A few months ago back in February I was at a bit of a crossroads with my photography, do I carry and hope I can make it work with a new baby and 4 year old or do I retrain in midwifery to allow me to build the special relationships with mothers an babies that I've loved for so long. It was a bit of a miracle that I stumbled upon Kelly Brown's work in Instagram, Little Pieces Photography.
Absolutely blown away by Kelly's images and ethos, I started to look into some of her training programs and online courses. I was completely hooked with how she works with babies and parents to ensure that everyone is safe, comfortable and really gaining quite a special experience when she works with them.
I put everything I was learning in to practice, and I was really enjoying how much there is to learn in this new genre of photography. It's something I wish I'd tried much sooner, and was so excited that I was using my photography degree and getting my brain moving once more.
I saw that Kelly was headed to Lyon so jumped at the opportunity to learn in this special way from her. I'm a hands on learner and need to see things before it really sinks in, plus the training was a couple of days after my birthday, so considered this trip a little present to my self.
The training course- I wasn't exactly sure what to expect if I'm honest, but it was far better than I could have imagined. There's something magical about an element of surprise. We had two babies lined up, a little blonde chunk called Kayla, and a 5 day old little boy named Alessandro. Kelly worked with the babies with such ease and made it look easy. Came angles, lighting, getting it right in camera, design and styling, timing, there was so much to fit in in just the morning. The babies weren't playing ball, and it was really great to see how to adapt and keep things flowing to get the most from a session. Kelly has such a great way of teaching, a calming voice, and nice and firm with her instructions which works for me, and although I was very nervous, all the info was sinking in!
After lunch, we moved onto Business and Marketing, and this is when I took the most from the day. Hearing another 8 people from across Europe in the room all talk about the same mistakes we are making was refreshing. It made me realise that it can be so easy to just put your head down and work, without taking a moment to reflect on what you're actually doing and for what reasons. We got a royal kick up the bum from Kelly who runs four really successful businesses. I was taking notes like a crazy person and have a huge to-do list which is so exciting! It really was an honour to sit there and listen to someone who has achieved so much, with real hard work and passion, which made this feel even more important for myself and my two boys.
I would do another workshop with Kelly in a second, and strongly suggest you do too, if you're a newborn photographer! I think this is going to be a game changer!
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