Say cheese? Ohio photographer’s ‘grumpy baby’ photo shoot goes viral

MASON, Ohio — Newborns can be expressive, but this little guy’s photo shoot takes the cake.

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Lauren Carson, the owner of Drawing in Light Photography in Mason, Ohio, has been snapping photographs of babies since 2013. But a newborn named Trent gave her some memorable expressions. The boy, who was seven days old, appears to be grumpy about enduring a photo session, and Carson’s photos with his grimaces have gone viral.

“His mom and I were cracking up laughing,” Carson told WKYC-TV. “And she said, ‘He does this all the time, this is his normal face.’ And so, we just went with it, and I started taking pictures of it.”

Carson said the photo shoot lasted two hours, and that is a typical session for the photographer. She added in a Facebook post that while Trent had some sour expressions, “he was actually a sweet little snuggle bug!”

“He was perfectly comfortable,” Carson told WCPO-TV. “He wasn’t upset. He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t fussing. He was just scowling.”

Carson graduated with a degree in elementary education from Western Carolina University in 2007, according to her LinkedIn profile. She taught for six years before switching to photography and opening her own business in the Cincinnati area.

She knew when she took the photos of Trent that she had something special, but did not expect the huge reaction on social media.

“The fact that he was making such good eye contact is uncommon for a baby his age, it just added to it which made it magical,” Carson told WKYC.

But getting Trent’s grumpy-looking demeanor made the session memorable.

“I can’t make a baby smile, I can’t make a baby make expressive faces, it’s just it happens,” Carson told WCPO. “And I’ve gotten really good at being able to capture it the moment it happens. Those fleeting smiles and the looks, and making eye contact like that is something I’ve gotten really good at over the years of being able to, you know, taking a picture at that exact moment.”

As for Trent, he is blissfully unaware that he is a social media celebrity.

“Not long after these were taken he fell asleep and we took some more traditional posed newborn pictures,” Carson wrote on Facebook.

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