Babies are little angles, all of them, and even thought every parent couple that come to us wanting to have their babies photographed, and every baby looks different, they all have common denominators – most- and important of all, the high level of absolute cuteness that we love to capture.

Photographing babies will probably never get old, as babies will never NOT be cute and wonderful, and even though they grow into lively toddlers and teenagers not wanting to have their picture taken, when they are still babies they are joyfully, delightfully & pleasurably fun to photograph. When we were asked if it’s harder to photograph babies or adults – we had to say that adults are harder as they are more inhibited and self-aware in front of the camera – with babies if we joke and laugh and tickle them, they are bound to give us a beautiful gummy smile before long.

It’s definitely an adjustment when a new baby is introduced to the family’s system, and wanting to take the baby out for a drive to have a photo shoot done, could sound like an intimating and scary thought to parents. We on the other hand, want to encourage any and every family, to have photographs taken with the new little one as photos are the best way of visually recording the special united bond a family share. At Louise Diesel Photography’s studio, we take the utmost care to make sure babies and little children, are at their most comfortable; we don’t want it to be a negative experience for neither baby nor parents, and we want satisfied customers at the end of the day, looking at their pictures years from now and still remembering their experience with us as fun, that is the most important thing to us.

Yolandi Jacobsz

If you think your job is difficult, try and get a little three month old baby to smile at your camera… No pressure   Take a look at the baby photos below:  The stern-looking expression is more or less Lolo’s standard look (apparently he takes after mom…) and the smiley face is what you get when you spend 10 minutes “baby talking” and smiling so much that your cheeks hurt.  Totally worth it!

The most important thing when capturing cute baby photos is that you need to “understand at what level” your little subject is at.  Do they enjoy it when you make funny noises at them  or would some soapy bubbles make them smile.  Another important aspect is to always keep smiling at your little baby subject, as well as reassuring the parents that they are doing wonderfully.  (This will put them at ease and in turn make your subject more comfortable with being and interacting with you)

And in the end all your hard work will pay off with a million dollar smile like this (maybe accompanied by some gurgling baby sounds)  I can’t quite put on my finger onto why I just love photographing babies I just truly enjoy capturing these beautiful smiling faces.  In the end I always wonder who will you grow up to be little one?  Are you going to be more like daddy in being very technically orientated  with a kind heart just like your mom or are you just going to be totally different?

We are a family orientated photography studio.  Initially we did a lot of baby photography, as well as family photography.  We are now branching into a lot more corporate and wedding photography so that we can offer an all-round service to our clients. 

Is your baby normally very interactive and happy-go-lucky until you whip your camera out and all the smiles disappear?  Usually it is because you are either breaking eye contact (by putting the camera in fron of your face) or because you are concentrating to use your camera correctly (and so not spending as much energy to getting baby to smile)  Where as when you bring your little baby to our studio for baby photography you can still smile at and entertain them while we capture every beautiful smile!!!

Riani

Cute baby photograpy in jhb

I would love to know what she was thinking about at that exact moment…  Little babies are just the most beautiful things in the world!!!  I have been a Johannesburg baby photographer for more than three years and still find it absolutely exciting when I know my next client is one of these little angels. 

When taking photos of babies I would recommend that you fit your photoshoot into their routine.  I baby who is tired will NOT smile at you even if you are standing on your head, so keep this in mind.  Keep some “noisemaking” toys in your studio to grab their attention when they are tired of everyone’s faces and you might just get a few more award-winning smiles.

One more thing I have learnt with photographing babies is a few English nursery rhymes (I am Afrikaans) as they all love music and if you are able to sing a familiar song to them they will sometimes participate by clapping their hands while smiling and “dancing”…

Riani 

Johannesburg baby photographer

Photographing babies can be compared to walking into a tornado like a stormwatcher.  You need look at all the signs for instance has baby just woken up from a nap, are they hungry or are they extremely friendly right now?  And then you need to do your shoot according to how they feel.

When they are extremely happy you need to use this opportunity to get as many beautiful smiley photos as you can. Always remember to smile back at the baby who is being photographed.

Sing to them, play hide and seek behind the camera and in general just praise them for everything they do right.  If you ensure the whole photoshoot is a game they will love to be photographed and will defininitely want to come back

Riani

What is it about babies that makes us smile…?  Is it the naughty twinkle in a baby boy’s smile or the rosy cheeks of an angelic baby girl?!  Somehow they spread joy and love wherever they are (well most of the time anyway   )  This little baby boy chose today to take a break in his routine by not taking a late morning snooze.  So he wasn’t too smiley when they walked through through our doors for their professional baby photos.  But in the studio we had no trouble getting him to crack a smile and laugh from his belly   Between Mom, Granny and me we know all the secrets to getting babies to laugh when they are having their baby photos taken.  Photographing babies is all about making it about fun and games, playing peek-a-boo behind a camera and much, much more!!!  I find that the more you smile when taking photos of babies the more likely they are to smile right back at you.  So just have fun!

Riani

Photographing babies is a little bit of an art.  The studio should be heated to ensure that these little angels are comfortable enough without beong too hot.  Their tummies should be full and mom should always be in sight.  Little  J was my model this morning and gave us all different

expressions except for a very scarce smile.  I just love this photo where he is lying on his tummy, can you believe that he isn’t even 3 months old yet and he is that strong?  Baby photos are priceless memories which will be treasured for years to come.  In baby’s first year of life I would

recommend having 3 photoshoots done because they grow and change so quickly.  First photoshoot would be the newborn photoshoot when baby is a week or so old, second photoshoot when baby is 6 months old (so they are starting to sit and pushing themselves up on their arms) and the last photoshoot would be a toddler photoshoots when they are craling and then starting to walk…  Don’t miss out on capturin these memories!

Riani

There is something about babies which make my heart smile   I don’t know if it is the pure innocence or because I am a typical woman.  But there is just something so magical (mayby it is their sheer potential…)

What I enjoy most about photographing babies is that every shoot is unique.  Some babies are just naturally smiley and others require some tickling but in the end we get all of them to smile.

Photographing O was an absolute pleasure, it took a little bit of cooing to get her to smile but as you can see the reward is worth its weight in gold   Looking at this angelic face it makes realize that there is definitely some divine purpose for this earth…

Riani