Chapal | Ruston LA Newborn Photographer

 

Oh Chapal, she was a sweet little thing. When Chapel’s momma, Baillie, called me to inquire on a newborn session, she told me baby was already here and she needed to schedule a session ASAP. I schedule many of my newborn sessions during momma’s pregnancy (around 2nd-3rd trimesters) so you’re guaranteed a spot on my calendar. It is certainly not required to schedule this early, but the chances of a last minute spot availability is a gamble for sure. Because of the nature of these posed sessions, it is imperative we get baby in within the first 3 weeks of life, but the success of a full posed session with all poses drops drastically after 2 weeks. This is because baby starts to become more alert as they age. I know, your baby sleeps all day, you can’t get them to wake up to eat, you never see their eyes, you’re sure they’ll sleep through the session. Look babies surprise me, but I’ve been posing babies for 7 years straight to know no matter how much baby sleeps at home, I’m waking them up to pose them in little poses they aren’t use to sleeping soundly in and they just want to be left alone to sleep and they’re going to fuss to let me know it. I don’t like to be a downer, but I do like to be realistic. So before you pay a single cent, I want you to know the odds of success and put the ball in your court whether to give it a shot. Always feel free to contact me for a last minute booking! I may just have an availability for you! 

That’s exactly how Chapal came to see me and I’m thankful I was able to squeeze her in for her session. She came into the door snoozing. While she was settled, Baillie and I checked out our color options for her backdrop. I had skimmed over the questionnaire I sent to Baillie and saw the color scheme of Chapal’s nursery, along with mom’s least favorite colors. I like to send out these forms to get an idea of your vision. It is especially helpful to get a “do not use” color list. I mean, I want you to love all the images, so I’d rather not waste my time picking colors that you’re not gonna like. One of those colors NOT to use was purple. So there we are looking at the blankets and Baillie is drawn to my textured purple blanket when she says “Ok I know I said on my form that I don’t like purple, but I’m really loving this one” as she points it out. I really love it too. When I took my newborn workshop in Florida from DewDrops Photography, Amy (the instructor) had used this purple blanket. I couldn’t get that blanket out of my head. It took some time but I finally tracked one down from a resale site and was tickled pink to get it. That was 6 years ago and it’s still my favorite blanket from my purple cubby.

 

Chapal did great for first half of posing . She did the first set of posing with no issues at all. Grandma came also and just swooned over her the entire time, talking about how beautiful she was. I mean of course she swooned over her, look at those sweet cheeks! A midpoint break was great timing for baby to eat while I set up the next blanket and poses. The second set of poses proved to be more challenging. We worked hard to get some of the poses but Chapal was just unsettled. I finally turned on some music for us to listen to and she seemed to really calm down for that. I’ve noticed some babies like tons of sound, no matter what it is. I always have my shusher and sound machine on, but that extra bit of music sometimes does the trick. Overall, Chapal was a good little model and we got some good images for some memories.