Newborns... Sleepy, peaceful bundles of love. They wake to eat and to poo, then drift soundly off into sleep right? WRONG! Or so it seems when you are a newborn photographer and have arrived at home for a photo shoot, baby knows, I'm sure of it.. Haha..
I had the pleasure of two newborn photography sessions booked a day apart. Babies were also born a day apart, one boy, one girl.
The first session was baby Kenny. A little cutie, 10 days new when the session took place. He was an absolute dream baby to photograph. Sure he was a little unsettled at times but a little feed and cuddle from mummy and quick burp and he was back off again.
Baby Kenny, peacefully snoozing
The session was all wrapped up in a little over an hour with a beautiful gallery for me to take away and edit. Newborn photographers dream! He did have a little jaundice which was going to take a bit of editing but nothing major.
Kenny, 10 days old
Then there following day brought Coco-Ivy's shoot. Also 10 days old when the session took place and equally as lovely. Plus, she was born with most amazing head of dark hair, full of natural blonde highlights. I couldn't wait to photograph her! Mum had said how she was a brilliant sleeper and that she settled and slept most of the time. 'Brilliant' I thought, 'Easy session'. Erm, hmmm, nope.. I arrived at Cocos home and mum had just bathed her as I had asked (this is to try to settle and relax baby as much as possible), and she was having a feed (hungry babies don't like to be posed!). I set to setting up and thought baby should be snoozing by time I was ready for her. She fed and burped, and fed, and burped and then.. proceeded to look wide awake with no intention of going to sleep! We tried for a while and after an hour or so we decided it was probably going to have to be awake shots (this of course isn't a problem but it is nice to get the sleepy faces on camera). So I bundled baby up and took some awake photos.
Not-So-Sleepy Coco-Ivy
We then tried to settle her again as she was a little restless and Hurrah! We had sleep! I quickly positioned baby into a simple pose and snapped away. It was a good job I moved fast as after 5 minutes, once again, wide awake!
I looked through the back of camera and had some beautiful images. We had been going for 3 hours with literally 5 minutes of sleep when we finished up and I packed everything away.
Newborn details, and some sleepy shots!
But even with a what seemed not so successful session, I ended up with a beautiful varied gallery for mum and dad and I'm pleased to say they were over the moon.
I'm definitely learning that regardless of how settled baby usually is, we just have to go with their mood on the day of their session. This is the reason I let the parents know that a newborn session can take up to 3-4 hours.
Plus, awake or asleep, you can be guaranteed beautiful images every time of your precious bundles of joy.
If you would like to book a Newborn Photography session, and are based in Grimsby or surrounding areas, then please do get in touch. Email - info@debrabeephotography.com or find us on Facebook by clicking here.