheduled a portrait session at the Smith home a few weeks after the baby’s birthday.  This is the best time for infant portraits.  It gives the baby a chance to acclimate, but not enough time to grow, so when we take those size comparison shots of the baby’s hands and her father’s, it is still quite striking.

We’re not sure what this look is, but it makes me laugh.

She is beautiful.

Yes, the baby is very religious and extremely precocious and is already reading the Bible.

This was something that Allison (mom) suggested.  There are a few issues to deal with on a shot like this.  First, focus on the appropriate words and the child at the same time, without having to great a depth of field… and if everything is sharp, you leave far too many options for the viewer which only creates visual confusion.  The other issue, is design.  How do you design a shot with an infant, and a book?  She’s obviously not going to be sitting up, holding the book and reading it.  I messed with this quite a bit while we were shooting trying to get a composition that I could get behind.  I like this one.

I love the next two shots.  This was the last shot of the session and she was exhausted.  She fell asleep in this basket and we couldn’t, for the life of us get her to stir, we could reposition her like a little clay model and she would just stay there.  It was good for designing the shot.  And she was obviously enjoying the photo shoot as well.

Infant Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography.

Hospital shot by Robin Lee.

Location: Chandler, Arizona.

Slideshow music by Cherie Call, Courtesy of Cherie Call.