These heartwarming images of newborn babies were captured thanks to a photographer’s knack of getting them to sleep so she can snap them dreaming.
Karen Wiltshire, 46, soothes her subjects to sleep by making sure the babies have eaten before they arrive before swaying the tiny infants and gently stroking their eyelids.
She also plays the sound of a hairdryer through a mobile phone app as she has found that youngsters are used to the noise from their mothers drying their hair.
Once they are fast asleep, which can take anything from a few minutes to half an hour, Ms Wiltshire positions the babies for the images on comfy throws, lying on their parents’ hands and wrapped in blankets.
She then takes pictures of the sleeping tots’ cute expressions as they dream during the shoots, which usually take around four hours.
The mother-of-two from Poole, Dorset, has now won an award in Studio Children Photography by the Guild of Photographers (GoP) for her work.
This means she has achieved ‘Master Craftsman’ status, an award given to less than 10 per cent of the GoP’s members.
Ms Wiltshire said: ‘The main reason I picked up a camera was the birth of my son 10 years ago, I just love children’s expressions and emotions.
‘The newborn photography started two years ago when I discovered I had a talent in soothing and calming babies in order to pose them completely asleep.
‘I have also attended numerous workshops on newborn posing so I can create sleepy newborn art, with the babies’ safety being paramount.
‘When babies go into deep sleep the start to dream, if you wait you can be lucky and capture a fantastic smile or a gorgeous pout.
‘I love the expressions they pull in their sleep.’
Ms Wiltshire is often handed meaningful props by the parents for the portraits such as guitars, footballs and tennis rackets for their babies to pose with.
‘Parents love to watch the whole process and are amazed at how the baby is asleep when being moved into the curled sleepy newborn poses,’ she said.
‘I have lots of top requests with the poses, parents just love the baby in the hand pose that’s very popular.
‘Parents often bring things that are personal to them as props to pose the baby with, I’ve had crash helmets, guitars, footballs, and snow boots.
‘Also popular is baby wrapped snugly, they look beautifully warm and cosy when wrapped.’
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