Dani contacted the studio to schedule a First Birthday session for her daughter, Catherine with the whole family included as well. I last worked with her for her son’s First Birthday Session (click here to see those images), so was really excited to see them all again! We sent Dani our style guide, Pinterest inspiration board, and our cake tips sheet to review just in case she needed it. We’ve found that our repeat clients don’t really need these again, but we send them anyway just in case! Veteran moms know “mom brain” is a very real thing. ;) The resources that we send over are so easy to read through and implement, and the style guide is applicable to pretty much any kind of photography session you ever have with us.
WHEN TO GET DRESSED FOR YOUR SESSION AND WHY
The day of their session, the family arrived at my studio and proceeded to get the kids dressed. I always recommend waiting to dress your children until you arrive at your session. If you want to dress them beforehand, please make sure that they are not wearing something that will wrinkle in a car seat. Some moms so prefer to dress their child beforehand because they’re in a stage where changing them makes them throw a temper tantrum and it’s just not worth it. You know your child best, so I will always defer to your judgment! If having them dressed before you head over to me is the best plan of action for your family, I STRONGLY recommend having your child in a bib or something to protect their clothing just in case a random bout of carsickness occurs, or they manage to find a chocolate m&m lodged somewhere in the car seat. You may scoff at this and think it’s ridiculous overthinking…but this actually happened to a client. Fortunately, they had NOT dressed their child in their planned outfit for the drive over.
WHERE TO GET YOUR SMASH CAKE IF YOU’RE INCLUDING ONE
Dani brought along an ombre pink rosette cake with buttercream icing from Publix, which is a great option to pick up a basic smash cake. Kroger and Whole Foods are other great options as well! We recommend She Takes the Cake as our preferred baker and are happy to connect you with her - she offers a delivery service where she’ll drop your cake off at the studio in advance of your session so it’s one less thing you need to worry about the day of. I personally worked with Christina to develop the best kind of buttercream consistency for our little clients over several cakes - and she’s perfected it: soft enough to interact with and smash, but not so sticky that it gets everywhere and makes cleanup a total nightmare. Pro tip: babies don’t enjoy being wiped down, so the less force you have to apply to get icing off their skin, the better.
Regardless of where you choose to source your cake from, we will send cake tips over to you (we share a place in the Atlanta area that is actually pretty popular, but that we do NOT recommend getting your baby’s smash cake from because of the icing’s incredibly gluey stickiness), but I’ll reference the most helpful below.
SIMPLE is the name of the game - the focus should always be on your baby, not their cake
6 inch diameter size or less and no more than two layers. If it’s too high, it limits angles for photography since their face can be obscured.
Real flowers are beautiful on cakes, but plan to remove them after initial photographs - they will most likely end up on your baby’s mouth. This goes for anything on your cake - candles, decor, etc. It ends up being a distraction from the task at hand and can also block their facial expressions during.
Neutral icing color (off white, cream, or pastels) - avoid neons or overly bright colors that may permanently stain clothing and cause color casts in your photos
Avoid shaved coconut as a topping - there has not been a single baby that has liked it, and it usually ends exploration of the cake immediately once they put it in their mouth
Use buttercream icing. AVOID whipped icing and fondant LIKE THE PLAGUE. Whipped icing is a slippery nightmarish mess that is resistant to being wiped off skin and results in a screaming baby while desperate parents on their eleventeenth baby wipe mutter under their breath, “For the love of all things, why is this stuff NOT COMING OFF?!?!?!.”, and fondant is very hard for babies to break through with their fingers and eat. How do I know this? Because I’ve witnessed sessions with them and the above scenarios have actually happened.
Skip writing a message on top of the cake (save it for the party cake instead) - it doesn’t photograph well.
SESSION FLOW WHEN YOUR BABY IS SHY
Catherine was very shy and clingy, so we started the session with the whole family. Big brother Tommy was interested at first, but once the family was finished being photographed, he ran off to play with some of our studio toys.
I moved on to photographing Catherine with her parents, and she made it very clear that she did not want to be put down. I reassured Dani and Mark that we would still get beautiful images of just her while being held by them, and they told me they weren’t too worried. What you can’t see from this gallery is all the crying that happened throughout. I wasn’t so sure that I would be able to get Catherine away from either of her parents for solo portraits, but I took my time and introduced some of our studio toys to her. She was definitely interested in those, so I placed them on the floor for her. She was distracted by them and forgot that she wanted to be held, and crawled right over to them. I was then able to photograph her alone, showing off all her crawling and pulling to a stand skills with a few smiles too! Alas, she remembered that she didn’t want to be alone and started crying again - but at that point I had what I needed, so it was all good.
THE CAKE SMASH
Dani changed Catherine into her outfit for the cake smash, and I pulled out our antique high chair. I walk parents through exactly how to present the cake to their child with a quick demonstration (sounds silly, but how you do it does matter!) for 100% understanding. I demo a lot during my sessions for clients, so they never have to worry about what to do or how to do it for the best photographs. Why shy babies, I’ve been known to demonstrate how I want parents to hold their one year old using a pillow as a model rather than touch their baby. I’ll work around anything that may arise in a creative way that keeps your baby comfortable! :)
When Dani and Mark placed Catherine into the high chair, she was NOT a happy camper and immediately started to cry. I asked them to quickly present the cake and gather around her so she didn’t feel alone, and that did the trick. Once her family was there right next to her, she started playing with her cake, and the whole family got in on the fun. Tommy was ESPECIALLY excited to “help”, and some of my favorite images are of just the two of them eating the cake together. The session ended with a very happy little girl (and her big brother) covered with icing! Cleaning up took just a few minutes, and the family headed home.
DO YOU THINK WE GOT ANY GOOD ONES?
Before leaving, Dani asked if I thought that the session images would be ok since Catherine had been so clingy, and I told her that I did - and that she would probably be surprised when she saw her gallery. It’s so easy to feel like your session is complete chaos when things aren’t going how you envisioned - but trust me, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. Come to your session flexible and willing to try out of the box ideas that I give you when it comes to engaging your shy child, and we’ll figure out what works for them and their personality. Some babies are more naturally “stoic” than others, and that's okay!
So, did it work out? Did we have enough? When Dani saw the gallery, she emailed me back:
Lauren you are magical! I don't know how you were able to get such beautiful photos with such grumpy kids. These are amazing. Thank you so much!
See for yourself - I’ve shared a few of my favorites from Catherine’s First Birthday session!
If you're expecting a baby or already a parent and looking for a newborn, maternity, or family photographer, I would love to work with you to create images that you will love for a lifetime. Watch this video to hear about my philosophy and see how I work in the studio so you can determine if I'm the right fit for you. I can't wait to meet you!
Lily Sophia Photography specializes in newborn, baby, maternity, and family photography in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding areas.
