This amazing quilt was handmade…love that!

Jacquie and Jason, thank you so much for bringing your sweet baby girl to me. Awake or asleep, she’s absolutely precious!

I have a 20×30 over the fireplace of their hands (looove that one), and I have an asymmetrical gallery of color images at the top of our stairs that I add to from time to time. Ava has several hanging in her room…Oh, and I have a long-term asymmetrical black and white gallery in my office (with framed images spanning 20 years). But the one thing I don’t have is a SHOWCASE wall anywhere that’s filled with big, glorious pictures – my favorite kind!

Well, we soon will, on the wall in our family room (behind the couch) that’s 8′ wide and 2 stories high.

(If a gallery will be added onto, I usually suggest an asymmetrical gallery (easy to add to). But if you want to FILL a wall, symmetrical is the way to go.)

Here’s what I just ordered (with images from our Christmas shoot):

The middle image is a big, gorgeous 24×30 with a 5″ frame. The sides are two 12×18s and two 8×12s, all with 3.5″ frames. I selected my favorite image of both of them, my favorite of each, and two candids that just show them having fun together.

I’ll take a picture when it’s all up!

I don’t know what was more adorable: his fauxhawk, his perfect lips, or the downy soft hair on his back. Or his cheeks. Definitely his cheeks.

Beth and Ernie, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful baby boy with me!

The nice thing with alert babies is that we capture a lot of fun bright eyed images, and Roe certainly has those! After awhile, he started to get sleepy, so we took turns feeding, rocking and cuddling him (I always say my favorite job perk is all the baby snuggles!).

And who finally had the magic touch? His grandmother, of course! And off to dreamland he went…

Lissette, Franklin and Ana, thank you so much for such a fun session!

I don’t often use ye olde blog as a soapbox, so please bear with me.

Due to some recent national publicity on the Today show and other media outlets, the classic art of newborn photography has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds. Along with this popularity – and a whole new generation of newborn photographers – it seems the focus has shifted away from simple photographs of beautiful babies – to poses. Browsing around the internet, I’ve seen babies hanging from trees, balanced outside on tree branches (seriously), propped up on their tiny wrists, balanced vertically, and so forth.

Newer photographers may not realize that many of these images are created via composites – where two separate images (the baby is held by an assistant or parent’s hand) are merged together to create one image. These sessions typically last several hours, with one team member focusing on posing the baby while the other works the camera. If you go to YouTube and watch a video of any of Anne Geddes’ newborn sessions, you’ll find that she always had a full team of people to accomplish those shots – mostly via composites.

I want to add that the purpose of this post is not to criticize those who specialize in the Anne Geddes-style of pose-centric photography. There are several who do this very, very well and I admire the artistry of their work immensely. It’s directed to those who are new to photography and don’t have the years of newborn experience to draw upon. I beg of you to please, please remember that these are tiny miracles who should not – at any time – be placed in a dangerous situation. My heart hurts at the thought of a baby being injured during a photography session meant to capture how tiny and perfect they are.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that a couple of years ago I briefly got caught up in the posing craze and photographed a baby on a mantel. She was 100% safe, with mom standing within inches of her, but I felt a bit ill afterwards that I dared to put a sweet baby even remotely in danger. It still bothers me, and I’ve never done it again, nor will I ever.)

As for my style, I just prefer simple, organic images that focus on the baby and their parents. I don’t shoot composites and I pose my babies naturally and comfortably. During my sessions, I tell parents that watching me work is a bit like watching paint dry.   I work gently and very, very slowly with my newborns to ensure they’re comfortable and content at all times. I don’t like unnatural poses, and I don’t hang babies from trees – only from their parents’ arms. For creative images, I love to nestle baby in a basket, bowl, or one of my other antiques. (like the one shown above).

If you made it this far, I thank you. And it’s back to our regular programming later this evening with another sweet baby’s sneak peek!

I photograph so many wonderful newborns, and I always let them be the boss (now and forever, right moms?). Hunter was such a sleepy, content little baby – he was asleep when he arrived and stayed asleep pretty much through our entire session, except when it was time to have a snack. We put in a bit of effort at the end to wake him up…but he was just too tired.

Wendi and Scot, thank you so very much for sharing your sweet baby boy with me!

So, as is fitting on my birthday (yes, today is the big day), I’m so happy to announce the launch of the Lisa Russo Photography website, 2010 edition:

It’s brand new, so if something doesn’t work right or <gasp!> there’s a typo, do let me know!

I’m quite certain his wonderful parents got very tired of my exclaiming “He’s so CUTE!!” during our session, but my goodness what a joy this sweet baby boy was to photograph!

Most of my newly-sitting babies are very serious. Very intent. Soaking things in and concentrating on the task at hand. But as you can see, Jonathan was quite fascinated by me and my camera. That or he’s just laughing at the silly lady making squealing noises and funny faces at him. Yeah, it’s probably that.

Charissa and Tyrone, thank you so, so very much for bringing your lovely boy to me to be photographed. I miss him already!

Reece was such a dream to photograph. So content and peaceful, whether sleeping or awake. Just perfect in every way.

I love when my favorite image from a session is one that was completely spontaneous…that I feel so lucky to have captured.

Heather (and Jeff!), thank you so very much.