Kevin Hail…Baby Photographer. Not!

I will be the first to admit that I am not a great baby photographer, like my friend Sherah Witt.  I think the very instinct that makes a woman a better nurturer, is the same instinct that makes them better at taking photographs of infants.  Babies don’t respond to my falsetto “coochie coo”, the same way they do to a woman’s soft mommy voice.  Most babies look at me with humor and amusement, like a funniest home video, or a Mr. Bean skit.  So, hey, I’ll go with that.  I think that if I were to really give this “Baby Photography” thing a try, I’d have to give every Mom & Dad paying me a disclaimer…don’t expect to see photos where the baby is looking up at me (the camera) with tender doe eyes.  Expect your baby to look like they just saw a monkey riding on a unicycle.

Nevertheless, I had a blast taking photos of my friends’ sweet, little 4-month-old girl yesterday.  The entire photo shoot took place in the baby’s room over the course of an hour.  I tried natural light, but the window wasn’t allowing me enough light to work with.  So I pulled out the 28″ Apollo Softbox, and put a Canon 580exII speedlight inside and filled the room with directional light.  That setup was what I used for probably 75% of the remaining shot.  It’s critical to leave yourself some options. If I hadn’t had any lights with me, I’d be up a creek.  While I feel that nothing is prettier than natural light pouring in through a window onto a baby laying on a soft blanket in their crib, I just couldn’t get that, so I had to recreate that.

Here are a few of the shots from yesterday.  If you’re a baby photographer, don’t worry…I’m not coming for you.  I’ve got to keep working on my coochie coos.