First Infant Shoot... Kinda.

[daniel.garcia]

Hey everyone it's me again.. still on deployment, but only have to rough it out for another 60 days or so. Still being new to photography, I'm still running into new "firsts" with everything I shoot. This was my first infant shoot (impromptu, unfortunately) and my first time shooting into the light due to space constrictions (had to shoot these with my 70-200 VRI since my Tamron 28-75 hasn't arrived.) Shooting into the light was definitely a challenge, metering seemed all over the place, a lot of shots had ridiculous amounts of clipping, and I could never quite match the light and color in my exposure with what I saw in my viewfinder.. if any of the pros out there have any tips on how what I can do to to make these shots come out better I would really appreciate it. These so far have been my favorites of the quick 10 or so minute photo shoot. CC and tips on how to remedy the negative points would be greatly appreciated. And I'll copy and paste the little blurb I wrote about these in flickr at the end for those who want a little back story to the images.


-DG



nurse and baby by .DG, on Flickr



sun bathing by .DG, on Flickr


Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRI


The NATO Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan has seen its fair share of traumatic battlefield injuries from gunshot wounds to IED multiple amputations for which it is well equipped to handle. This week, however, the medical team that thought that they had seen it all was surprised when an unlikely patient passed through the trauma bay doors, a new born baby girl. The mother (a civilian contractor) was unaware of her pregnancy and gave birth to the first baby to be born on Kandahar Airfield.


This photo of the baby girl (approx 40 hours old) was taken with the U.S. Navy nurse in charge of care for the infant and her mother. Due to the lack of resources available to provide the most state of the art care for an infant in a war-zone, such as UV light lamps, the more traditional method of sitting in direct sunlight was used to help with the newborn baby's jaundice.


I am a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman currently deployed and attached to this Hospital with aspirations of becoming a photographer when I return home from deployment. I have only been shooting in dSLR format for about 3 months, and am still learning everyday. Shooting into the light source was a new challenge I had to overcome.