On The Couch with Kelly Brown | Key Highlights
December 01, 2021
Over the past 18 years, Brisbane based photographer Kelly Brown has built an internationally successful career creating and teaching newborn and baby portraiture.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Kelly as part of our On The Couch series. Through the conversation, Kelly shared the importance of both structure and flexibility in capturing beautiful moments, tips on standing out in a pretty crowded genre and how she stays motivated and inspired to keep shooting.
The beginning of Kelly’s photography story is not unlike many others in the family portrait arena; she was a mum who wanted to take better photos of her young family. As her children grew, Kelly dedicated more time to learning her craft and developing her business.
‘Started out photographing pretty much anything and everything - weddings, family portraits, staircases for an architectural firm.’
After several years dabbling in genres, Kelly’s career took off when she made the bold decision to specialise in newborn and baby photography. Working for another photographer at the time, she remembers him telling her that baby photography was a fad that wouldn’t last.
The choice to specialise in newborn and baby photography was a strategic move that Kelly made to keep weekends free for her own family. As a mother herself, Kelly knew that many parents of newborns and babies were home during the week, thus allowing her to work Mon-Fri 9-5. So she became more organised and structured and launched her business, Little Pieces Photography.
Kelly began shooting with a Canon film camera 18 years ago and has remained with Canon ever since. With the launch of the EOS R5, Kelly made the switch to mirrorless, which she currently uses and loves. Interestingly, the R5’s autofocus tracking hooked Kelly on the mirrorless system. Although a swaddled newborn might not move much, crawling babies and toddlers definitely do.
Paired with the Canon R5 is the RF 28-70mm f/2 L lens, and before that, Kelly tells us she always shot with the 24-70mm f/2.8 L. The zoom gives Kelly the versatility she needs to react quickly to the unpredictable nature of babies. Although she will be shooting at its longest focal length most of the time, she can zoom out when needed to reframe a prop or shoot from right above the baby.
In terms of lighting, Kelly started with natural light because it was free, and she had access to it. Of course, the changeable nature of natural light makes it really hard to master, but Kelly loves that she learned this way because it taught her so much.
Although she still loves to shoot with natural light, Kelly has now transitioned to utilising artificial lights for much of her work.
‘If you want your photos to have a really consistent look throughout an entire gallery, I recommend an artificial light source.’
When shooting with strobes, Kelly uses a range of modifiers, including a large 150cm octabox and various diffusers and gels to help emulate the beautiful qualities of natural light.
‘Light is a photographer’s most important tool other than their camera and lens.’
It takes a lot to stand out in an arena as crowded as the newborn and baby photography market. As well as being an extremely talented photographer, Kelly enjoys making a lot of her props and set pieces. When not making them herself, she sources unique items from antique stores or places likely to have unusual items.
While she has several professionally-made canvas backdrops, Kelly has fun hand painting her own 5m x 3m artworks, which also helps separate her work from others in the field.
'That’s just another way to make the photos I put out into the world different from anything else.’
Kelly describes her sessions as ‘baby led’ and stresses the importance of having a backup plan, but she also follows a clear workflow. At the beginning of every shoot, she will sit down with the parents to outline the session game plan and encourage them to be part of the process. This inclusion ensures they have a positive and memorable time and end up with photos that resonate with them.
Kelly knows she can create a beautiful gallery of 20 final images to present to her clients by following her tried and tested workflow and remaining flexible to the baby's needs. In fact, in all her years of photographing unpredictable babies and toddlers, Kelly says she has only ever had to reschedule a shoot once.
Today, Kelly is a Canon Ambassador in Australia, Canon Master in America, Canson Ambassador, Grand Master of WPPI, and has received an extraordinary number of major photographic accolades. But Kelly is not just a highly talented photographer; she is a highly savvy business person.
Always looking for the next innovative way to move her business forward, these days, Kelly spends more of her time educating photographers worldwide through her online learning platform. Here Kelly shares her years of experience with members via video tutorials and Zoom meetups.
If that doesn’t keep her busy enough, Kelly also owns a large commercial studio in Brisbane with four individual studio spaces available for photographers and filmmakers to hire.
It’s not all business, though. Kelly continues to shoot and work on personal photography projects, which keep her inspired and excited to push boundaries and keep creating. One recent image of a young girl sitting atop a stack of books won her a First Place Grand Award at the 2021 WPPI‘s The Annual competition. Looking at the whimsical photo, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a composite image with some photoshop magic sprinkled in for good measure. However, Kelly explains how she created the entire set in the studio and captured the single image in-camera.
'I love having creative ideas and bringing creative concepts to life.’
To learn more about Kelly’s inspiring career, check out the full conversation here.
“The most important thing outside of photography when working with babies in any aspect is understanding them and their needs, and knowing what they can and can’t do”
– Kelly Brown
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