Having a new baby can be a completely crazy time.
It doesn’t matter if you’re having your first child – getting used to sleepless nights and the joys of being a new parent, or if you’re adding to your family – trying to juggle the demands of a newborn with the demands of older siblings. One thing’s for sure: newborns change so quickly and before you know it those early days have passed by in a blur.
Looking back it can be so hard to remember just how small your baby was and see how much they’ve changed. This is one of the reasons newborn photo sessions have grown in popularity.
When most people think of newborn sessions they tend to think about Anne Geddes style photos where babies are posed or in studio-type situations. As you can see from the photos of Jackson below, or the photos of Skyler from last year, we prefer more of an organic photo-journalist approach. Newborns might be lightly posed, but for us it’s about recording a newborn as they are, capturing moments in time, and telling stories.
Our approach to newborn sessions:
- It’s highly recommended they are done within the first 2 weeks of the child’s life; or between 2 – 4 weeks at the outside. They’re at their most sleepy during this time so we’re more successful at capturing the more traditional sleeping newborn images. Although they may sleep well after this time it can be a lot harder to get them into position and keep them there as they tend to be more aware and take more control of their bodies after the first 4 weeks.
- We try to make newborn sessions personal to each family and incorporating some of the baby’s own items helps us achieve this. Although we do have a few of our own items, the personal touch makes the photos more relevant to you rather than having the same items that have been used over and over.
- Although the newborn is still getting used to life outside the womb, we’ve found they are more comfortable in their own environment. For this reason we prefer to come to you for newborn sessions.
When we first suggest coming to a new parent’s home, we often get looks of horror or concern. As a new parent you have enough to worry about without stressing about how tidy the house is so we can come over right? Rest assured that we’re far more concerned about getting fantastic shots of your little one than about how the house looks. As long as there’s a clear area for us to work (or you’re happy for us to make one), that’s all we really need. We come with our own lighting, so even that isn’t an issue.
Check out the collection below for example. When we arrived at Jackson’s house it was the middle of winter, the curtains were closed to keep in the heat, and we had a relatively small space to work in. We set up a wee ‘studio space’ on the couch and had more than enough room to work.
Remember, your newborn isn’t going to take up a lot of room so we don’t need a giant studio to capture them.
Even with siblings involved you don’t need a great deal of room. Take these two shots for example. They were taken against a plain wall in the kitchen, then Layton added the studio-style backdrops in post-processing.
When you look around your house you might see mess and a completely uninspiring space (especially if you’re a stressed out new parent having had very little sleep), but you might be very surprised at what the space can be turned into.
