This past August, I had the opportunity to meet and mentor Jamie, of Tiltawhirl Photography. Let me tell you first, she is so sweet and down to earth. Jamie is a fantastic photographer too! I’ve been following her for awhile and just this past year she has sky rocketed. Make sure you stop by her website and view her work. Absolutely breath-taking!!! And her house!!! GAH! I love it. So adorable and well designed!! It was a joy to spend the day with her photographing and snuggling on little bitty newborns! We spent some time going over setting up for a newborn shoot in the studio before the babies arrived. Once we were all ready, we jumped right in!! My approach to teaching is very hands on. I learn best that way and feel that most others do as well. Typically I will start the posing off first and have my mentoree perfect the pose or put their own spin on it as we go. Of course, safety is always key. I am there to make sure baby stays safe and secure at all times. I will show the basics of posing different set-ups and then if baby is willing, I will have my mentoree try it as well. With Jamie, she needed just basic posing skills and more Photoshop editing of newborn skin (it can be so tricky!!!). We used natural lighting for these sessions since that is what Jamie was most used to and had available. 🙂 A little different for me since I haven’t done natural light in studio for years, but it was fun!
First we photographed Jamie’s own niece, 7 days new Callie. ❤ Little sweet pea!
We also photographed 4 days new, Zelda Mae (LOVE ❤ THE NAME!) and her family. 🙂 
She wasn’t entirely sure about this idea… 😉 
I was busy and mainly concentrating on making sure Jamie was having a good experience and being hands on for photographing and posing the babies, so I honestly didn’t take many photos myself. I did manage to grab at least one behind the scenes shot of Jamie capturing the family shot of Zelda Mae and her Mom and Dad. ❤ 
Are you interested in mentoring with me? Contact me at info@brandiwilliamsonphotography.com with NEWBORN MENTORING in the subject line. 🙂
Here is some of what Jamie had to say after mentoring:
“Thank you, Brandi!! You cut down my editing time so much, and if I can just get past my fears about putting something out there and then wishing I could get it back and edit and re-edit and edit again, then hopefully I will be in a place where I’m not spending so much time stressing!! I am so grateful to you for all you taught me. I am actually excited for the next time I will have a newborn in the studio. And I actually think I’m prepared if I would get a last minute call for a newborn, whereas before our mentoring session, I would just panic and do all I could to find another photographer for whomever called. (But I will continue to take great comfort knowing that I have an amazing photographer just down the road to refer clients to!) Working with you was awesome, and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again.” – Jamie E.
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© Brandi Williamson Photography | Dover, New Philadelphia, Green Ohio newborn + family photographer | mentoring
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