How do I get all those cute squishy, dreamy, sleepy and sometimes awake beautiful newborn photos? It’s definitely an art of patience and skill. There are 2 very key secrets in having the perfect newborn session.  The first is having parents follow my sleepy baby guide and setting up the perfect environment for baby. When you come to my studio for a newborn session it is warm, dark and filled with soft music or sound waves to comfort baby. 

For each set up I do everything to soothe and keep baby comfortable. I always encourage parents to check out the secrets of the 5 S’s to help soothe baby at home, as these are in some of my bag of tricks. Shushing is a big help along with making baby feel secure.

In general the first part I start with for a newborn session is posing baby. Babies belly is full they’ve just had a soothing car ride and are extra sleepy. This can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. Sometimes babies don’t go to sleep right away or take a bit more soothing to relax and that is perfectly normal and ok! I love getting awake photos of baby so sometimes I will wrap baby up to make them feel secure and get some beautiful wide eyed photos. My style for newborn photography is posed but I love to incorporate more candid relaxed photos of baby too! It is the perfect mix of getting those perfect newborn poses and some of the unique expressions and moments of each baby. Once baby has settled and we’ve taken those posed newborn photos capturing sweet baby rolls and little details of eyelashes and locks of hair I will either move onto photos of baby on a wood backdrop or parent photos. It really just depends on baby. I do have a plan for each newborn session, but most of the time baby have their own agenda!

Parent photos are a hard favorite for me! I have a few go to poses for parents, but what I really love are those candid relaxed moments between baby and parents. Dad looking at mom in awe or parents gushing over babies sweet little toes. 

What are some of your favorite parts of a newborn session??