Wilkes Family - Newborn Family Portrait Session at Home
About 2 years ago I photographed Rachel and Josh and their newborn baby boy Henry in their home. I admit I was going through a little crisis as a photographer, I hadn’t photographed many newborns at that stage, and what was REALLY popular at the time were these highly stylised images with props and wraps and beanbags and flower crowns and making these little humans look like dolls (and in my honest opinion, exactly the same as the next baby). I was really struggling because I thought this is what everyone wanted, but me, I was barely comfortable HOLDING and baby, let alone wrapping them and posing them and I didn’t think I could do it. I also really didn’t want to do it either.
My photography has always been casual and relaxed, and not particularly posed and I wanted my newborn photography to also reflect that. So I set myself a goal to photograph as many newborns as I could. To become more comfortable just being around babies (they really used to give me the heebeejeebees) and to become more confident in myself and my photographic abilities and not even try to do the thing that everyone else was doing.
And along came Rachel and Josh, I photographed their little family and everything just clicked (both in the camera and in my brain!). It’s still to this day one of my favourite newborn sessions I’ve ever done. So when Rachel reached out to me and told me that they had just welcomed baby Alice into their family I was on it to go photograph the four of them.
Having a newborn baby AND a 2 year old definitely brings a new level of difficulty to a portrait shoot, it’s definitely a lot more fast paced, although Henry was super shy to start with, he wouldn’t even look at me, but by the end of the shoot we were best friends I learnt a lot about Henry’s dinosaurs and he taught me that cows definitely say Moo, and not quack!
Alice was a dream to photograph. She was awake, but settled at the start of the shoot and then quickly feel asleep. I don’t try to pose newborns, just ask parents to hold baby in a way that’s comfortable for both them and the baby and then I just make little adjustments from there. We end up with images which look more natural and less posed and is more comfortable for everyone!
Home is the perfect spot for newborn photos, everything you need is close by and you don’t have to worry if you get baby vomit (or poop) on you, your whole wardrobe is close by. It’s also nice to have your own home as the background to your images. This is the first home your baby ever had and having your own personal belongings in the background gives another level of “home” to your images. It’s also great if you have older siblings to involve in the shoot. I don’t think Henry would have warmed up to me as quickly if he didn’t have his toys to show me! It also meant when I was focusing on photographing Mum, Dad and Alice, he had things to play with and wasn’t bored out of his mind!
You can really see the similarities between Alice and Henry as a newborn in these photos!
If you have questions about having your newborn photographed you can check out my Q&A here
Or you can organise to have a chat about your own newborn sessions here