Sleepy Baby Photo Contest Winners by Guest Judge Me Ra Koh

I'm so proud of all of you for your Sleepy Baby photos. This contest was tough to judge, but finally, here are the winners and runners up. Congratulations to all!

Our Contest Winner

by fyn's mom

The moment I looked at this photo, this sleepy baby stole my heart! I’m not sure if it’s the fuzzy hair sticking straight up in the sunlight, or those chubby cheeks propped up with her arms, but this photo is timeless! The framing is tight on baby with no distractions in the background. All our attention is drawn to this little one’s sleepy face. Even the pacifier detail accentuates the sleepiness of this little one. A HUGE congrats to the winner who took this wonderful photo! If this was my photo, I would definitely hang it on the wall and show it off to everyone!

Runner-Up

by Ana Carolina L.

In the Sleepy Baby Photo Recipe, I talked about setting up your photos for success by finding good window light. The gentle, soft look of window light can have magical effects when capturing your naked baby. This mom did a fantastic job of positioning her baby in window light to avoid using a flash. She also got in real tight with her framing, making sure we only see what we need to see. The tight framing not only enhances the sleepiness of this little one, but also allows us to notice all the adorable, chubby details like fingers, creases and folds. Congrats to the mom of this baby! You captured a beautiful moment!

Runner-Up

by cbelliveau

Every time I look at this photo, it makes me smile! Not only is baby’s head perfectly rounded, but the ear phones accentuate that roundness even more! The parent behind this photo did a GREAT job working with the moment. It looks like mom was holding baby and possibly leaned away so that baby’s sleepy face was filling the frame. There is someone in the background, but I didn’t notice him the first or second time I looked at this photo. Great job of using blur to tone down distractions in the background! And those lips…Adorable! Congrats to the parent behind this photo that turned a funny moment into a wonderful, keepsake photo!

Runner-Up

by fyn's mom

Everything in this photo feels soft and warm; the muted colors of pink, the light, the blurred background. Did you notice that even baby’s nose and mouth are blurred? And yet, the blurry facial features not only work but are WONDERFUL. The soft focus adds to the sleepy story being told. The other feature that stood out to me was the point of view this photo was taken from. Mom’s camera had to be down at baby’s eye level, maybe even propped on the bed, and she’s shooting down on baby’s face instead of straight on. The results are beautiful! Good job mixing up the point of view! Congrats to the mom behind this beautiful photo!

We already have some wonderful photo entries for this month’s new photo contest, Funny Baby!  Be sure to enter the contest!

Warmly,

Me Ra Koh

www.merakoh.com

Me Ra Koh loves cameras, kids, and moms and spends her life bringing them together.  She is the regular photo expert contributor for The Nate Berkus Show on NBC, and her work and popular photo-recipes have also been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Lifetime Television, and VH1.  She is the author of the bestselling book, Your Baby in Pictures; The New Parents’ Guide to Photographing Your Baby’s First Year (Amphoto, 2011). You can learn more about Me Ra at www.merakoh.com.