I’ve known baby E’s mum for most of my adult life. We met when I was an apprentice engineer all those years ago, we’ve pretty much grown up together. We have one of those friendships where even if we’ve not seen each other for ages we are chatting away as if its only been a day. So when she got in touch and asked if I would photograph little one I was both honored and excited. I love photographing newborns, photographing a friend’s new baby is extra special.
Upon arrival, we chatted backdrop and prop colours that would suit their home and little man’s skin tones as mummy already had plans for a large print on the wall. Then it was time for a quick top up of milk and baby E was ready for his starring moment.
At this point little man was wide awake, checking out the room and very active, mum was a little worried he would not sleep at all. I’ve only ever had one baby arrive asleep and then sleep through the whole session, normally they are awake at various points, sometimes they are awake for the whole photoshoot. I do have ways to encourage sleep, some of these are for parents to do before they arrive to help encourage a sleepy baby. Others are for me, the room is super warm and cozy. All the adults are uncomfortable in the heat, but babies love it. I also use white noise and most importantly wrapping. Baby E loved being wrapped so much that we’d not even finished the process and he was out like a light, fast asleep.
Once baby is asleep I try to move as quickly as I can safely do. So moving between poses and props while they are asleep, sometimes we have only 20 mins of sleep so it’s important to work quickly with them, whilst not disturbing them to much. Baby E was pretty chilled about the whole situation, we worked in props and then moved onto the posing bean bag, he only woke towards the end, with a bit of a cuddle and milk top up he was ready to finish off his session.
He was such a super star that when daddy came back to take everyone home he even let us do some quick photos in mum and dads arms, which I love as it shows how tiny they are, something wonderful to look back on.
If you would like to learn more about my newborn work head to my newborn photography page by clicking here.
If you would like to see more gorgeous newborns head to my newborn gallery by clicking here.
If you would like to get in touch to discuss your own newborn photoshoot, click here to drop me an email.
