1. Planning before your session. If you are breastfeeding- please avoid foods that can make baby gassy for a few days before. An uncomfortable baby won’t settle and sleep well during their session. Caffeine should also be avoided for the same reason. A sleepy baby allows me to pose their hands and head for beautiful photos! Please plan to arrive on time, as I often have back-to-back sessions and will have to cut your session short if you are late. Do not make any appointments for after your session, as rushing baby through poses almost never works. If we are doing sibling photos, please make arrangement for your children to leave the studio after sibling and family photos. Newborn photos can take 2-3 hours and we cannot expect toddlers to sit for that long and be still or quiet. Bring a family member with you or if both parents are coming, one parent can take siblings to eat or to a park to pass the time. Thank you so much for understanding.
2. The morning of. Try to keep baby awake for a few hours before your session. Give baby a nice bath and try to remove all eye mucus and skin flakes so that baby looks nice and clean for their photos. Apply some baby lotion as well. This will help to keep them awake. If you live more than 45 minutes away, try to feed baby 2 hours before you leave your house so that baby will eat as soon as you arrive. If you live less than 45 minutes away, feed baby directly before you leave the house. Please make sure you give baby a FULL feeding. We are not in a rush when feeding baby and a milk drunk baby will allow for the best posing. For family photos, dress in neutral colors as I generally use a cream or white colored backdrop. Avoid wearing lots of jewelry or watches or heavy makeup. Make sure you don’t have chipped or bright nail polish as your hands will be front and center in your photos. Family photos will be from waist up. I do not do full length photos for families in the studio unless you booked a lifestyle newborn session. I may pose sibling with baby in a prop, so make sure to dress sibling appropriately for that possibility.
Temperature- The studio will have a space heater going to keep baby nice and warm. The studio will stay at around 78+ degrees. Due to this, I will be dressed comfortably and suggest you do to! This warm temperature will keep baby’s skin color nice and even, as well as help them stay warm and comfy since they will be undressed for most of the session. I will turn off the heater at the end of the session when baby is ready for swaddled poses.
Noise- I love to chat and will if it doesn’t seem to bother baby. However, most baby’s do well with a baby shusher going and an otherwise quiet environment. Feel free to scroll social media, read a book or busy yourself however you need to during the session. With the heater and shusher going, parents have complained that I’m putting them to sleep as well!!
FOMO- Some babies have a serious Fear Of Missing Out. I generally start the session with family photos, then unswaddled photos, then swaddled posing. If baby is not falling asleep, even if they are less than 14 days old, your baby may not allow me to pose them unswaddled. Each baby is different and your baby is in charge of the session. I will do what keeps your baby safe, happy and comfortable.
Newborn Retouching: Don’t stress if your baby has acne or peeling skin. Giving baby a bath the morning of and applying some lotion can help, but I will retouch all of this at no extra charge. This is automatically done for all newborn sessions. If you prefer to leave peeling skin or stork eye marks, please let me know! Birth marks and umbilical cords will be left as is and will not be edited out as these are unique to the baby.
If you have any specific poses you’d like at your newborn photography session or any specific props you want used, please click HERE to go to my facebook and review my recent work. You can also review my website portfolio here: You can send me the poses or props you absolutely love!
I cannot wait to meet your little one & thank you again for choosing me as your photographer! It means the world.
