Newborns. Nothing is sweeter or more mysterious to me. I remember with great clarity bringing my first baby home form the hospital and thinking "dear lord, now what have I gotten myself into"? I was scared and unsure of my capabilities as a new mother. I remember a particularly difficult night when we first brought our baby girl home, she cried and cried and we had no idea about what to do. My husband and I looked at one another and laughed, literally. Then we called the doctor to make sure we were not somehow ruining our baby (I don't think he was amused at 2 am).
Looking back we seemed so unprepared and so unsure. We were. But somehow we kept going knowing the gift we had been given and knowing that time would give us confidence and that above all, that we had each other.
Sometimes a baby's homecoming is not so sweet, or funny. Sometimes a new mom with a newborn has a hard time feeling joyful or optimistic about having a new life to care for. Sometimes she can sink into a dark cloud called Post Partum Depression (PPD). This was the case for this sweet baby's mommy. She was suffering terribly from a debilitating case of PPD and so when the time came for the family to have this sweet infant photographed (they came to a recent workshop I attended), mom simply could not muster the strength to attend. We all felt such deep sympathy for her and for her husband and baby when we heard her story.
But then, in walked "super daddy"! A man that in a time of need seriously stepped up and did what needed to be done to protect and nurture the precious new life he had helped create. This man (and he truly exemplifies the definition of man) has been a beacon of light and life for this family and you could see his love for them written all over his face. He came in with sweet little princess and you could tell, they were seriously bonded. She cried, he comforted. She fussed, he sang her a song (actually, we all did). He cared for her, loved her and doted on her as if she had been in his womb. We were all swooning...
What a gift for this little girl to know the love and dedication her daddy provided for her during a time when she needed it most.
This was not the easiest newborn shoot I have done (I had very little creative control and was sharing the shoot with many other photog's) but it felt important to me. We all wanted so baldly to give this new daddy the gift of some precious moments captured with his little baby girl. I hope to have succeeded.
Enjoy.
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