Customer Reviews

Baby Love: An Affectionate Miscellany

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This coffee table photo book is a collection of baby photos - all under one year old. There are the newest of infants as well as toddlers who can hold themselves up. Along with the photos are a collection of phrases, rhymes and stories about babies throughout history.

Babies are naturally cute, of course, but Rachel has done a great job of making them even more cute. You have babies in blankets, babies in suds, babies dressed up and babies au natural.

A few of the shots are very obviously staged, and I happen to like those the least - those make the babies look like models on a runway. I really like the ones that look like natural babies - like images any mom could have taken of their own darling. I like the ones with the hair askew, the face crinkled, the baby being content in its own baby world. My favorite picture is of the baby with the two-horn hat. The baby's smile seems to say, "I am me!"

I also enjoy the ones where there are several shots of the same infant, showing different facets of their personality. Babies are complex and wonderful, and the sequence-shots really help to demonstrate that.

If I have a complaint about the book (besides the staged photos) it is that some make me a bit nervous about the baby's safety. I realize that there are people off-camera keeping an eye on things, but even so the cover shot concerns me, with the baby in the hard porcelain tub. I can just imagine the soapy tyke slipping and bashing himself. Ditto for the baby on the chair. The hammock one especially worries me. It doesn't give me a sense of "peace" looking at that image.

Still, those are minor complaints in a book that is a lot of fun to read through.

Well recommended.

If I could give 10 stars I would this book is simply one of the finest displays of inphant phtography I have seen. The photos are stunningly beautiful, with a element of fun and realism.

I bought this book for a couple in our family at Christmas who had announced a pregnancy that we were all having some mixed feelings about. Just looking at the beautiful pictures and captions helped us all remember how precious that new little life will be!

Baby Love proves yet again that Rachael Hale reigns as the queen of adorable photography. This book is the third in my collection of Ms. Hale's books. Be it puppies, in Snog A Puppy's Guide to Love or It's a Zoo Out There, Ms. Hale continues to capture the heart and soul of what ever subject she chooses to focus her lens on.
Photo Lover

Rachael Hale has created a book for anyone who loves babies, plain and simple. With wee ones ranging from 2 and a half weeks to 11 months, she captures them being exuberantly happy, perplexed, intense, thoughtful, and, to me most precious of all, asleep. Interspersed with poems, facts and sayings (we learn where the gendered pink and blue come from) about babies, her photos, especially the less-posed-looking ones, are simply stunning. On page 67, the hint of a smile plays across a baby's lips, something out of the shot catching his or her eye. The shot of three siblings slumped against each other on a couch, asleep, bits of drool escaping their little lips, is breathtaking.

One, meant to illustrate "The Princess and the Pea," features a bare baby on a mini mattress, leg tucked under belly and arm tucked under head, eyes closed. That's my personal favorite.

Big, often blueberry-colored eyes stare back at Hale's camera, and by extension at us, and only the most hard-hearted couldn't be swayed by them. Another child on pages 22-23 chose gums with an open moth, happiness written all over his or her face. Some of the shots seem a little too studio-friendly, rather than capturing something a baby would naturally be doing, though some of these, such as three babies sitting with flowers wound around them, still totally work. I don't have a baby of my own (yet), but I will treasure this book and show it to mine when they arrive and in the meantime, enjoy Hale's outstanding, expressive images.

It is hard to believe that this is Rachel Hale's first foray into the world of baby photography, I guess she must have learned something from working with all those cats and dogs! This book is a delightful look at babies ages 2 1/2 weeks up to just shy of one year, concentrating primarily on expressions instead of props.

Interspersed with the photographs are tidbits of baby tribute ranging from a rendition of "ring around the rosie" to the proper folding technique of cloth diapers. Although definitely a far cry from a "how to raise baby" guide I still think it would appeal to mothers-to-be and would make a great shower gift or a great gift for anyone who adores babies.

As a newbie to babyography Ms. Hale has shown an adept eye for catching babes at their most innocently adorable moments and this would be a delightful addition to any library or coffee table.

I am expecting my first child, and I always see this book when I have an appointment at my OB's office, and I admire it so much. Now I own it! It got here on time and in great condition. You can tell it's been gently used but there's no tears or anything on the book. I recommend this seller.

All the babies in Baby Love are so cute! But not only are there pictures of babies, there's also information about babies. Rachel Hale takes adorable pictures of babies.

I've received some great books from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program, but this is the first one I haven't been willing to pass on -- it's just too beautiful to let go. Rachael Hale's lovely portfolio of babies doesn't feature them as creatures or plants like Anne Geddes, but simply captures them in all their chubby, cheerful joy. Included are baby-oriented quotes (my favorites are from Charles Osgood & Teresa Morrison), nursery rhymes, tips (swaddling, bath games, folding a cloth diaper) and worldwide traditions. A wonderful book that will banish gloom & gladden the coldest heart.

If you love babies you'll love Baby Love: An Affectionate Miscellany, by Rachael Hale. A collection of photographs that will have you smile from page to page - enhanced by small tid-bits, poems, rhymes etc. The perfect gift for soon to be parents or grandparents.

Every page is an experience in the making.
Hale does a wonderful job capturing the moment - those expressions that every parent gets to see, but doesn't have the time, knack, or luck to get of their own baby.