Little Corner of Ania

Remember this little missy?

Just finished editing all the photos from this babysession..

I love clients with gorgeous window light and uncluttered space allowing for photos like these..

And look at these tiny, tiny babytoes ..

Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on the babycard so that the CD with the photos will be ready to be sent in the mail tomorrow…

Thanks so much for wanting to wait until I was available to get to shoot your little baby! :)

Had such a wonderful time :)

I visited a little friend today. Her parents, whose wedding I was so fortunate to shoot last year (while little miss F was in her mothers tummy nevertheless), asked me if I wanted to photograph her before Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time back then, but they patiently waited for me and well, here’s the pictures =)

She had just learned how to roll around, and kept doing that a lot of the time. Cute, but stressing for the photographer trying to shoot her away from the edges of the carpet! =)

She seemed like a thoughtful and serious little missy..

Who appreciated her cuddly toys…

Wondering what her parents were up to this particular day.

Loved shooting a baby once again, it’s been a while!

Thanks much for letting me photograph her! More photos to come…

Flipping through the finished babyphotos I couldn’t resist sharing just a few more photos.

Gosh. Hello, miss cuteness! Looking quite content today, are we?

Look at her left hand. Woulda been more impressive if she had her pinky + ring finger together, like Spock you know, but hey…still looks cute :)

Adore this moment w/daddy…

Sleepy baby is sleepy. All together now: Aww..!

Right! Just a few more days, and it’s Wedding Time! And the week after it’s time to get educated (aka hello 1st of four weeks this year at IJ).

Did I mention I’ve got myself a new cam a couple weeks ago? Yeah..shooting a couple of weddings this year (Whee! The first one’s only a week away actually!), so I splurged on a much needed necessity – getting myself a 2nd body. One – in case (Heaven forbid) anything happens to my beloved D700. Two – so I don’t need to swap lenses all too often. So when I was asked to do a babysession I was all too happy to oblige (uhm hello, babies? Yes please!)…anything to put my new (ok, I got it used, but to me it’s new) D3s to the test!

So, meet Miss S. Sure. She’s smiling here.

Here too! But lemme tell ya. It was not easy getting her to give us the slightest hint of smile. She remained sceptical for a good long while, and got mommy & daddy to jump through quite a few hoops working it in hopes of a smile or two....

But it’ ok. She is quite adorable no matter what. Even when she kept wanting to gnaw on her own fist on about half the pictures I took. Haa..babies, I tell ya!

Being a supermodel is such exhausting work. Then again, she’s just as adorable when closing her eyes, causing me to sneak in a few more photos…(actually, personally I prefer the photos with her parents in, doing regular parenty stuff..it’s the photojournalist in me loving such situations methinks)

And my new camera? Love, love, love the high ISO-abilities. It’s amazing. Really. Just need to trust it more, I’m a bit too afraid of hi ISO..which’s silly, seeing as it’s one of the main reasons I wanted the D3s. Seem to be able to hit correct focus most of the time (the focus ratio seem to be consistent with my old cam, possibly missing slightly more), although it might be a little slow on locking the focus in low light/low contrast situations, but I suppose that’s to be expected…just need more patience (or learn to focus manually…but I don’t trust my own eyesight, hrm…)

So. So. Adorable.

We visited little baby E & his parents in Montpellier, France, and couldn’t resist snapping a few impromptu photos of him only…sigh…it’s a baby! Need I any other reason?? (I shot his parents wedding back in 2009 by the way, as seen here and here..one of my first three or four weddings, was still learning back then..am still learning ofc, but… think I’ve improved slightly since then..so there’s hope for me you know..in a few years time? :p)

Nevertheless. Look! Baby!

We were sitting underneath a red shade, which created an ugly, red cast to most of the photos..he looks way handsome in b&w don’t he? Hm. I think this photo needs to be cropped a lil by the way.

Cute in color too :p

And look, he’s yawning…all together now: Awww!

