Baby June © Tim Pannell Photography

This is one of my favorite baby photos.  It’s just one of those dumb, happy accidents.  It totally reminds me of those goofy chewing gum commercials and the 9 out of 10 dentists prefer Trident.

She looks like a little “pitchman.”  Here, look at this, look at how cute I am……now buy my crap!

This was a really simple portrait lighting setup.  Basically I found a room with great natural light.  I positioned the baby so the light would flatter her and be interesting.

I also made sure the background was visually pleasing, without competing with the baby.  I did that primarily by choosing a wide open f-stop, in this case it was f-2 and picking a background that had nice light, shadows and shapes.

The real trick, as always with babies is to recognize that ultimately they are in charge.

I sat her on the floor and laid down a few feet in front of her.  I got some simple props for her to play with.  She picked what she liked and did her thing.  I played with her for a few minutes so she would get used to me and hopefully, not pay much attention to me.

She was having a good time with her little block and then she glanced up with “that” look and knocked me out of my shoes.  I’ve shot tons of pictures of this little girl, she’s now 5 years old.  This is still my favorite…it just cracks me up.

It’s not any more complicated than that.  You shoot as much variety and for as long as the baby will tolerate your strange behavior.  Try to squeeze a little more out of her after the first “obvious” fussing noises.

With the 2nd set of “I’m growing weary of you” sounds, you pack your things and call it a day.