This is Bug, or Garrett, my step-grandson. Pretty cute, huh? He's almost 2 months now and starting to smile when anyone talks to him. He really enjoys the conversation and he'll try to join in. Taking newborn photos is easy, but how do you capture that cuteness once they're a little older and often awake and jerking around? 

Well for one, set the camera to continuous shooting so you can take several photos quickly. Normally, I try to minimize the amounts of shots I take, watching through the lens, waiting for the perfect moment, to save time sorting through photos later. But with these little ones, expressions change so fast, you really have to keep shooting. 

For Garrett, it was a combination of talking to him without the alien camera in front of my face, getting him to smile and talk, then quickly shooting several photos. I had to do this many, many times because often they were too blurry or the focus was in the wrong place. Even some of my favorites here aren't perfect, but what I do love about them is the beautiful expressions I caught, without too obvious of imperfections.

I really like the natural feel of these, its well suited to a baby. We did most of them on the couch in my studio with no light but from the window. I used my 50mm 1.8 Canon lens with the aperture wide open on aperture priority mode, I really like the shallow depth of field and bokeh background that produces.

I also made sure his eyes were pointed toward the window to get some nice reflection in his eyes, but I think the couch could have been moved a little closer to the window for some brighter light in his eyes. I was able to help that with some editing, but it would have saved time and probably looked better to set it up that way from the beginning. It also helps to bump up the ISO slightly for indoor, natural light. I had mine set to 400, but that's as high as I like to go, so I also increase the exposure compensation slightly which helps so much. Since I've started using the exposure compensation, I've really enjoyed the results. It's definitely worth learning to use.