Every so often a new client asks us to do something we've never done before. In this particular case, the parents asked us to do newborn portraits of their son using a couple of cool, old cars in a garage! How awesome does that sound??
We were initially concerned about having enough warmth for baby. It was December in Texas and the weather can range from 20 degrees to 85 degrees in the span of a day it seems. To make matters worse, we've had a colder winter so far - I think most of us have this year. The next challenge was to photograph such a small subject (the baby) on such a large prop (the cars). We didn't want to lose baby in the awesomeness of the cars, but we still wanted to photograph them artistically so you can actually see the cars and not just the baby.
As fate would have it, the weather turned out to be a bit on the cooler side, but our clients had a large shop heater at the ready (the thing looked like a jet engine!). It took some extra soothing to get him calm and cozy, but he eventually went to sleep very soundly, allowing us quite a bit of time to work with different angles and lighting using the vehicles.
One thing we always like to point out at the offset is that we like to practice safe sets. Although baby AJ may look like he's poised precariously in several poses, my wife was always right next to baby, often still holding baby and I later cloned her out. Here he is on the rear of the old Ford!
The front of the Ford was exposed to show the engine, which made for an interesting part of the foreground. The blanket used in this shot is a special blanket from his nursery.
We found that space was pretty limited on the Ford, however, so we moved on to the '71 Chevelle after this. The Chevelle was a polished green with black stripes - a really beautiful car! We had a lot more space to work with on this one, so we took our time and did a number of different angles and poses.
We worked in some close-ups of this handsome little man as we went. This one looks like he's smirking!
Speaking of close-ups, Baby AJ had so much wonderful lanugo all over. On his back, it all swirled together and I couldn't resist capturing this image!
Here he is on the hood of the Chevelle and I'm standing on a ladder leaning out above him to take the shot. I had a couple of grown men to hold the ladder (and myself!) to keep everything safe.
We love this particular angle for our newborn images. We love to fill the frame with all the cuteness, with really sharp definition in the eyes and face. Here, his lips squish up just perfectly.
We think the next image will be perfect for little AJ's car-themed nursery. Can't you just see it in a 24x36 canvas on the wall? Or maybe even a large acrylic print? Ohhh, or maybe Kodak Metallic (suitably described by many as "chrome on paper")!
I'm loving the mirror-like finish on this car! I changed the lighting a little for this shot for more dramatic shadows.
Mom and Dad were both so pleased with their son's portraits! We were definitely stretched beyond our normal comfort zone, but we enjoyed every bit of it. And we captured some amazing photographs that we're pretty proud of if we do say ourselves! ;)
