Let him sleep...

Dining room turned newborn studio...I finally got really tired of moving all of the dining room furniture out, moving all of the newborn equipment in, unpacking, setting up, and leaving it in a mess for at least a day after the shoot because the task of re-organizing just didn't seem very fun. I was reluctant to bring up the idea to Ryan of permanently converting it, but he was surprisingly all for it. He thought the formal dining room was such a waste of space since we never used it...so with that green light, I went shopping. I wanted to make sure that everything had a place that wouldn't be too tempting for curious hands to get into. The posing beanbag is still very much a launch pad for my two rugrats, but I'm really happy the way everything turned out. It made setting up, working and cleaning so much easier and efficient.

My hope is to enclose it soon...maybe with french doors, so it doesn't seem like a dark dungeon of a hallway walking to the living room. If you guys have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Once it's 100% finished, I'll post pics that weren't snapped from my phone.

My very first visitor to the new space was baby Walter. For anyone who's ever worked with a newborn photographer before, you may have heard that the sweet spot for photos is the first 4-14 days of life. During that time frame, babies are super sleepy and mold into those cutesy little poses you see all over Pinterest. Well...Mr. Walter is six weeks old. He decided to make his grand entrance into this world a little earlier than expected, so newborn photos weren't exactly the first thing on his momma's mind. I couldn't have been more excited to get my little baby-loving hands on him. I was crazy excited at the opportunity to work with an "older" newborn. And all ten pounds of his sweetness did not disappoint.

Walter's mommy, Jackie, and I planned out pretty thoroughly what we could both do to make sure he was at his very sleepiest...and boy did he sleep. He slept better than some 10 day old babies I've worked with. He wasn't a huge fan of me trying to pose him, though. Anytime I would get one limb in the perfect spot, he'd jet the other three out. We did this a few times before he finally just refused to be moved in any position other than exactly the way he wanted put himself. And I was completely fine with that. Whenever I'm working with a newborn, they run the show. I try for what I want, and I work with what I get. So I let him sleep, and snapped all around him.

Walter's mommy and daddy are both originally from Illinois, but his daddy is a St. Louis fan...to the great dismay of mommy's Cubs loving family. I'm an Astros girl myself, so these photos weren't me choosing sides...just simply working with what was provided to me :-)

Walter's mommy and daddy waited a really long time for this little boy, and I'm pretty stoked that I got to document such an exciting time for their family.

Jackie, it was so great getting to know you and your little man; he could not be any sweeter or snugglier. I hope to get the whole family in front of my camera really soon!