Model Call Prep Work

Congratulations on being chosen for the model call

Thank you for applying for the model call and congratulations on being selected. 

Our newborn session will take place in a studio located in Pleasant Hill.  The session itself can take onwards up to 3 hours which allows plenty of time for feedings, cleaning up accidents and most importantly, sleep.

The two photographers that you will be meeting with are Yuri Pettengill and Karen De Jager. The point of the model call is to have images taken of both Yuri and Karen individually while working with your little one.

In order to make the most of our time together, we will need your help with the following:

Before you leave the house

• The majority of the pictures will work best if your baby is asleep. Playing with your baby and keeping them awake prior to your arrival is helpful. The goal is to have your baby awake at least an hour prior to our session.

• Try and avoid feeding your baby up to two hours prior to the start of our session. When you get to the studio we will feed the baby. 

• While you are keeping the baby awake at home, a lot of families will give their baby a sponge bath 30 minutes prior to arriving at the studio which will help with keeping them calm baby/keep awake. This is also useful for dry, flaky skin.

• Dress your baby in something easy to get off like zip up or snap front pajamas, skip anything we need to take off over the head.

• If you are using expressed breast milk or formula, be sure to bring a larger than usual amount in the event your baby needs several feedings. 

• A favorite trick to help create a successful newborn session is using the green (sometimes pink or yellow) hospital newborn pacifier. This is also known as a respitonics soothie pacifier, and with a few tiny sucks, little ones can drift back to sleep if they begin to wake up. Some parents worry about nipple confusion and prefer not to use a pacifier during the session. However, I personally find that in a newborn session a pacifier such as a hospital recommended "soothie" brand is used as a placeholder and is not confused with feeding. Newborns express pain, happiness, sadness, frustration, and comfort orally. Using a pacifier can helps bring comfort to a little one who might be slightly awakened when I pose them. If you happen to use one already, please bring it with to our session. If you are not comfortable with using one, I will ask one of the parents wash their hands and we will use their finger to sooth, similar to the nurses in the hospital. 

• The studio will be very warm. I’ll have the thermostat set between 75 - 80 degrees. For the adults, it will be hot and I will be glowing as I work, but your baby will be toasty and happy. This is because at their age they are unable to regulate their body temperatures yet and if the air around them is too cool, they will be uncomfortable and I will be unable to achieve our goal poses. With this said, I recommend bringing layers.

At the studio, what to expect 

When you arrive at the studio your baby will be freshly bathed, dressed in an easy to zip/snap outfit, hungry and hopefully awake. It is my goal that when you first arrive you can feed them to make sure your baby has a full belly. Be sure to burp baby really, really well after the feeding. Gas can take a sleepy, happy baby to an uncomfortable and irritable one in seconds.

We will have two babies at our model call. If your baby has not fallen asleep by the time we are ready to begin taking photos, the other baby will be selected to go first. It is our goal to work with both of the models as one is a boy and the other is a girl. 

The studio is only 500 sq ft and with two photographers, two babies and two sets of parents it will be a lot of people in one space. With that said, the model call is limited to only the baby, mom and dad. 

As a gift to your family, Yuri and Karen will be gifting you five high-resolution images two weeks following our model call. The images will be delivered via a private weblink. 

A few tips 

• Be patient. If your baby gets fussy or alert, don’t stress out. Your newborn can sense your anxiety and we want to keep the environment as mellow as possible. We will try and get your baby comfortable again, but if that just doesn’t seem possible, we’ll take a break or we’ll work with what baby is giving us.

• Safety is always my highest priority. Be assured that if there is ever a point where you’re uncomfortable with the poses, simply let me know. I only want to do poses and shots that you are comfortable with.

• And lastly, I ask that my camera be the only camera in use during our session, including cell phone cameras. I work very hard to pose baby for the various shots, so please respect my artistry. If you would like to take photos of me in action, you are welcome to take a few pullbacks. Thank you for respecting my work, I’m honored

I am looking forward to being part of this very special moment in your life.