HYDERABAD: Baby photo shoots have become one of the booming sectors of lifestyle photography in the past few years. Thanks to social media, parents get a large platform to share professionally done photos of their bundles of joy with their friends and families. Apart from photography skills, patience and tuning in to the baby’s mood are essential to click those ‘awww’ inspiring pictures of newborns. Even Tollywood actors like Lakshmi Manchu, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR and others have opted for that.

Talking about this growing trend, Photriya Venky, a photographer, says: “Baby photo shoots have become very popular in the last 3-4 years due to social media. In the pre-Facebook era, we used to provide a physical album to the parents. But nowadays, they need the edited digital photos. They even insist that the photographer’s logo should be there because they think that if a particular photo does not have the photographer’s stamp, it is not up to the mark. For every shoot, we generally take some 20 snaps of the baby with three-four dress changes. The dresses are provided by the parents, but in case we need some other props like balloons, we arrange that.”

On the different kinds of baby shoots he does, he says: “There are new-born baby shoots, cake smash and baby shoots. Cake smash is when the child turns one, and baby shoots can be of children up to three-four years. These ideas have been borrowed from foreign countries, and people here have taken to them in a big way. The location of the shoots depends upon the theme that the parents want to go for. Some like to do it on the beach, some in their ancestral homes. We charge minimum Rs 30,000 for a photo shoot.”

“Patience is the key for photographers in baby shoots. The baby does not know what is going on, and sometimes even parents lose patience because their child is not smiling. That is why I sometimes choose the baby’s active time for the shoot, even if it’s at 2 am. The baby smiles only when she is active. I am clicking these photos not for social media, but for my lifelong collection. So I want the best shots,” he adds.

Agreeing that patience is necessary, Sandeep Dinker, a photographer who owns photobrahma.com, recalls a very special incident. “One day, I received a call from a man whose wife was going to deliver a baby in an hour. He asked me if I could go and click pictures of the baby. It was an exhilarating experience for me. I was, in fact, the first person to see the baby, and the first thing that the baby saw was a camera!”

Kashi Vishwanath, a PR professional who recently got a shoot done of his daughter Manikarnika, says: “We want to preserve these memories as the children will not be babies forever. I want my daughter to see these photos when she grows up, and realise how she looked when she was a baby. We were offered a photo shoot package at the hospital where my daughter was born.”

However, doctors are asking new parents to exercise some caution while following the trend. Dr S K Mittal, head, Department of Paediatrics, Max Super Speciality Hospital, says: “As the baby is new to the world, the eyes are still developing with soft and immature eyes. Even the millisecond exposure to the strong flash light (even after closing the eyes due to reflex action) has the potential to damage the retina permanently. Parents usually opt for some unnatural and awkward poses, which may lead to curving of the spine and more. Moreover, the flash lights may also scare the baby, leaving a deep impact on the baby’s developing brain and in future, the baby might develop a phobia.”

— Kakoli Mukherjee
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com @KakoliMukherje2