Have you ever noticed how a child’s short attention span gives way to amazing persistence when the task is something she really wants; for example, learning to walk, tying a shoe, whistling a tune, batting a ball? And when the child falters at any of these tasks, the adults respond with encouragement, patience and applause for the effort.

The other day, the Dominican Sisters – Grand Rapids approached me interested in using a drawing that I did back in 2001 of a young girl learning to tie her shoe in their newsletter on persistence. This drawing appears in their May 2010 newsletter, available both in online and printed format.

During the final photo-shoot, 7-month old Sophia appeared delighted being set into a brown bum-sized bucket, especially upon our offering her a gorgeous single pink rose to hold. While having the opportunity to be so close to such a beautiful flower, Sophia never took her eyes off it. Judging by the expression in her eyes, Sophia had fallen in love.

As their baby photographer for this and the previous few sets, I want to leave warm thank you to Sophia’s parents and especially the adorable Miss Sophia herself.

Following the bathing of 7-month old Sophia, I bundled her up into one of her Daddy’s favourite brown blankets for the first set of photographs, followed by one of my favourite multi-coloured wool blankets for the second set. I am pleased with the series, especially the way the girl kept looking up into my camera with those perfect, glass-like, doll-like eyes for the entire shoot.

Sophia quickly became comfortable with the camera in her face, eventually reaching to grab my lens! I managed to sneak in silly faces while photographing Sophia to keep those beautiful smiles glowing over and over again. I’m delighted with the results of the beautiful set.

A mid baby photo-shoot nap is one of the best pieces of advice I would give any baby photographer. During this sessions our baby model, Sophia, became clingy to her parents. This is where my advice kicks in… the following shots were taken after setting Sophia down for a quick 30-minute nap. Upon awakening, Sophia was the happiest I had ever seen!

I love the purple and black striped background in this shots as they suggest a fun, magical and castle-like atmosphere.

Imagine the smell of fresh blossoms peaking through the tired winter soil early into each spring season. 7-month old Sophia has yet to experience the season’s true beauties. Don’t worry though because Mom has her ready to play in this gorgeous new polka-dot dress. This dress was so adorable that I wanted one on my size! In the final shots, Mom changed Sophia into an Easter Buddy outfit, complete with a bunny tail!

During this session, Sophia kept tilting her head up at me, almost as if she knew exactly was was going on in each tiny pose she managed to wiggle herself into.

In this series, I wanted to try to capture those split-second bonds that a parent feel when they look deep into their child’s eyes.

Sophia’s eyes lit up every time her parents were in her peripheral vision, she’s turn to them and her smile would break free over and over again. In this series, I captured the warm, love that each of us as children desire of their parents throughout their our entire lives.

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As both an entrepreneur and brilliant baby photographer herself, Anne Geddes has forever been a true inspirations and mentor to me. As you will see in her work, Geddes has mastered the fine art of photographing babies unlike any idea have ever seen. Her work is simple yet dynamic and her composition is nicely balanced while the piece’s overall emotion remain strong. As an amateur in baby photography myself, I plan to continue learning from Geddes long line of gorgeous portfolio books she has published.

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a young family by documenting the life of a day in the life of their 7-month old daughter, Sophia. The child was a delight to work with and her skills in posing with a variety of expression and attitude was top notch.

I’ve been practicing various arrangements when it comes to setting up a lighting studio on-location. As I become more comfortable with different setups with various lighting options available, I am discovering many effective techniques. The following series was done at the client’s home.

A friend’s daughter, Alia, celebrated her first year old birthday this past November. Alia’s mom was looking for a series of portraits of her. For the following setup, I had one umbrella positioned on the left side of the subject, alongside an on-camera flash and bright back-lit sun.

A good friend of mine gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last November 2008. Within four days of her arriving into the world, I went over for an evening visit with the camera.

Alia fit into her Daddy’s hand perfectly, prompting for lots of photographs. I was limited to lighting and depended on the on-camera flash because of the sensitivity on Alia’s eyes at the time.

This image was taken on the campus of Wilfrid Laurier University while I was a student there back in 2006 in the Communications Studies program. While on a mission to photograph some beautiful stock photography for my collection, I noticed a unique perspective view of the following students studying for exams. I was pleased with the overall composition and elements of this particular photograph, in particular the various elements including both a male and female in the shot, combined with a bit of motion blur and some vivid colour. I enjoyed my time at Wilfrid Laurier University and would recommend the program to others in the future.