Tots in a Frame
What inspired you to get into maternity and newborn photography? How did your journey start?
This story will make more sense if I start it off from my younger days. My younger days consisted of countless doodles and I used to try to sketch everything my mum and siblings did. Needless to say, I inherited my artistic inclination from my mother, a crafts and culinary expert who runs specialised culinary classes in Chennai.
The funny story here is that as a third child, I never had too many baby photographs of myself. My parents lost the enthusiasm of taking baby photographs by the time I came along and today I create memories for thousands of babies and encourage mothers to do so, all the time.
The creative part never stopped searching for my true calling. I’ve been dancing and doing theatre since I was a child and continued to do so even when I worked full-time. I was working as an HR business partner in a gaming company and very honestly, I loved my job. However, I was constantly finding an outlet to let my creative juices flow, by doing parttime activities such as writing for magazines, choreographing, theatre, all the while working a full-time job. I explored 10 different creative career opportunities while working my fulltime job, to seek my creative calling
- a job that would satiate the artist in me yet sustain me.
I finally realised what my true calling is when I assisted my friend at a wedding photography gig. It inspired me to find something unique for myself in the field of photography. And that’s how maternity and
newborn photography happened. What started as a simple thought, later turned into a full-blown career.
What gear do you most enjoy using at the moment and why?
I am currently using a Sony a7R IV camera, along with a G-Master series lens. As for lighting, I am using Profoto b10 lights along with a deep black XL Umbrella and deep white XL translucent umbrella. Sony gear feels like butter in my hands, especially when I work with kids and their ‘fraction-of-a-second smiles’ and limited threshold. I love Sony’s Eye-AF function and as for the Profoto lights, I love the fact that they are UV coated and that they have a fast recycle time. All of these features help to accelerate my pace and that’s why they are both my favourites.
What is the biggest challenge you face in this genre of photography?
The one challenge that I have been constantly facing is the taboo around taking photographs of a newborn. In my initial days, it was difficult to convince the parents to bring their newborns for a shoot within the first 15 days. In the first 15 days, it’s easier to achieve certain poses with newborns as they are in the mouldable stage. After 15 days, they learn to stretch and it becomes unnatural to put them into these poses. While this is a problem I continue to face till date, it is a little less frequent now, because there is greater awareness about this field.
So what did I do? I found solutions to work around the problems. I created a lot of awareness and education around the safety and hygiene practises to encourage parents to proceed with a shoot because they remain tiny only for this long.
At the back-end, I had to do a lot of research to make this possible, to understand the newborn’s anatomy better, to understand their growth better, and I even made appointments with relevant doctors to ensure that the safety aspect is well taken care of. As for the mothers who were even afraid to bring their newborns out for a shoot, I convinced them with my experience, my state of the art equipment and my knowledge.
What suggestions do you give parents for preparing for a newborn shoot?
I usually suggest the parents to give
the baby a good massage, a bath and a good feed before the shoot begins. This allows the babies to sleep well and eases the entire workflow. I have a whole blog dedicated to answering this question. And along with explanations, we send this blog post to parents so that they can read it and prepare themselves for the shoot.
Apart from this, I also provide parents with a colour palette guide to help them choose their outfits. This helps in giving them a better idea of what colour combinations work best. However, we do not pressure them to dress a certain way because, at the end of the day, the photo-shoot is about them and they should wear whatever that makes them feel comfortable in their own skin.
How do you select props, lighting, or location for photographing newborns and toddlers?
For client shoots, the whole process happens during our pre-shoot consultation. It’s during that time that we discuss the client’s needs and wants, and talk about how we can achieve them. During the initial days, my clients would show some amazing Pinterest pictures which we would try to replicate, but, now my clients show my work as reference pictures, and that growth truly makes me happy. Nevertheless, even when they show my pictures, I provide them with suggestions on how to make them even better or unique because I love providing each client of mine with a unique experience.
I love venturing out to new territories to shoot, which explains my love for travel as well. Beautiful spaces are always inspirational. Locations are chosen in tandem while ensuring the client’s comfort and preferences.
Lighting is an art that grows with you as a photographer. I choose lighting based on the kind of image I’m trying to create. I play a lot with lights on my set and even if we are outdoors, I choose spaces based on how the light shapes that spot.
Props are only chosen to provide an aesthetic value or theme and nothing more. I prefer to keep them to a minimum and focus on the mood/ moment of our subject. When it comes to toddlers, I love to use locations that will excite them, beaches being my favourite selection for the older kids. They forget the rules and just play. This elicits the most natural reactions.
What other genres of photography interests you?
Fashion photography for sure! I love how they play with fabric, light and extravagant set-ups. Fashion photography showcases some of the most interesting concepts out there and they truly intrigue me. You will notice its influence in my line of photography. I have started a new option for mothers, called the ‘Fashion-inspired Maternity’. These shoots are much more
experimental and out there. A recent shoot that we did for Rohini is a good example of what fashion maternity shoots are comprised of. It truly brings out the diva inside them.
What according to you makes a great photograph? How do you feel about post-processing?
A good story told, is what makes a great photo. The story doesn’t have to be elaborate or even complete, but as long as it conveys the mood and the cause of the mood, then we are good. Another way to look at it is, a good photo needs to spell out the character of the subject. It needs to give us a shot of insight as to who this person is. For newborn photos, the set-ups we use and the colours that are chosen, tell us a little about the parents. The outfits we choose for a maternity shoot tells a bit about the mother. I think you get the gist of it.
As for post-processing, I do say that it takes up 50% of the workflow. It’s as important as the time and the effort that it takes to capture the little one. The editing can sometimes even make or break the shot. But to me, I love it when people talk about how the image doesn’t look over-edited at all. This is more of a personal preference actually, because
I don’t like it when I can sense the level of editing that has gone through to get the picture where it is.
Any advice you would like to share with aspiring photographers?
Perseverance and patience are your two best friends in this field. It helps you create better images and that is our primary role as photographers. We get better with each photo we take and uplift the art more, in a collaborative (not competitive) way.
The one advice I stand by is, don’t just follow the trend. Be yourself and let that come alive in your images.