baby photography 101

I am so stoked to have my 3rd iPad app finished and waiting for apple to approve! I started writing a few mini books awhile back to help educate photographers wanting to start shooting weddings or portraits. There are so many questions I get from people that normally are the same questions people have when getting into photography. I also see so many people starting out that lack a certain creative element in their photography. Normally some of the more advanced things like Lighting are missed by most people starting out. So over the past year I have been working on putting down on paper some of the many things in my head that I can share from my 11 years of shooting professionally and years of Art school before that.

I wanted to create some guides that were really easy to learn, easy to understand and covered the technical parts of photography but in a not so technical way. As a photographer I am visual, after college I would still keep up with my photo education and read books, attended seminars and workshops and usually was pretty uninspired by the way the information was presented. Normally it was so technical that it lost my attention after a few minutes and I put the book on the shelf never to be picked up again. So I set out to create some tools for people to learn and be inspired and also wanted to create them at a very good price, really a no brainer. When the iPad was released I was excited, it really is a perfect medium to learn on . You have a nice large screen as well as something that feels great in your hand like a book but can be so interactive. So far I have created a Portrait 101 and a Wedding Photography 101 guide that right now are only $1.99! I wanted to create some very useful guides to help people get more creative with their photography and also have them be so inexpensive anyone can buy them. These also are available as iPhone (or iPod touch) version and for those of you who don't have an iPhone or iPad going to be available as eBooks coming out in the next few months.

Here is a excerpt from the Baby Photography 101 app coming this week. Watch Twitter for an announcement when it's live @digitalphotobuz


Tips on keeping them sleeping

Nothing is more beautiful than a peaceful sleeping baby. But sometimes no matter how tired they are when you are ready to shoot them sleeping they just don't want to stay asleep. I don't know how many times a mom has fed, burped and changed a baby then rocked them to sleep and once I start clicking the shutter they start to wake right up. There are a few tips that I have found very useful to keep a baby sleeping.

1- Swaddle them up nice and tight. Especially for newborns up to 2 months old the swaddle can be your best friend.

2 - Pacifier. Although it might not look perfect in the image a pacifier can really help settle a baby down and get them to fall asleep. And I do think it's cute to have a few images of them with the pacifier in their mouth. Normally after a few minutes they will let go of it anyway and it will fall out of their mouth or you can try to gently pop it out.

3- Make sure the room is warm. Babies are used to being in the womb where its nice and soft and warm. Make sure the room is very warm, especially if you want a shot of the baby sleeping without clothes. Keep them surrounded by lots of soft warm blankets and snuggled up.

4- Have some background noise playing. You can bring a small CD player or use your iPhone and play a CD of soothing sounds. There are tons of soothing type CD's out there for babies and they can really help put the baby at ease.

This post is sponsored by Collages.net