There is so much that goes on behind the scenes for professional photographers and one of them is the photography conventions. This week I headed up to Coventry to attend The Newborn and Portrait Photography Show (NPP). (www.thenewbornphotographyshow.co.uk)

My first class was booked with an amazing award winning photographer and teacher Kelly Brown. (www.littlepiecesphotography.com.au www.newbornposing.com) It was an 8 hour course dedicated to newborn photography. Along with 19 other newborn photographers we watched as Kelly walked us through her workflow with two little baby girls. Starting first with beanbag posing and how to pose a newborn safely. It was great to see the best way to move a baby through the different poses and to achieve the best photographs for parents. With the second baby we worked through different prop poses which was great to learn about as prop images can create such beautiful photographs. Kelly was also hilarious and very down to Earth despite her ‘fame’ in the photography industry.

The next day I studied with maternity photographer, Alli Peck, from Glow Portraits (www.glowportraitsbyalli.com) and we photographed 2 pregnant women. We had a lot of fun with lighting and experimenting with different light placements and poses. We photographed nude images as well as some beautiful gowns provided by Mii Estello (www.mii-estilo.com) which were absolutely stunning. It was such a valuable course learning how to capture certain images I’ve always wanted to capture.

After this course and a little bit of shopping I headed back to Kelly Brown for a business and marketing course. It was inspiring to hear her story and how she got to be as successful as she is now.

Along with these courses was the trade show, a dangerous place for prop lovers. Handmade gorgeous delicate props specifically for newborn and portrait photography.

It was such a motivating couple of days and now I’m ready to get stuck back in and put into practise all the valuable things I have learned!

Emily x