The newborn sessions that take place at Chandra Lee Photography are much different then the average photography session. Newborns require a high level of care and patience to pose and photograph.
It was not always easy for me to photograph newborn babies. My daughter Madison, who is the sunshine of my world, is now 5 years old. When she was a newborn, I spent many evenings from about 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. (which I called the witching hours) where she seemed to just cry non-stop. I did everything I could to try to soothe her. She did not want to sleep unless she was attached to me. I would rock her for many hours until she would fall asleep in my arms. She nursed non-stop it seemed. After three weeks of this and without help, I was abhorrently tired and worn out.
I found solace with the aid of the local Early Learning Centre. Most communities have a local Early Learning Centre. Every Monday, I would take my daughter Madison with me where we met with other new moms. There was a lactation consultant available to weigh Madison and provide me with helpful tips on breast feeding. The help I received was invaluable. Every week, I knew that breast feeding was going well as my daughter was steadily gaining weight. This gave me assurance between appointments with our family doctor. The Early Learning Centre I attended also had a library of valuable resources. On the first day, I said to the group of new moms “I need help. I am so tired and all my baby girl does is cry non-stop”. The Early Learning Centre gave me a video on soothing techniques for baby. I laughed while watching the video. The techniques seemed so foreign to me. As the video came to an end and I held my crying baby in my arms I tried some of the techniques as shown on the video. My baby girl was instantly soothed. I was so happy and relieved.
I will admit that I struggled as a new mom. Caring for an infant was foreign to me. My ex-husband was never around. I was all alone caring for an infant baby.
After being a law clerk for 10 years, I was quite accustomed to multi-tasking, working overtime and being intensely busy all of the time. I loved my daughter very much but I also needed something more in my life than baby talk and daily 10 km runs and walks.
At 10 months of my maternity leave, I started attending photography classes. 6 months later, I had attended 30 photography classes and workshops.
When my daughter was 18 months old, I became a single mom.
When I started on the path to my newborn photography, most people wondered why I would want to leave my career as a law clerk to become a photographer. Someone told me that I would never be able to be a photographer because I was too shy and wouldn’t be able to pose people.
I chose not to listen to anyone. I believed in myself and I knew that I could be a photographer. 5 years later, I have photographed 500 newborn babies. My daughter is growing up to be a happy, well adjusted, beautiful little girl surrounded by strength and love. No-one can ever take our dreams away from us and we all have the strength to accomplish just about anything we set our minds to.