‘A newborn photo shoot takes how long…?!’
‘A newborn photo shoot takes how long…?!’
If you’ve already had professional newborn photos taken of your baby you’ll know that most photographers prefer to do the photo shoot before a baby reaches three weeks old. The reason for this is that in the first 21 days of birth babies tend to sleep a lot in the day (although there is always an exception!) and are still used to being curled up in the womb so it’s much easier to curl them up into the adorable poses you will see in my gallery.
However, on the day of the photo shoot it is not simply a case of taking your sleeping baby from you on arrival, popping them in a basket, taking a few photos and voila we’re done.
Oh how I wish it was!
My newborn sessions take between 3-4 hours, although it’s usually closer to the 4 hour mark. It sounds like a reeaaaallllly long time I know and sometimes when parents make a booking they ask me why it takes that long. But once they arrive and we get started they quickly understand why I allocate so much time for my newborn sessions.
The session is completely baby led. For those four hours your baby becomes my boss. I go at their pace and pose them only in ways they allow me to. Nothing is forced and everything is done slowly and in small steps. Once I’ve got them in a pose and taken my shots we move on, but for each pose every limb and every finger is carefully placed. Depending on the baby it can sometimes take half an hour just to settle them into one position.
Ideally I need your baby to be asleep. While I can work with an awake baby for part of the session, we are limited to what we can achieve with them awake and more often than not there is a point in the session where your little bundle is staring at me wide eyed with determination and we simply have to wait it out until they give up. I am more stubborn than most babies so I usually win this battle, but it does sometimes take time :)
And of course, newborns feed often. Whenever a baby is showing signs that they are hungry, the session is paused and we give them a feed. I understand that you may be very keen to get your baby into a feeding routine as soon as possible, but please expect that during their photo shoot they may feed a little more often than normal. This is because they are not being left to sleep in peace after a feed like they normally would, instead some annoying woman with a camera keeps moving them when they’ve just got themselves comfortable. Feeding them is a great way to settle them back down if need be.
I strongly recommend that when you come for your newborn session you can be flexible on time and don’t have to rush off somewhere afterwards. I only ever book in one client per day so that you have my undivided attention and I can spend as much time as is needed to get you a beautiful gallery of images that you will treasure forever. So take advantage of the excuse to sit down and do nothing… bring some snacks, use my wifi and relax :)