Your baby’s first year of life often feels like it goes by like a whirlwind. The days are long but the weeks are fly by. Babies change and grow so rapidly, and there are so many milestones to celebrate along the way. Like most moms, you’ll likely capture thousands of photographs and videos of your baby on your phone, not wanting to miss a single bit of it.
But when it comes to having professional photographs taken of your baby, chances are you can’t afford to have a photo shoot every month to capture every little change. And when you do invest in a professional photo shoot, you want to be sure that you choose the right stage so you can get the most from your session.
So what is the best age for your baby photo shoot?
Newborn sessions
Sitter sessions
Cake smash or first birthday photo shoots
Posed Newborn Sessions
I offer newborn photo shoots in the comfort of my client’s homes or in my residential studio. Most of the newborns that I photograph are between one and three weeks of age. At this age babies are typically very sleepy and settled. They are also still very flexible which allows them to curl easily into those darling newborn poses. After the first couple of weeks, babies typically start to uncurl and stretch out. They also spend longer periods awake. As these changes happen the likelihood increases that a baby may not be able to manage all of the poses, and may spend long periods of time during the session awake. This does not however mean that we can’t still create absolutely stunning images of your new baby. For older newborns, there is a bit more focus on those big bright eyes and emerging smiles, but the set ups are quite similar. They don’t all sleep, but most of them eventually nod off and I am able to capture some sweet sleeping poses too
Lifestyle Baby Photography
Lifestyle baby photography takes place in your home or in an outdoor location. The focus of the images is your baby and family in your natural environment. In these sessions I will give you some direction on where to sit, stand or look and the photographs will aim to capture the interactions between you and your new baby. There's no particular age recommendations for lifestyle photography, it can be anytime in your baby's first year, but i recommend organizing it around a milestone like first few weeks, sitting up or those first steps.
Baby Milestone Sessions
I offer two types of milestone sessions: rollers and sitter sessions
Roller Sessions
These sessions are for my clients who missed that newborn window but
want to captures images of they baby before she is sitting. These sessions
tend to include images of baby lying on their backs kicking up their feet,
or sucking on their toes, or showing off their new tummy skills. Babes are
usually photographed between 3-6 months of age at their roller session. A
lot of my families skip this milestone session, unless they missed out on
their newborn session, and wait a few extra months until their baby is
sitting.
Sitter Sessions
Are for babies that have mastered, or nearly mastered, the art ot sit-in up. These sessions are typically scheduled for when the baby can sit unsupported, for at least a few seconds. Most of these little ones are not crawling, though sometimes they are scooting. At a sitter session we have a bit more ability to be creative, because baby can not only lie on their tummy or or sit, but they can also rock on their knees, sit in a prop and they tend to be easy to engage. This session tends to give us a lot of adorable facial expressions and I love to capture some of my trademark baby mugshots too.
Your baby’s milestone sessions can take place in the studio, in your home or even at one of Orange County’s beautiful parks or beaches.
Cake Smash Or First Birthday Shoots
As the name suggests, these photo shoots mark your baby's first birthday. These sessions begin with some birthday portraits. If I photographed your little one as a newborn or at one of her sitter sessions we will try and incorporate some of the same elements if you wish to tie them together. After the birthday photos have been taken we will move onto the fun and bring out the cake. I will warn you, not all babies love cake and sometimes we have to get a little creative. After the cake, I also offer a splash portion for baby to get cleaned up. These is usually the baby’s favorite part, though I have learned if we tell baby that they will decide otherwise. During this portion of the session, I will capture baby playing in the little tub and splashing around. Typically cake smash sessions take place in my residential studio or at one of Orange County’s beautiful parks or beaches.
