Sometimes things just dont go your way.  Sometimes you run out of natural available light because your session runs a little long because you can never predict how a newborn is going to be for a photo shoot.  and Sometimes you have to get seriously SERIOUSLY creative to get one.last.photograph.

We had been trying all evening to get sweet baby Gavin to fall asleep. while we got some amazing shots of he alone and with mom and alone with dad, we had yet to get a family shot.  We still had about 15-20 minutes left of sunlight so i thought it would be no problem, right?  wrong.  Newborn sessions are about 90% soothing and feeding, and the other 10% is posing and photographing.  Gavin had had enough, and was not going to tollerate “just one more shot…”

my rule of thumb is to never never push things with a portrait session for any age of child, be that newborn, 6 month, 1 year and up.  its never a good experience when you feel pressured, and if a baby needs to take a break to nurse, i’d be much happier if he was happy.

But, in this situation, i was sweating it a little bit.  i knew if we took any time at all to nurse him, we would have absolutely zero light.  zero.  Sure, i’ve got my flashes (which i would normally never ever use for a newborn session- flash can disturb your slumbering baby that you worked so hard to get sleeping!)  but that is not going to create soft enough light for a newborn session without the use of a giant softbox.

I was crossing my fingers that we would have just a tiny tiny little bit of light left, and maybe i could just bump my ISO up a tad and it would be ok.

ummmmm no.

definitely NOT ok. I was quickly running out of options and the thought of driving another hour and a half round trip the next day just to get ONE photograph (not to mention intruding on their schedules) was not something i wanted to do.

so, thinking quickly on my feet i noticed the giant white garage door.  and then thoughts immediately went to my car’s headlights.  i jumped in my vehicle, pulled it up quite close to the garage door, and turned on my headlights so that it was bouncing off the garage door.  the white garage door acted like a GIANT oversized soft reflector creating the softest light.

I used a silver reflector to bounce back a little bit of light on the opposite side of my subjects, so it would have a nice soft even look.

and i used the blank wall behind them as the background.  (ps- see that blue sky?!?! it’s the blue hour!!!)

and then… we got this:

I am not going to lie… i’m kind of a little bit proud.  not only did i feel like a total photography NINJA but truthfully, it was softer light than i could have gotten with anything else.  i may honestly use my car headlight/garage reflector again if i can swing it.  It also feels good to know that you dont have to spend millions of dollars on photography if you’re smart enough to think of ways to get around it.  Would i have preferred to have a softbox?  if i was worried about impressing them and looking professional ABSOLUTELY.  But, I’ve photographed Jen many times now, and I know she trusts that whatever crazy thing i’m asking her to do will end up looking great.  and that’s what really counts, right? the final image.  Getting there is the fun part.