I was really interested to hear what Lori Nordstrom was going to talk about. Lori is from Iowa and specializes in baby photography. And I’ll be honest – I haven’t had a whole lot of opportunities to work with babies so I knew it was an area that I could learn a lot about. And let me tell you…did I ever!!!

Lori covered a lot of things in her talk from marketing to specialized products to a newborn studio necessity list. It honestly would be really hard to cover all the things she talked about here. So I’m going to focus on some of the most beneficial and interesting things I learned.

As with everyone else at Escalate Live, Lori stressed the importance of figuring out who you are, what makes you different and how to set yourself apart. The kind of photography that I, we, do isn’t just about creating pictures or even providing a service…it goes a step beyond that. We take time to get to know you. To find out what you want and need and try to create that something to best fit you and your home. We aren’t some department store photo studio…we don’t plop you down, snap a few shots, and kick you out in 30 minutes or less. That’s not what we are about. Anyway…back to the things I learned.

Seeing as I haven’t done a whole lot of baby sessions and I don’t have any children of my own yet, Lori taught me some things that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. For example, the best newborn pictures are captured within the first 10 days of life. This is when baby is the sleepiest and you can move them into cute little poses and positions that become more difficult they older they get. These photos are also primarily taken in the nude and with baby’s eyes shut. I also learned that it’s important to let your moms know that “your child will poop, pee, and throw up on my things, and I am fully prepared for that. So don’t you worry about it. Just bring something along that we can use to clean baby up.” Just letting mom know that she can expect this to happen, puts her a little more ease and she’ll be less worried or concerned if her child has an accident during the session. Here’s a quick picture that Lori snapped during her mini-session at Escalate Live:

The next session would be the 4 month old session. By this time, most children have become very expressive. This a great opportunity to get as many different pictures of baby’s expressions as possible. Then mom has a kaleidoscope of the many different faces their child has made and it could be made into a nine-up piece or a photo book. This is also about the time that baby starts pushing up with their arms when they are laying on their belly. So it’s a great opportunity to get a couple shots of that new development. Here’s a sample of a 4-up piece showing baby’s expressions (pics taken at Escalate Live too):

By 8 months, baby is sitting up, maybe pulling himself/herself up, so it’s the perfect chance to get some fun pictures of this. Baby is also highly reactive and you can start to play with him/her to get some fun reaction shots or even just some pictures of the baby playing with toys. These can make an awesome storyboard piece or (again) an excellent photo book.

At one year, most moms are interested in doing a birthday cake session. Just strip baby down to his/her diaper and let them have at their own personal birthday cake. You can get some super fun shots of baby smashing a smearing cake and icing on themselves or the floor.

The other thing I learned from Lori is talking to your clients about a Design session. Basically what this is viewing session to help them fit their needs. It covers everything from photo videos, photo books, prints, and wall art. They even have the client send them a photo of the wall they are imagining putting a wall portrait on with a yardstick somewhere in the photo. Then they use the pictures the client likes and using photoshop put together what a framed piece of art might look like on that particular wall in their house.

But the most important thing I learned from Lori was patience. When Lori set up to do her photo session of a little one month old baby, I was just so impressed to see how calm and patient she was. That stubborn little girl just did not want to sleep. But Lori just sat their with her hand holding the baby’s legs in the position she wanted them in and just sat there…and waited. I’m the first to admit I’m not the most patient person in the world. But after watching how Lori did that…I feel like I could be patient enough to do that for newborn photos too. Here’s just a few pictures of Lori working with the little baby. 🙂

P.S. I want a big chunky blanket like that so bad! It’s just super cool and a great texture…

Well I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit more of what I learned from Escalate Live. There will be another installment next week starring Tamara Lackey. If you’ve got anything you’d like to add or share, feel free to leave me a comment.

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