Jen here with another First Year post!

When Logan was born, she had such beautiful, thick dark brown hair, but during the first few months, much of it fell out.  Her hair thinning revealed the sweetest little swirl spot near the top of her head.  Now that her hair is quickly growing back in, I knew that I had to photograph it before it was gone!

Enter Me Ra’s photo recipe called “The Unforgettable Baby Detail” from her book, Your Baby in Pictures!  Here are the details of what I did to follow her recipe…

Prep

First and foremost, I made sure Logan was fed and changed – two things that make her happy and give me a good start to our shoot!  Next, I placed Logan on the floor in her favorite chair that has a low back, so that I would have an unobstructed view of the back of her head and shoulders.  I turned her chair around so her hair swirl was facing the window and was lit up by the natural light.  Then I positioned myself with my back facing the window.

Camera Settings

My DSLR’s built-in flash is always off, but I double checked it, just to be sure.  I selected Aperture Priority mode and used the low aperture of 1.8/f so that the background in the photo would be blurred, bringing attention to her hair swirl.  Since her nursery was a little dark due to a cloudy day, I had to bump up my ISO to 800.

Compose

Since I wasn’t looking to compose a super tight shot of Logan’s hair swirl, Me Ra had a great photo tip – she said to pay attention to what was being included in the background of my shot and to keep it uncluttered, which would help keep the focus on the back of Logan’s head.

Capture

I simply focused on Logan’s hair swirl, locked in the focus and recomposed the shot to create the image I wanted.

Here is the result.  So cute!

Once I got a good shot using the photo recipe, I started to play around a little bit.  I turned Logan in the chair so that the left side of her was toward the window.  I positioned myself behind and slightly above Logan, looking down on the back of her head at a little bit of an angle.

The last shot I tried was turning Logan so that she was facing the window.  I just LOVE how this one turned out.  The rays of sun filtering through the window give her a beautiful glow.  Just goes to show you how different images can look with a change in position of you and your subject in relation to a natural light source!  And could her little ear and cute little neck roll be any more adorable?  They are two of my other favorite details!

Now it’s your turn to try out this recipe with your little one to highlight your favorite detail about your baby.  Me Ra and I would love to see what you capture – please share with us your favorite image on her Facebook page!

Meet me here next Monday when I give you a little insight on how I manage to take care of a very active baby while getting some work done.

First Year Cheers!

Jen