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senior & family photos in Des Moines, Iowa

February 3, 2017

New Approach to Newborns

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My time as a high school teacher taught me how to instantly connect with teens and make them feel comfortable in front of the camera. I love photographing high school seniors all over the Greater Des Moines Metro and Midwest (yes, I’m willing to travel). 

Hi, I'm Carrie

There’s no other way to start this post perhaps, than to say I sold my bean bag. The huge posing bean bag I would lug to newborn sessions and try to squeeze through the new parents’ front door of their home. 

The winter season is always a time of reflection for most photographers as we put the busy fall season behind us. A time to reevaluate, strategize and plan out the coming year. Several things contributed to the decision to the selling of the Posing Bean so I’ll seek to explain as concisely as I can…

A family client that I’ve photographed before emailed and said that while she wanted newborn shots of her newest addition, she also needed more than 10days/2weeks to get settled with a third child and her older twin boys. 

Another client emailed a month later and while we had the session time and day scheduled, her newborn needed to go in for some tests at the last minute and we needed to postpone a week. That postponement brought us to photographing her past the 2 week mark as well. 

And yet a third client contacted me and said that her two older children definitely needed to settle into their newborn sibling and needed a few more days. Then illness hit their home as well and we photographed their family well past the preferred 2 week mark too. 

What’s so important about the “2 week mark”? After 2 weeks or so, a newborn is more difficult to get to curl up in those Pinterest-worthy poses. And thankfully, these new-again Mamas were flexible and wanted to document the entire family at this stage in their history. Crazy, chaotic and maaaaybe a few of a sleeping babe if we could squeeze it in. 

As I got to experience the freedom of not lugging the Posing Bean into these homes, it felt more right to me than ever before. While the new-again dads were more than happy to help me carry gear in, I could also see some gratefulness on their faces when I would tell them it was just me and my camera bag. When something feels so right in your gut and your heart is at peace and the Posing Bean sold within minutes of posting to Facebook, it solidified my new approach to photographing newborns. And thus, my Newborn Lifestyle session was born (pun intended). 

If you would like the baby-in-a-basket, or baby-hanging-from-a-hammock, I can happily refer you to friends of mine in the industry who specialize in this style and ROCK it! I greatly admire their ability, their patience, their sweat droplets as they pose those precious little ones. They are comfortable doing that style and it is a strong suit of their’s! If you would like more of a lifestyle approach, with a few of sleeping-baby, swaddled-baby. curled-up-baby, and their teeny details, I’m your gal! 

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Hi, I'm Carrie

My time as a high school teacher taught me how to instantly connect with teens and make them feel comfortable in front of the camera. I love photographing high school seniors all over the Greater Des Moines Metro and Midwest (yes, I’m willing to travel). 

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