There’s something weird with babyeyes by the way…so glassy…and oftentimes sort of unfocused, like …misty…inside? Or is it just me/the babies I’ve met..??

Well, that’s what her mom claims, and I’m certainly not one to oppose that statement! (Means “worlds finest Alma” in Norwegian)

What follows are the rest of the pictures from the photosession – or well – mostly the more amusing shots, like the crying ones, or the goofy ones and stuff. Part one can be seen here.

I really, really love this shot.

And this one..look at the tears welling up her eyes….awww…

Aaand she cries! Ahhh so fun haha..honestly..love taking pictures of babies crying (not in a mean way, just think they look oh so cute when they really go for it…minus the volume, haha)

The crying prompted a break: a lullaby and a quick powernap.

Haha, this one is like, “yaaa-awn man, do we really have to continue shooting??”

Notice the spinning wheel in the background? I’m not sure if I placed it correctly – looking at the pictures I start to wonder if it should have been placed a bit closer to the baby – between the baby and the shelves in the background, and maybe to the left or something. That it should have been peeking from the left. I dunno. I just wanted to include it in some of the pictures..

Definitely not have its wheel right behind the babys head…ahwell! Added this one because I find the pouting cute ;p It’s like she’s saying “oh god, why me!?”

Hungry baby is hungry! Haha. Loveloveloved this blanket!! Since there’s no way I’m gonna crochet something like this on my own (and don’t even think about trying to get me started, yarn-friends!!), I might gonna start to scavenge flea-markets and similar for a blanket like this. Would be oh so fantastic for future photosessions, donchathink?? Darn. So cool. Really!

*soft sigh* Lovelovelove the light (a huge window to the left), the background and her mellow expression…

And her cheeks…and look at her hands...awww…it’s like she knew this was the last of the pictures and just gave up – like she’s thinking “alright cmon, let’s get this over with already so I can go back to my own business”.

I’m so glad we did these last shots because they’re my personal faves (along with the cry- and soothingpictures). Thank you so much for letting me borrow your precious Alma!

This is soon on its way in the mail! :)

For those curious – I decided to do this CD-envelope a little different than my past ones (aka minus using brads or buttons & thread to fasten the back). This time I just created a hmm, sleeve (?), decorated it and it’s holding the CD-envelope together when put on (no bulky buttons or brads). Just make sure it’s not fit too snugly around the CD-envelope so it’s difficult sliding it on/off.

Materials: Prima, tag from Elle’s Studio, letters from Pink Paislee and transparency from Hambly Screenprints :)

Now, on to something more personal, yet related...

I’ve started to time the time spent on the whole editing-process, to try and pinpoint the “correct” pricerange for the whole thing. It’s one of the ugh-part of the whole thing – trying to determine how much I’m “worth”. And actually registering the time spent on the post-procession has given me some eyeopeners, to say the least.

Yes, I know – I should not undersell myself (I’ve been spending too long time in that category – although I do not regret that – it has been necessary because I’ve needed the experience, especially to back up the whole “I’m worth this” thing – a great tip I’ve picked up is to up your price a little with every new wedding until you’re at a satisfactory price), and I spend probably too much time on the post-procession because I really, really can not hand out pictures I’m personally not satisfied with. A friend suggested that I could offer an own price-package for unedited photos, but tbh, to me that’s out of the question – I don’t know what it is (but my pride) but it would absolutely pain me giving others unedited photos. I’m like – ugh – no, no way – these photos aren’t done then!

And still – even when knowing I shouldn’t undersell myself, it’s hard pinpointing and giving people quotas (As a couple, who had seen my wedding-pictures and trying to back me up, told me at a party once – “Honestly, with your price quote, and if we hadn’t seen your pictures, we would think you weren’t good enough because you’re too cheap. You seriously need to raise the prices for your own sake.” That being said, I’m satisfied with the current wedding-price I’m at atm. It’s determining the other things that’s giving me a headache atm.). And some of my friends and past clients are great supporters of mine, helping me feeling better about my photography, my decisions, and even sending me more work… thank you so much, I truly appreciate you and the different ways in which you all have supported me and still do.

