Hi all,
It's been a hot minute since I've written on the topic of newborn safety but I came across a reel today that makes me want to violently shake some sense into these people.
The fact that this baby happened to "smile" was the excuse they had for thinking she was comfortable and by not supporting her in any way or even making a move to put hands on her when she fell over shows how completely incompetent they are.
In this video clip, the baby didn't fall far, but there is so much wrong with this and only a true and trained professional would know this or, maybe just someone with a properly functioning brain. First, her poor wrist with how they had her supporting her own head. Second, her little neck could have been seriously hurt and I know it wasn't a large distance to fall but for a fragile newborn, and sudden drop in their neck like this especially to the side can hurt them. Third, she could have very easily fallen further right out of the chair and either landed right on the props or hitting her head on the way down. I cropped the video a bit to remove the name but no one even flinched or moved a hand towards that baby when she fell and the "spotter" if you can call them one was not close enough to the baby to really give her any support. She was supporting herself until her arm fell because well duh, newborn babies cannot support their own neck and head or control their little arms.
Additionally, anytime you are using props near a baby, you need to ensure 100% that there is no way a baby can fall on or near them and if her arm went outward or backward, her head could have had less to land on and gone forward.
I mean, if it LOOKS unsafe, it IS unsafe. I know a lot of people were defending this because they too focused on the sweet smile and not at all on the possible ways that baby could have been hurt but being a trained professional, I see the poor posing and the lack of support used here.
Any time you have a baby in or on a prop, there needs to be a spotter not more than inches away with a hand on or right beside/above the baby just in case they suddenly jerk their head or a limb to make sure the baby stays supported at all times, it's not rocket science.
I would still do this type of pose as a composite, with a spotter's hand on that baby and doing a little photoshop magic on 2 images to create one, achieving the goal but safely done.
It angers me how many bad photographers there are out there who don't care at all about newborn safety, it's all about the shot but no photo is ever worth risking the safety of a baby, period.
Your newborn, child a family photographer