NEWBORN PHOTOSHOOT – THEN AND NOW
(My little story and my promise for 2016)
~ By Ashley Low
For more than 4 years in Ashley Low Photography (ALP), I have never been putting myself out in the public. I do not know what people would want to know about me as i just want to provide a service to my customers. So much so that i am just happy for having returning customers, as it meant something that they are using my service again, as i must be doing something right! However just around this time last year, I was feeling a little stuck and unhappy with what I was doing, and one amazing yoga retreat over the new year has made me realize i need to push myself forward, to invest in the single most important thing in the world, that is me! So I started a few trainings this year to learn more about my business and building my works and here I am at the end of the year now!
It begins with a little pop up on my facebook page about this workshop in Australia with 2 Newborn Photographers in Brisbane and as soon as i click on their works, i was immediately so drawn to them. To cut the story short, I attended a workshop called the ‘Polished Workshop for Newborn Photographers’ by Elise Walton and the award winning Luisa Dunn in April, and both of them completely changed what I do. Their mentorship didn’t just stop there, it begins there. We are still getting support from them even now. I am just feeling so grateful that I got to know them and to call them my mentors.
(please check out their gorgeous photos from www.elisegowphotography.com and www.luisadunnphotography.com.au)
For those who have been following my facebook page, I hope you have noticed my newborn photos have now involved more colours, not to say the least more types of props (my accountant has been ‘warning’ me about my spending), more florals (which i absolutely love) and more wrapping and different styling of my sets.
As i introduced colours into my shoot, i do notice there are my customers who still love the black and white and neutrals. So to avoid the guessing ‘what my customers might like’ game, I have got my dear assistant to ask each customer before each newborn shoot for their preferences on colour themes and send us any references they like from what they see on our website and facebook page. I hope this little collaboration with my customers has made them like my photos taken of their little precious even more.
In July this year, i have also attended a 3-day Baby Seminar in Gold Coast Australia. This seminar invited many newborn photographers from USA and Australia and touched on many different areas of newborn & baby photography and our business that got me realizing that I need to let my customers know about the person who’s going to handle their precious 1-2 weeks old baby! Well it does make sense who they need to trust. So here I am, opening myself more with this new blog page that we just included for this purpose.
So I am going to begin ‘opening’ myself up by sharing my first set of photos taken in my very first newborn photoshoot taken more than 3 years ago for baby Emmeline who was just a week old at their apartment near Killiney Road. I see myself having something there (i hope!), i love that photo of her in her beautiful shelf and basket, but am glad i am looking back now with my current photos and see how much my style has changed.
With this little ‘exposé’, I am going to end off this post by sharing a little feeling i have for my works moving forward. Its definitely a complete different feeling from what i felt end 2015. This feeling is called ‘excitement’ or ‘liberation’.
Excitement not because i might be going against my accountant’s ‘warnings’ for purchasing new props but because i have one very important realization after around 500 newborn shoots i have done since, that is, all newborns are simply beautiful and amazingly adorable, whether they may be awake on my sets or sleeping with a pout, whether they may be holding the little teddy bear i want them to hold, or have their little toes holding on to their parents’ rings, or whether they let me pose their little head and fingers the way i want them to.
It’s not a matter of how i pose them, what i put on them, what props i buy, where i got the props from. What matters MOST is the newborns appearing in my pictures, the focus is simply them and my excitement is meeting them. My job is to simply bring out their loveliness and cuteness and celebrate this new life.
This is my new found liberated excitement for 2016.
Merry Christmas to all and have the most fruitful New Year!!!
Love,
Ash
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