It all started during an online newborn workshop I took in the fall of 2017. The instructor, Rachel Vanoven, was someone I greatly admire and one of the best newborn photographers in the world, so her word was gospel. And she laid out some pretty explicit advice, in no uncertain terms: every newborn photographer should work with a trained assistant. 

Full disclosure, I resisted it for awhile. It seemed unnecessary, just another expense and one more schedule I’d need to consider when scheduling newborn sessions. But then I watched how Rachel and her assistant worked together, and I was intrigued.

They got so much done in so little time. The parents were happy and relaxed, thankful for a couple of hours “off duty”. And most importantly, the baby was 100% safe, because the assistant’s entire purpose was to keep her hands and eyes on the baby at all times.

Finally, I put a call out for an assistant. Leigh is best friends with my sister-in-law, Kaitlyn, and she sent me an email asking for more information. I knew a little about Leigh at that point – knew her well enough to know that she’s incredibly responsible and trustworthy, so I invited her to come help me out at my next session.

Y’all, I cannot even describe what it was like. Actually, yes I can: it was like tortilla chips and queso. Here I was going through my sessions okay, a little dry and tasteless, and then in comes Leigh as the secret sauce. Leigh intuitively understood exactly what I needed, what the babies needed, and how to soothe them perfectly so that I could focus on the technical and artistic aspects of the session.

Since then her role has become so much more than just helping out at newborn sessions. We’ve photographed countless babies together, but Leigh and I work so well together that she’s become an integral part of Amanda Wose Photography. And since TODAY is her birthday, what better day to introduce her and the amazingness she brings to the team?

If you already know Leigh, you probably know she has Lyme disease. She blogs about it and does so much to raise awareness (read her blog here!), but this girl is much, much more than her illness.

She’s an amazing encourager, a calming presence, and is pretty much always down for tacos. Leigh can take any challenge and just totally overcome it, without ever losing her cool. She knows all the best shows on Netflix (although she doesn’t like The Office, so we’ll have to forgive her for that), and genuinely cares about my clients as much as I do.

That, my friends, is irreplaceable. If it seems like my work has leveled up recently, Leigh is HUGELY to thank for that. I am so glad to have her on my team, and I can’t wait for you to meet her if you haven’t already!

Happy Birthday, Leigh!