It's always fun when you have returning clients!
In the fall of 2024, I worked with this beautiful family to create maternity photos for them. Shortly after, my client reached out to let me know they would also like to book a newborn session with me since they loved their maternity pictures. Of course, I was excited to work with them again. We found a date and time that worked for us both, and I headed over there on a chilly Saturday morning in December. When I arrived, I was excited to see that they even had some of the maternity pictures we took printed and hanging on the wall!
When I do newborn sessions, I bring all my gear over to my client's home. This includes a giant bean bag chair that I use to pose the baby on, the backdrop and stands, camera gear, lighting, and all the props, wraps, and outfits we will use. When I arrived, we chose a good spot for me to set up in the living room. Newborn sessions can take a good amount of time, since I have to set everything up, and we have to make sure baby is relaxed and sleepy to get those classic shots.
We started with a beige backdrop, and a matching wrap for the baby. It took some time to get the baby girl nice and sleepy, but we managed to relax and soothe her with some calming white noise and lots of rocking.
Newborn pics with eyes open are cute too!
I feel like we often see pictures of newborns with their eyes closed, calmly sleeping. If baby has their eyes open, however, I feel like that's really cute too! I mean, just look at her cute little surprised face!
We even caught a "smile" from her while she was sleeping. While a two-week old can't really smile because of joy, sometimes we can see cute moments like this where it looks like they are smilling. Doesn't she look peaceful?
Mixture of lifestyle and posed photos
Before we changed up the set for some more photos, we decided it would be a good time to fit in some lifestyle photos. We took the entire family upstairs into baby's nursery. I loved how it was simply decorated and had lots of natural light coming in. It was exactly what we needed. We started by utilizing the rocking chair that was right by the window. During the session we were able to catch lots of sweet moments between the new sisters. Big sister was very excited to come in and out of photos, and was all too happy to give her little sister a kiss or small hug.
Bright windows made a perfect backdrop
When I saw these big bright windows in the room, I knew I wanted to create a bit of a sillhouette photo. First we had just mom and baby, then added the rest of the family. I love how the simple background really puts the focus on just the people in the photo. I also love how the light makes baby glow a little bit, and her parents frame her and put her right in the center.
Cozying up on the floor
To end the lifestyle section of our newborn photoshoot, I wanted to see the family members cuddled up on the floor against the crib. I love how casual these look, and once again big sister came in and out of the photos when she wanted. That was perfect because then we could get some moments just between the parents and their new baby girl as well. One of my favorites was actually an accidental shot, where the big sister was running right in front of my camera while I was focused on Mom and Dad. This meant she was out of focus, but you can still see a great big grin on her face as she's running around.
Next, come the cute little newborn tutus
We finished up the session with a couple more posed backdrop shots. First, we put on an adorable floral tutu with a matching headband. We managed to get the baby girl to sleep through this set, which made for some adorable photos. This newborn pose is called the "bum up pose." I love how you can see her adorable little baby toes!
Since it was December, we decided to do a few photos to celebrate the holiday season. I brought a pretty snowflake blanket, a red dress, and little gingerbread man stuffie. The baby was tired of us trying to get her to sleep, so for these we can see her eyes open. I think it looks like she's smirking in the first picture, which is so cute!
Overall, the session took about three hours. It definitely takes time to soothe a newborn baby to the point where they will let you put them into whatever pose you are trying to do. I love how we were able to fit in so many different types of photos into one session, however.
I can't wait to do more newborn sessions in 2025, and hopefully foster relationships with a ton of new families in the Madison area!
