I just got back from Toronto. I love Toronto; it’s where I went to graduate school and got my degree in Medieval Studies, which is quite possibly the least useful degree available, though the fun one can have playing Latin Scrabble should not be underestimated. Or over-estimated, as the case may be. This time I went to go spend a weekend at a workshop with the talented and chic Heather Rivlin and talk about newborns and the taking pictures of such.

It was kind of like being 29 again. There I was, traveling, just me, the passport, a credit card, a camera and a backpack. No kids. No 15 juice boxes. No piles of Things Designed to Keep Preschoolers From Kicking the Seat in Front of Them (TM). So, I show up in my favorite city, all cool and kid free, as a giant pimple blossoms on the side of my face.

Did I say it was like 29? Make that more like 14. Really. It was, and is, so absurdly gargantuannly huge Brian asked over dinner if I had been bitten by a mosquito. Sigh. And, I did tell you Heather was chic right? And her studio was chic. And I, I was not, shall we say, chic.

Then, there I was in this fabulously cool city and at the end of each day working I was so darn tired the idea of strolling down to ANYTHING other than to collapse in my hotel room was just an exhausting proposition. So I didn’t. Because that is how cool and fun I am.

I did do a little shooting, and a lot of note taking. The nature of a newborn workshop is that the teacher does all the baby posing as, after all, so very very few parents of newborns are all that happy with the idea of 10 strangers arranging their baby. I joke that “all I do is point the camera and push the button” but in this case it’s really quite true as the posing part is the most difficult part of newborn photography. However, this little guy, at all of three days old, is really too cute not to share.

And, my standard baby reminder: if you want newborn pictures BOOK EARLY. I will shoot “Simply Babies” style pictures up through 1 month of age but if you really want newborn shots the baby has to be under 10 days. That 3-10 day old window is the best time. Book while you are pregnant.

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