People always wonder how I got into this career. Well, this “shoot” was the beginning of it all! I thought it might be fitting to share with you my very first newborn session for our first Throwback Thursday post. It was not quite a deliberate decision to begin a photography business. When my first daughter, Giuliana, was born in 2008 I took a year off from teaching to stay home with her. I had been teaching digital photography for a few years and started taking some portraits on the side for friends and family, just for fun. I was armed with my Canon Digital Rebel XT and kit lenses, and I thought I had some serious photoshop skillz! Like many mothers, the birth of my first child completely changed my life and how I saw the world. When she was 6 weeks old, I grabbed my kit lens and cool macro filters and decided to document every little detail of her sweet babyhood before she grew any bigger. I couldn’t stop time, but I could at least relive each moment through photography. I spent hours taking in every little detail. The world outside disappeared in those moments. I’ll never forget the feeling. It was the feeling of knowing with your heart what you are meant to do with your life, but not quite grasping it with your mind yet. Here are those first “newborn” photos and a behind-the-scenes of my set up. I had a loft condo, red walls, a coffee table draped with a sheet, and a light I don’t even remember ever owning. There are plenty of things wrong with these photos technically (I mean, I couldn’t possibly shoot up her nostrils any more) but they mean more to me than any I have ever taken. My world changed with my daughter, and with these photos, and I feel it every time I see them.
