We present near-infrared J , H , and K _ { s } images and K -band spectroscopy of two newly discovered stellar clusters at different stages of evolution .
Our spectra suggest the presence of massive YSOs in the heavily embedded cluster in the star-forming region near radio source G353.4-0.4 and an O5-O6V star in the cluster near radio source G305+00.2 .
We determine a K -band luminosity function ( KLF ) for both clusters and an initial mass function ( IMF ) for the cluster near G305+00.2 .
The derived IMF slope is \Gamma = -1.5 if the KLF is used to derive the IMF and is \Gamma = -0.98 if the color-magnitude diagram and spectra are used .
The more reliable CMD-based slope is flatter than the Salpeter value usually found for stellar clusters .
We find that using the KLF alone to derive an IMF is likely to produce an overly steep slope in stellar clusters subject to variable extinction .