There are many moments in your family’s life that you will want to photograph. Most of the time you will be able to do it on your own, or even ask someone to help photograph with your personal camera. Other times, you will want to hire a professional photographer to be able to have higher quality portraits to print in in large formats and decorate your home. It can be hard to choose which moments are worth it. First, you will have to look at your budget beforehand before deciding if you can afford it. Second, with your budget and a style in mind, you will have to research a photographer that fits the bill. If you are able to find someone, then yes, newborn photography is worth it! Here, I have reasons why I think so.

They will be this small only once.

The window to capture your little one is very short. Some studio newborn photographers will ask to book when your baby is 5-10 days. They want the baby to be sleepy for different poses and after that time frame it can be harder. For myself, as a lifestyle photographer, I think that 1-3 weeks is the perfect window to photograph the new family. I don’t need to have a sleepy baby for this style because I aim to take shots of your family interacting with the new addition. If this is your first child, you might not know how quick your baby will grow. If you have to choose between a maternity session or a newborn session, do the newborn session. You will want all their tiny features photographed and these portraits will be cherished for a lifetime.

Every milestone should be photographed.

I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, that there are a lot of milestones in your baby’s first year. But you can take pictures of most of them. For example, the first smile, roll over, solid food, etc. Other milestones might be more important to you and your family. Those ones can be photographed by a professional. For myself, it was every pregnancy and newborns . Cake smashes and all that fun stuff wasn’t popular when my kids were little so I didn’t do those. Today, we see sessions at 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. They can be booked in advance and make wonderful souvenirs of your baby growing up.

All the little details are important.

I really think that newborn sessions are a must for every family. When you invite me to your home to have your portraits taken, I also take the time to capture the nursery room and special items, like frames, toys or stuffies. Especially the last one, those little bears will be cuddled and will not look the same in a couple of years. I also like to take portraits to show the size of your baby compared to items in your home or yourselves. For example, cradling their little head in your palm, or holding their little hand in your own. You will quickly forget how small they really were when they were newborns.

Can I do my own photoshoot?

You can definitely do your own! Nowadays, most of us have cameras on our phones that can take decent pictures. If you own a camera, even better! You will have more options to play with. I would suggest learning all the features of your camera first hand. Afterwards, you can search for tutorials that will guide you through setups and important things to consider, like safety. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can keep it simple and photograph your baby in the nursery room. The plus size of doing this, is you can save money by doing it by yourself. The downside is, you might not get high quality prints for your larger frames or you might not like the original photo and won’t know how to edit it. Lastly, if you want family portraits, it might be hard to have every family member included in your portraits if you don’t have extra hands to help.

CL