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

Nicole, thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks for having 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?

I do, yeah.

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

children. You must love it.

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.

Look at that! Is this from Etsy?

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?

Huge.

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,

and I like a bit of fur, you know?

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

Yeah, exactly.

The newborn babies in the baskets

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

mean, but I do find things like at IKEA.

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.

Of course, and book it in then.

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

better if I know, but usually I don't.

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

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

It goes so quickly I mean by

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 .

So that's quite a long time...

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

have an app, as well, that makes the

the in vitro kind of sounds.

No way! There's an app for that?

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.

So that's your posing tool?

Yeah and on the beanbag, then, I usually will have decided before the session which

blankets I want to use and if it's a boy or girl. Even though I kind of tend to go towards the

creams and all those and the whites because I love the purity of that. If I have a girl, I have

this really beautiful Angora, pink blanket that I would use and if it's a boy I

might just put some grays or some, you know, kind of soft dusty blues.

Choose from your massive selection of blankets that are everywhere.

They all fall down on me.

So bean bags. That's the best thing?

Yeah, it's a big bean bag and the bean bag, I've tried a lot of them and the bean bag I

really like is from this Dutch place called Therapy and it's just really

comfortable and they just kind of smush down into it and then I would use other

things to maybe prop up their heads or their upper bodies a little bit more like,

you know the neck things that you wear on the airlines, yeah, put that

around underneath all the blankets and then smooth out the blanket afterwards so

they're up a little bit more.

That's how people do that. You're giving away all your secrets.

I know, sorry, but yeah,

and so then it's just a matter of seeing where the light falls, making sure that goes on the

other side of the

the studio. I also have windows so I kind of bring down the shades there to get a little

bit more shadow on the other side but I've noticed on your website it's not just

the teeny tiny babies that you photograph is it? You kind of do the whole family. How does that differ?

Well I love doing the little, tiny babies and I love doing

the kind of the connection shots between the mom and the baby and then the dad

the baby and they're definitely different poses that I would use for the

mom. The mom I really like to get the baby up here and get her just really cuddled in because usually the

moms are a little bit nervous about how they're looking and everything, so I say,

you know, that you can wear pajama bottoms, you know, that is not going to

be in the photo. It's all about up here and you're just snuggling with that little

baby in your arms because he or she will not fit there for very long so and then

the only... the tricky part, though, is that there's an older sibling, usually about a

toddler age because there's about a 2-3 year gap between kids normally and then

the shoot changes completely because I have to get in the

family first,

the toddler second and then let him go watch something on the iPad and then I

deal with the baby. But then at that point I really don't have as much time to deal

with the baby so what I started doing recently is just suggesting that they

bring the baby at the newborn stage and then come back when the baby is kind of

sitting up and then we do the siblings together because you get, I think, more

variety of photos at that age. More interaction between them and I think

that's super sweet. You know that age, as well, for the baby, you know, to look like little Buddhas.

Do you do a lot of photoshopping on the babies?

I only... well there's definitely work to do on a baby. In like pretty much every photo you

have to do something to it. I try to get it right in the camera,

you know, the lighting and everything but they always have little marks, you know, little scratch marks.

Because I mean your pictures they're so soft and perfect and dream like.

I've been around newborn babies and I'm looking at the baby going 'no that's not it'.

They are usually very red as well .

Really? So you have to tone it all down?

So I have to bring down the reds all the time.

So there is a lot of retouching required on babies?

Unfortunately.

One last thing. The camera that you use, is it anything special or what do you use?

Yeah I have a Nikon D750. Yeah so I used to have the 700, then I had the 800

and then I tried the 750 because it's a lot lighter because a

lot of times you're kind of over the baby and like on your knees and

everything, so yeah, I have a 750 and then the lens really important I have the

Sigma 1.4 50mm. It's like an art lens. I used to have the 50mm Nikon which is good too.

Do you shoot in the 1.4 because of the light or is it because that you

really love the shallow depth of field? I love the shallow depth of field,

yeah and that's why, when you said earlier that the babies look so kind of

soft, like you know, you would have a bit of that because of...thanks to the lens.

Wow. That's a good tip. I must add that to my bag then.

And attempt to do what you do, even though there's no chance of me getting anywhere near what you do

You've just got to try.

It's fabulous. Well, listen, I hope that you continue to do it because you make

absolute masterpieces out of these babies and thank you so much for sharing all your tips with us.

My pleasure. Thank you so much.

Well, that's it for this episode.

I really hope you enjoyed the show. If you'd like to start the conversation with

me then please leave me a comment below.

I do love hearing your feedback. If you'd like to brush up on your own photography skills then

check out the Adorama Learning Center and if you'd like to see more videos then

subscribe to the Adorama YouTube channel. Thanks and I'll see you again soon.