Kelly Frankenburg, of 11 Sixteen Photography, and Laura Matthews, of Laura Matthews Photography, are both Glen Allen, Virginia, photographers who love capturing newborns and have great respect and admiration for each other’s work. We find it very interesting how we use the same equipment, have the same love and great care for the newborn stage of life, but have such unique photographic and artistic styles. One could compare this to giving two artists the same palettes and canvases which would yield two very different pieces of art. Many of our clients may not know these two types of newborn photography even exist or realize there is a difference.
We decided it would be a fun project to choose a newborn baby under 14 days old and both photograph him using our very different approaches. Our not-so-little (10lbs. 4ozs.!) little guy, Grier, was such a sweetheart and his parents were so incredibly accommodating to allow us two sessions with their beautiful boy.
Laura Matthews
Newborns are a sub-specialty of mine since I shoot family milestones across the lifespan. The newness and wonder of the newborn stage makes my heart swell each time I work with a new family. My newborn sessions take place in my client’s home using natural light. I use a documentary approach with both baby and family within their own surroundings. While I do give my clients some posing direction, I generally feed off of the love and experiences of the family I am working with.
For my individual baby images, I tend to stick to neutral colors so the focus is on the baby’s unique features. I do use a newborn beanbag for the individual baby portraits and natural posing. Instead of props, I incorporate nursery details to feature the space parents so lovingly created for their little one.
I have an obsession with hands, feet, and every delicate newborn feature.
My editing style for newborn sessions tends to be clean, but also soft and subtle. Because I use natural window light that constantly changes, I must to pay close attention to shadows and color casts. Knowing how to nail exposure and utilize all my camera settings is very important for working in a client’s home when you don’t always know what to expect.
About half of my session time is spent with just baby and the other half spent with portraits with parents and other family if desired. I love the intimacy and genuine moments captured with baby and his parents. I give parents a little direction on how I want them to pose, but then simply ask them to focus on their baby. The following image is an example of the result:
Finding great areas to shoot in a client’s home is not difficult. There’s a misconception that you need to have a “picture perfect” home for a lifestyle session. Truly, a home doesn’t need to be professionally decorated or even spotless for a beautiful session. A little window light and beautiful moments are all you need.
It’s my hope these genuine moments will remind this family of the joy of their first born for many years to come.
Kelly Frankenburg:
I’m all about coordination and color. I style each session using information from clients’ questionnaires and have everything pulled and ready to shoot prior to their arrival. I typically work with three colors to achieve a nice balance of contrast like we did here with Grier, using green, dark blue and gray to coordinate with his nursery. Ii pride myself on organization and attention to detail. My studio was designed and built just for baby photography with a large shooting area, sitting room for parents, fully stocked kitchen and private bathroom.
The froggy pose is one of my signature poses, and a personal favorite. I always shoot this pose as a composite to ensure baby’s comfort and safety.
This basket is an example of a prop I use during my sessions. When you see my prop closet, you’ll understand my obsession with vintage props. Clients never need to worry about bringing anything to their sessions, I have more than you could ever imagine.
One of the big differences between lifestyle sessions and posed newborn sessions is the position of the baby. My style pays special attention to the placement of fingers and toes to achieve a very specific look.
I also carefully select just the right hat or wrap for each pose. I want each setup to flow with the others in a session so that an album or a wall display will look cohesive. Above, we did gray on green and the shot below is green on gray.
Editing a posed newborn session is also very different. While my lighting in the studio is always the same, when Laura walks into a client’s home she never knows exactly what she is going to get. The majority of my editing time is spent on correcting blemishes and perfecting every little detail in the image.
We hope you have enjoyed learning about our two different styles of photography. We have loved this project so much and have learned a lot from attending each other’s sessions and seeing our final images of our beautiful baby boy model, Grier. No matter what style of photography we shoot, we know we are capturing priceless moments of a precious new life.
Laura Matthews is a lifestyle and milestone photographer based in rural Glen Allen, Virginia. Her specialties include newborn, high school senior, and family session photography for the sentimental client.
11 Sixteen Photography specializes in maternity sessions, posed newborn portrait photography, baby and child portraits, cake smash sessions and family photography. 11 Sixteen Photography creates crisp, clean images both in our private studio in Glen Allen, Virginia and also on location in the beautiful outdoor areas of the Greater Richmond area.
Thank you so much for featuring our work! We loved this project!