Name: Newborn and Baby Portraiture with Nicole Le Saout: Out of the Darkroom with Ruth Medjber
Uploaded: 2017-01-17T03:33:56.000Z
Duration: 12 min 13 s
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Hello and welcome to Out of the Darkroom on AdoramaTV. I'm Ruth Medjber and joining

me on the show today is Nicole Le Saout. She is incredible newborn baby photographer.

Nicole, thank you so much for joining me.

Yeah I absolutely love what you do. I don't think there's anybody that can

look at your website and not just constantly go 'aww'. Is your whole life like that?

No, it's pretty chaotic. I have three kids of my own. It's not that peaceful. My mornings are peaceful.

You've got good experience with babies, then if you've had three?

That's obvious from your website because, its just babies. Babies and

I do. I love it. I love it. I mean they're just gorgeous that age, newborn and so fresh and just beautiful.

Was it something that you always wanted to do?

No I think I just kind of got into it when I had my own kids.

I mean, I obviously, I don't have any photos of my own kids, like this, unfortunately, because

I was still learning and everything but I always wanted to be a photographer

and I was attracted to that, but no, I didn't really know about the newborn thing til later on.

One of the things I wanted to ask you was about

the props which are obviously such a big thing in what you do. Is your studio

space just packed full of blankets and snuggly things.

Yeah it is. I think I have a little bit of a weird

fetish about all the blankets and wraps and scarves because you can find props

everywhere, you know, like in museum shops and you know, in markets in

France and stuff. I am always looking for stuff and yeah and I look on Etsy as well.

It's a website where people handmake lots of different things and yeah, so.

Yeah, it is. It is. It's from the states actually, yeah.

I can't imagine a baby would fit..Like that's a little crown.

Well their heads are only like that big so you have to make it look little.

You've brought in some absolutely adorable props. You must like...

It is a way I suppose of constantly shopping isn't it?

It is yeah. Yeah, sometimes I have to say okay already have, you

know, five cream blankets and I really don't need another one but yeah.

But I mean is it because you always want to photograph the babies a little bit differently?

I do, yeah, so I like to change it around and although there are certain

blankets that I always go back to because they have a beautiful weave and give you

the lines, like the leading lines in the photos, so you know.

Is texture a big thing, then, in the shots?

I suppose, because baby skin would be so soft that you want something a little bit more...

a little knobbly or a little... just something, you know, that's a little bit different although I really

like the smooth Angora as well, where you just see a bit of the fluff, you know,

So basically everything in your house, you just want to touch it.

kind of thing, it's really, really taken off lately you must be delighted with

that though, because it might make prop shopping a little easier?

Yeah because normally I have to find things on Etsy and really search out, I

Yeah, yeah there's huge plant baskets, you know for plants that I would put the kids in

or babies in and, you know, I find things at Dunnes, and you know. I'm just constantly on the lookout, you know.

So, you mentioned there, babies. You said four days. Would you get them in at four days?

Well, about six days usually. I kind of... I like to wait until the little clamp falls off so...

Oh ok. So you have to talk to me about all of this because I don't have kids, I'm not good with

being around kids so you have to spell everything out for me. A little clamp is the belly button thing?

Yeah, so ideally, it's great if the mom can

ring up and give me her due date before she's had the baby.

And then I kind of know, you know, the week after the due date, two weeks I can manage that a little bit

It is so important, though, isn't it to get a baby

when they're so small, because they'll change really quickly.

the time I give the photos and frames and things back to them, the baby is

changed a lot and they're kind of like 'oh my gosh' and I go 'I really didn't take that long' .

But like three months is loads for a newborn baby.

The photo shoots that you do, how long does it take you to photograph one baby?

Well for one baby usually they get there around 10 and they usually leave around one .

Well because a lot of times during that morning they have to have a few feeds and they have a few cuddles

and I only have one, I only take one baby a morning and

so there's no rushing and if the parents are late, like they were this morning, it's like no

stress and I'm always saying don't stress just come and it's really

relaxing and I do the photoshoots in my home so I have a huge window that's only

just beautiful, natural light and so all the other photos are natural light. That

Window is just in the perfect spot and it's really big so it brings in a lot of

light and the parents usually fall asleep, yeah.

So they obviously trust you completely if

they can just fall asleep and, you know, you work with their baby.

Yeah they do. Well they see the minute they walk in, we just, like, take the baby and we're like 'oh my god' you

know? And then they fall asleep, but that's the biggest challenge, to get them to fall asleep, you know?

So that's what you want? You want the babies to fall asleep?

Yeah, yeah definitely. I mean I don't mind if we do a

few shots before and shoot a few shots afterwards where they're awake and

you can see their eyes, but for all the ones that are kind of posed and where they

look so peaceful and everything and when they smile. That's when they're asleep.

Tell me a little bit more about the shoot, if you will, because this is the bit I'm

interested in. First of all, how do you get the baby so comfortable and how do pose them?

Do you literally just like...are they like play-dough?

A little bit, yeah. Once they're sleep they're like play-dough, so like the shoot would be, you know,

the parents come in and we undress the baby and get the baby all wrapped up and then,

like I said, they go and hang out on the couch and usually fall asleep and so we

Yes there is. And it's white noise and it's

hilarious. Some babies fall asleep to the like really hard rain sound as well and the

train one so anyway, so we get the baby all set up and I have, like I said, the big

window and next to the window I have a really big bean bag. Yeah and that's important.