I squealed with delight when I saw the Obama baby on New York Magazine’s cover last night, and I registered even more excitement when I saw the photographer was my pal Fiona Aboud. Turns out Fiona got this fist pump wholly by luck, though she does have some experience capturing the gesture from one of her own twins. Anyhoo, I’ll let Fiona explain it all to you:

“The parents of this baby already had this Obama shirt and so naturally we shot it. It was really just the case of being ready and having all of the pieces in front of you.I think it is one of the first times I have ever seen a newborn on the cover of the magazine. The photo editors were brilliant for having the vision to put this together. I have gotten a tremendous response and I have been promoting like crazy this week.

Basically what happened was Tuesday evening I got a call from NY Magazine asking me if I could go and photograph babies at some hospitals. Nothing was confirmed at this point, and the next day I got a call saying that Lenox Hill hospital was available in the afternoon. It was challenging because I was not sure If I would be going room to room or be shooting in one room. Also I tried to use the minimum amount of flash because newborn eyes are so sensitive. I had about 2-5 min with each baby or until they started screaming for food (I got a couple of great screaming shots!) When I got home I retouched and sent in the shots immediately.

The next day I went to Harlem Hospital in the morning and shot the next bundles. And then I had to deliver the images that night– so the whole job was done shooting, retouching etc. in less than 48 hours. In terms of the baby with the fist in the air– newborns do the craziest stuff with their arms/hands because they have no control over their body. One of my twins used to do what I called a Che fist (see a photo in my personal section on my website) so I was delighted to see that this baby also had that inclination.”

little Aboud.

Go babies!