Professional baby photographers have probably been taking photos of babies ever since photography became a usable process. That would take us all the way back to 1820, when chemical photography was developed. And who can really blame them? There are few things in life that are more photogenic and worthwhile to have pictures of than babies. But professional baby photography isn’t all about cute babies doing cute things. There are also many technical aspects that professional baby photographers have to deal with in order get those baby photographs.

Things like shutter speed, apertures, and exposure are all necessary for your professional baby photographer to handle when capturing photos of your precious bundle of joy. That’s right, your baby photographer probably knows a whole lot about what makes a camera tick. And for good reason too. It takes a wealth of technical knowledge, as well as artistic talent, to get the best pictures. For example, did you know (because you better hope your photographer does) what an aperture actually is. Let me enlighten you so you can test your professional baby photographer next time you see him or her. The aperture is pretty much just the hole through which light enters in a camera. To put it more technically, this opening is responsible for determining the cone angle of the light rays that come to a focus on the image plane. Using this same principle, leaves have been known to act as pinhole cameras for eclipses, casting cresecent-shaped images of the eclipsed sun on the ground.

Luckily, your professional baby photographer doesn’t always have to worry about having such complicated technology in order to capture your baby’s precious moments. For example, if your photographer tries to tell you that he or she needs expensive shutter speed testing equipment, just let him or her know that they can test it just fine using an old CRT TV or monitor. Don’t let your professional photographer try to trick you into paying higher prices because they aren’t in on this trick.

Think you have a lot of pictures taken by your professional baby photographer? Well, consider the longest photographic negative for a little perspective. The world record for the longest photographic negative is held by Esteban Pastorino Diaz and measures in at 129 feet. That’s almost half the length of a football field! For one (one!) photograph negative. I’m sure many new parents wish they had such an impressive picture of their newborn.

So the next time you think your professional baby photographer has it made just taking pictures of babies all day, think about all the technical expertise and knowledge that go into capturing those timeless moments of you and your young one. Read more about this topic at this link.