During the first 7 years of my career I was mainly shooting maternity portraits and newborns.
After creating hundreds of typical newborn photos I was hungry to do something different. I came up with the idea to do conceptual photos involving newborns. The first thing that came to my mind was the myth about storks and babies.
I’d often wondered about the connection between these leggy, elegant birds and babies.
Planning and executing this shoot took me weeks and the final image was stiched together from 7 different photos, taken at different times and places.
I shot the bird in a zoo where they were kind enought to take her out to a separate area for me.
I shot the meadows and clouds on another day and obviously for safety reasons I shot the newborn baby in my studio.
After having all the different elements shot, it took me about 20+ hours to make it work in Photoshop.
Since I had never done a composite before, I had to watch tons of Youtube tutorials to get there.
Even though it was one of my biggest personal projects so far, I think it was worth every second.
This image got me international recognition and exposure to my work.
Every element of the image was shot in natural light.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
ISO 100
f2.8 and f5.6
1/100 - 1/250
