Throughout the year, I receive many requests from expecting parents to do a newborn shoot once their bundle of joy arrives. I love getting these requests as I immediately become excited to meet these new babies in all their adorable glory! These newborn shoots tend to be the ones that require the most preparation since my start subject is so little and vulnerable. I prepare parents ahead of time to make for the most seamless and peaceful experience for them and their babies, so I thought I’d share a little bit of that today! I’m going to introduce Penelope Suzette Kline, one of my favorite little models from 2014, and use her session as an example…
Although I photograph babies at all different ages, the optimal time for a newborn shoot is when the baby is 7-10 days old. This suggests that parents reach out to me before their due date to start planning tentative dates which I’m then on call for. With that being said, we can’t always plan for everything {especially when it comes to babies!} so I’ll often photograph babies that were born well before or after their due date, or sometimes when they’re a few months old. Before I arrive, I tell parents that I’ll plan on using a room in their house with the most natural light {most often the baby’s nursery, but sometimes another area of the house}. I ask them to have 2-3 outfits picked out and crank up the heat so that the room is extra warm {especially if we’re going to do shots of the newborn with little to no clothes}. If the baby has gotten used to a noise machine or music, it’s great to have that on hand. Otherwise I have a whitenoise app on my iPhone that I’ll sometimes use to soothe the baby.
I choose the start time of the shoot based on the most likely time that the baby will have just eaten because a full baby = a happy baby. I let the parents know that throughout the shoot, we’ll take breaks to feed/change/soothe their baby as needed ~ there is no rush and we want to give our little model everything they need! During this time, I’ll take some photos of all of the adorable details so it always helps to have a tidy room.
I bring along blankets and some props with me, but I like to use items that belong to the new baby because they’ll match the nursery and the parent’s taste ~ this will all help tell a seamless story through my photos. When I’m posing babies, swaddling is key {especially for the squirmy ones}!
Parents and siblings don’t always want to be involved in the photos, but I absolutely love when they do! It is such a precious time when you have a new baby in your home and having photos to remember how small they were in your hands is priceless… I’ll do a mix of lifestyle {candid} photos of families just being themselves, and a few posed photos. Sometimes we’ll shoot outdoors but most often we’ll find a space in the house that the family is most comfortable in, like the parents bedroom.
I hope you enjoyed these photos of sweet Penelope and her gorgeous family! For more information about my newborn photography packages or questions on preparing for your session, contact me here!
inquire at
nicole@nicoledetonephotography.com
connect
browse
home
about
portfolio
details
blog
inquire
follow along
@nicoledetone
share on:
facebook
twitter
pinterest
/
/