I’m not really sure if this is the correct place to write about all this, especially in a photosession-post, how tacky haha. But – it’s been on my mind for a very long time (about a year and half or longer – but more pressing the last half year), so it’s not about this session nor the latest ones. It’s simply about moving on, I think. At least trying to tell myself it’s about time. Oh I know – I do have so so much more to learn, and I learn new things during all my sessions – but I am also past the newbieish-phase and I guess it’s time to acknowledge that. And it feels good typing this “out loud”  – yet.. although I have a strong support among my closest re adjusting my prices, it still feels difficult for me determining it, sticking to it and saying or typing the price to potential clients when it comes to that.

I’d love to know your experiences and opinions on this, whether you’re a budding photographer, a seasoned photographer, or just on the other side of the business i.e. clients – what’s your thoughts about prices and what to expect from someone you might be considering to hire as a photographer, eventually – what’s your past experiences and thoughts re these?

Okay, so I sort of promised that my next blogpost would be scrapbook-related. And this one is. Half of it, anyways. I’m in the middle of editing the babyphotos I mentioned earlier and they’re like, way too cute not to be shared like, immediately…sooo.

Right, card first ;) This is actually a CD-card I created for the babysession before this latest one – and I used Pencil-Lines sketch #230 and Fancy Pants Designs-papers for this card.

I used lots of older products on this one – this babyline is an older one, the badge from American Crafts and the journaling from Making Memories aswell. All part of my grand scheme to shrink my evergrowing stash (as if it helps ><)

Right.

Off to the photos: please meet sweet, sweet Alma! :)

Such a sweet sweet girl, I truly enjoyed shooting her (even when she started crying and required a nap to be able to tolerate even more shooting :p).

Now, notice the catchlights in her eyes? Sure, it’s just details, but hm, do you think it looks silly when they show at the bottom of the eyes? I *think* I read somewhere they should be between 10 and 2 o’clock sorta, to look somewhat more natural…which I ofcourse forgot about when I shot her. The catchlight here comes from my reflector, by the way.

At least the catchlights are “correct” here, hm. Hi Alma!

Starting to show the first signs of “do I really wanna cooperate?” :p
(now, I know this picture should be culled, but I have a hard time culling and I find such non-perfect pictures pretty darn cute still)

Look at this chubby, cute baby! *soft sigh*

Ofcourse – the mandatory must-have-feet-and-toes-picture…:)

Adding this picture just to show how we (ok, mostly her mom) tried to make her stay happy and watch in the general direction we hoped she’d look at for the pictures and stuff..teehee..

So darling…

This picture sort of has a serenity I just love being able to snap. I have at least another picture like that too, of mother and child, but I forgot to check w/her whether it was ok to have her on the blog as well so not sharing it here.

Right. As mentioned - I’m almost halfway through editing these pictures – hope to be done by Monday or Tuesday – and will probably share more pictures by then. The last pictures we shot were the best (think: awesome, vividly colored grannysquare-blanket) – I have no idea how I’ll pick which pictures to edit from this part of the session, sigh..I’ll probably just keep most!

My oh my.

Lovely little Baby K had such a serenity and patience seldom seen in such babies (or maybe I haven’t met that many babies) – she stayed awake for whole our meeting and never once flinched her stare.

*sigh* is there anything cuter than small babytoes? :p

The whole session was such a pleasure, and better, with each babysession I learn more and more about how to photograph little babies…I’ve got some ideas I want to test out… now, I just need to start taking notes because I always forget some things from session to session, hrm…or do this more often, so things really stick…luckily I’m gonna meet my nephew again in just a few weeks, just need to find time in my busy timetable to steal him away from his mommy…

Nevertheless..thank you so much for having me take your pictures, baby K (&momma) :)

Until next time..