



Colorado Springs professional photographer Mary Lynne Ashley specializes in creating beautiful custom portraits of newborns, babies, children, pregnant mothers and families. Contact her to schedule a session in her downtown Colorado Springs photography studio.
MaryLynne@aol.com
1355 S. 8th Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
(719) 329-0396





I sure seem to be photographing a lot of newborn babies before their actual due dates lately. This little sweetie was born over five weeks early I believe, and I photographed her yesterday at nearly five weeks old, four days shy of her actual due date. She's still not even seven pounds yet, and is so amazing. Just so tiny and sweet. Her parents are big fans of monkeys and giraffes, so she was photographed here with a bunch of the stuffed animals from her room. I love when people bring in their own props for newborn images, because I never know what cool new image I'll have the opportunity to create.
I know this image has been on the front screen of my website for a while, but I wanted to feature it as my photo of the day so I could talk about it. This is an example of an image that was created at the child's home rather than at my studio. When I photograph at a client's home, I spend a lot of time walking around looking for the best lighting and interesting props. I found this bookshelf in the big sister's room. We unloaded all the books and dragged it into another room where the light was better. Then I hunted all around for cute items that I could use that would all go together. The mom found the blocks so we could spell out the baby's name. I love the balance of all the soft colors. I created the image by window light. The baby is on the bottom shelf for safety. I've noticed that many people don't even see the baby when they glance at the image!
Just look at this perfect little bundle! Isn't it so sweet how she has a little smile on her face?
This sweet nine-day-old baby girl was in my studio earlier this week. She was born a little early, so I took this photo ten days before her due date!
I think this is one of the more unique and interesting shots I've done over the years. I call it "Just Hatched." Since entering it in print competition with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) I've seen it duplicated by other photographers, and have even been told that it was going to be featured on the Photovision DVD's. I didn't ever post this image online before entering it in competition because I didn't want anyone else to beat me to the punch with the idea. The parents had told me that they were going to be bringing in the mom's belly cast from her pregnancy, and I spent some time looking for ideas online, but came up short on good ideas. The dad, I believe, had the idea of nailing the belly cast to the table, so that's what we did -- put down the black cloth, put the belly cast on top of that, and then nailed it down so that it would stay upright. I lit it from the side and from the back to give it more dimension and to preserve the texture of the belly cast. Straight-on lighting would have washed out all the texture. It's sort of a maternity and newborn shot all in one!
Another amazing little newborn! Under 3 weeks is best for these sessions because they stay asleep better and are easier to position. A shot like this looks like it's a piece of cake, but it can take hours of waiting for the baby to fall asleep in this position. Well worth the wait, though, to capture such perfection.
I had the honor of photographing this sweet little beauty two days ago. She was just 5 lbs., 10 oz. at birth, and was at about 6 lbs., 2 oz. when I took this shot. I like to photograph newborns before they are 3 weeks old to get that true newborn look. This little one was 19 days old, but since she was a little early I photographed her on her due date!
