Baby K came in to model for me shortly after I attended mentoring to help perfect my newborn photography with Nicole Smith Photography out of Scottsbluff, NE. The mentoring was amazing and I had so many light bulb moments throughout. The trip to get there on the other hand was a wild ride! 

My dear friend Chantry from Chantry Lee Photography flew in from Montana to come with me. We were both trying to minimize our time away from our children and she scheduled her flight to arrive at 11pm. I headed to DIA just as a super heavy rain came in. It was so wet and heavy that the roads were reflecting every single light like crazy and you could hardly see the lines painted on! I of course checked the flight status before I left home (on time) and then again as I was waiting for my Dutch Bros coffee (yay for a late night coffee shop!)  when it showed a 15 minute delay! No big deal as the roads made for slower travel. I got to the airport and got  message from Chantry that her plane had landed but there was no gate available for them to de-board! I ended up circling DIA for about an hour before she was finally set free haha!

We were finally on our way to Nebraska after midnight! Mentoring was starting at 8:30 am and the rain was still coming down really hard and flooding the roads! To make it even more exciting, Chantry was not feeling great after a very turbulent flight in! About an hour into the drive we realized the rain combined with the pitch black night were making a pretty risky combo! We found a hotel in Cheyenne and stopped an hour from home with an hour and half of driving to do in the morning. We woke about an hour and a half later in daylight to 2 inches of snow on the ground!! When we chose our dates for mentoring back in January, we certainly didn’t think we’d be driving to Nebraska in a snow storm in MAY! Typical for Cheyenne, the snow was thick and wet and blowing all over. Luckily about 30 minutes away, the snow turned to rain and we made our way safely to Scottsbluff! 

The first day was packed with learning! We had 3 little models that day and we worked through each pose learning the ins and out how baby should be positioned to show just how tiny and bendy and sweet newborns are! We also worked through some techniques for soothing baby and keeping them happy and settled. When all of the babies headed home we talked business and editing 🙂 Nicole was an open book with us and it was so cool to bounce ideas off of her and talk through some things. After a the biggest plate of nachos you’ve ever seen, we headed to an early bed time and tried to catch up on the sleep we had missed the night before! 

Day two was hands on practice with a sweet baby girl. It was awesome to review and go over questions with a little more rest. My brain was totally swimming with new information at this point but all of my questions were answered and we headed back to DIA just after lunch so we could get back to our own babies (even if they aren’t really babies anymore haha!).

Baby K came to the studio the following week and I got to put all of my new knowledge in practice! I’m so happy with the growth I’ve experience from the mentoring session! For me the change in my work is super obvious! And of course I continue to grow and change a little with each newborn session. Photographers, I’d highly recommend working with Nicole! She had a wonderful way of teaching that just made sense and was easy to remember. I feel like everything she taught was repeatable on my own as well which is huge! 

Mamas, If you are expecting, I’d love to work with you and your new babe! Email me at kate@dearkatestudios.com or through the button below! I’m currently booking due dates October through December <3