For someone who is not a newborn photographer, I sure have done a lot of posting about baby photography! My very first photo shoot (done with a point-and-shoot :) ) was with a baby, I took some pictures of T1 when he was 8 days old, I gave you some tips for photographing a one-month old, I showed you some before+after examples that show how Kelli Nicole takes pretty photos and turns them into something amazing, and I wrote about my first attempt at a newborn session with my friend’s 14 day old baby, deciding afterward that I was so unhappy with the results I didn’t want to do newborn portraits ever again.

Then a friend of mine from BYU got in contact with me, told me she was living in Chicago, and that she wanted me to do a session with her, her husband, and her new baby. At first I was going to say no, and I was very up front about my lack of experience, so I asked for her budget and planned to refer her on to someone else. As I browsed around the internet looking for people to refer her to though, I realized that with a budget like hers *I* could do a better job than most anyone she could hire with the amount she had to pay them. I offered her a friends+family discount and set things up for a weekday session in my light-flooded apartment.

I ran around collecting items from our apartment that would work as props (you may have noticed that part of newborn photography is about putting cute babies in cool containers) and digging through our storage closet to find blankets and cloth diapers that weren’t unusable due to stains.

They showed up, my friend and I spent a few minutes reminiscing, and then I got down to business. It’s been months since I shot a session, so I was a little bit nervous at first, but I used some of the tips that Kelli Nicole has been kind enough to share with me, and I worked that soft/sweet/bendy baby and beautiful light as best I could.

When I sat down to edit I was thrilled to see the difference between the session I attempted in Texas and this one. I don’t think this means I will try to start competing with Kelli Nicole and her unbelievably amazing posing skills, but I will definitely be more receptive to newborn sessions in the future when I’m approached about them. I still believe in the importance of specializing, but I also believe in focusing your skills in the areas where you have natural talent, and I think there might be a possible well of untapped talent in this area that I have yet to explore.

I wasn’t going to post this session on Jenna Cole, but Amy said I should, so I’m going to. Great suggestion Amy!

The lesson you can learn from my epxerience? When someone is going to pay you for something you should certainly do it well, but don’t write yourself off from doing something a second time because you weren’t brilliant at it on your first try!

Are there areas in your life where you tried something once, thought you disliked it/weren’t good at it, and then changed your mind after giving it another go?

On a fun little side note, it’s TinyChat night tonight! That Sister, Shaylene, will be my guest, so if you want the dirt on what I was like as a kid/teenager, this is a session you don’t want to miss. :)

A big HUGE P.S.-After I finished typing up this post I received some amazing news. I am going to be doing the mentoring with Kelli France after all! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN FOR ME! I’m actually tearing up as I type this. I wanted this so badly, and you guys, my little That Wife community, made it happen. You really are all my favorites.

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