Beanbag vs Dog-bed for Newborn Photography
You may have noticed that all of my posed newborn packages include 'beanbag' set-up and unless you're a newborn photographer you probably have no idea what that actually means - well wonder no more! I call it the beanbag set-up because when I first started posing newborns, in those cute little naked poses that you see all over my posed newborn gallery, I used a large beanbag to pose the baby on. Unfortunately I struggled to walk for the rest of the day after a newborn photoshoot, because 3 hours of bending over a beanbag does not do good things to your back (particularly when you're carrying a massive camera around your neck at the same time). So I started to research what other newborn photographers were doing about this problem and found out that a lot of them are using dog beds - yes you read that right! So I got myself a large dog bed and my back is super thankful. However, I thought it might put clients off if I named it 'dog bed set-up' so I stuck with beanbag and no one seems too surprised when I turn up with an enormous dog bed to their newborn photoshoot (and once it's covered with lots of blankets you wouldn't know the difference anyway). The only ones that did seem to mind the new set-up were my own dogs, who eyed the dog-bed hopefully when they first saw it - so I had to buy them their own one too!
POSES
So now you know why it's called the 'beanbag set-up', you're probably more interested to know what photos you're going to get from this set-up. With newborn babies, no photos can be guaranteed, they're safety and comfort is always top priority and sometimes newborns just don't like being in certain positions. Having said that, if they're less than 2 weeks old, very sleepy and nice and warm, we can usually work through the following poses without too many complaints (other than being disturbed during a nice nap!)
Bum-up Pose
So I usually start with the super cute 'bum-up' pose (above). This pose can be uncomfortable for baby if the the umbilical clip is still on (which is why I don't usually schedule posed newborn shoots before 1 week old). Once baby is nice and sleepy they are usually very comfortable in this position and we can get lots of different angles, add in a pretty hairband or cute hat and a wrap and get a nice selection of photos just from this single pose.
Side-laying Pose
Following bum-up pose, I will gently transition baby into the side-laying pose, where we can get some beautiful profile photos of their gorgeous little face. Again we will add some hats, hair bands and wraps to add some colour and variety to the photos. And I love to get baby's hands cupping their face because it is just so cute! After side-laying pose, I will move baby onto their tummy again for head-on -hands pose
Head on Hands Pose
The above three poses we will try to get into every newborn photoshoot, depending on time and the package chosen we may then go on to get a few wrapped or 'tucked in' poses (below) on the beanbag before moving on to our flokati and prop poses (I'm guessing your next question is - what's a flokati - or is it just me that had never heard a thick furry blanket being called this before?)
Tucked-in & Wrapped Poses
If you're interested in booking a newborn photoshoot, please take a look at the different packages available and get in touch if you have any questions.
