Jessica emailed me to let me know that her second baby BOY, River had arrived! I was so excited for their family and we confirmed their newborn session date. We’d actually reserved a date for their newborn session based on her scheduled c-section date and history of being “overdue” because of her husband’s travel schedule. Typically we will not schedule a firm date until babies have actually arrived, but because of those extenuating circumstances, that’s how we handled it! The reason why is because babies don’t tend to arrive when we expect. If your baby came two weeks earlier, the date we had scheduled based on their due date would likely be later than needed. If they came a week later than expected, we would have to push the date out. However, since the weekday we scheduled was the ONLY date that would work for their family, we knew going in that it would be the day regardless of whether baby came earlier than expected. We like to schedule our newborns to come in between 8-21 days of age. There are a few important factors that we take into consideration when scheduling: the size of your baby, when they arrived relative to their expected due date, and how the both of you are recovering.
The morning of River’s newborn session, Jessica and her mom arrived at the studio with River in tow. Big brother Griffin and daddy stayed at home to play! We have big kids and dads arrive about 90 minutes after I get started with baby. This allows moms to have some quiet, and in Jessica’s case: pampering in the hair and makeup chair as she’d elected to add on those services!
I took River for his solo portraits while Jess settled into the hair and makeup chair. River was smaller than his brother was at birth, and it was quite a different experience photographing him since he was much easier to wrap and work with. Griffin had rolls on rolls which made it a little more complicated! ;) If you want to see Griffin’s newborn session, just click here to see those images! River was a little sweetheart and flashed a few grins for me. When babies smile in their sleep, I know we are approaching wake up time. Every baby is different: some wake up and are immediately angry and hungry, while others slowly rouse and take in their surroundings.
River was totally calm while awake and gave me some very quizzical expressions. I love when newborns are awake and calm as it gives me an opportunity to photograph those open eye and eye contact with the camera shots. Once I finished with those, I took him back to Jessica and she nursed him while I pulled out options from the studio wardrobe for her. I had an off the shoulder cream lace dress in mind for her that I knew she would look beautiful in, and was pretty sure she would love it. My instincts were on the mark, and she kept commenting on how much she loved the dress and how pretty she felt in it.
Daddy and Griffin arrived shortly after, and we started with family and parent images. Griffin was such a sweet big brother and was interested in participating at times and other times not so much. This is never a problem - I just let toddlers do their own thing. Griffin would drift over to his grandma and then jump back in to join us, and it all worked out perfectly. I have parents ask big siblings to do things like “Show me baby’s toes” or “Can you give baby a kiss?” and am right there to photograph whatever naturally happens. Sometimes they’ll say no or run away, and that’s ok! The most important thing we can do is to have patience and not try to force a child to do anything. (A) Forcing toddlers to do anything almost always backfires and (b) it’s not fun to be forced to do things. I have all sorts of techniques in my bag of “tricks” from the past six years of photographing newborns and my own three children - so come relaxed and ready to play a few games, and we’ll get beautiful images of your children interacting naturally with the newest family member!
Enjoy a few of my favorites - I can’t wait to see River again when he comes to meet Santa next month! (PS: we are totally sold out and have been for a couple of months, but you can hop on the waiting list and cross your fingers!)
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.
