Photobaby Ideas and Suggestions

Parents are actively involved in Photobaby Sessions whether it be a newborn baby session or a family session with children.

As a parent, you know what makes your child laugh, giggle or concentrate so your suggestions will be most welcome during a session. It could be a favourite song to sing, a squeaky toy, some dance moves, or daddy acting silly – whatever it may be, be prepared to ‘be a kid’ again to help yours smile.

I have many tricks to help make children laugh to get natural photos, rather than the staged ‘sit there and say cheese’ type shot. You can’t ever force a child to act happy as you can tell in a photo it’s not natural, but you can guide them into smiles by distracting them such as giving them something to do or say which will hopefully lead to a smile. If I’ve exhausted all my ideas (and I have many) to make your child smile and they are still not smiling, then for whatever reason on this particular day they either maybe don't want to, they may be unwell or they may just not be the smiley type. Whilst I say this, this situation does not often happen at all - maybe once in all the years I've been photographing children. Usually children just need to 'warm up' to me and their new surroundings and then they have a fabulous time.

Kids will show you true feelings no matter what. So a baby crying and being comforted is a natural moment and will be cherished for years and should not be discounted on the grounds that the baby wasn’t happy or ‘perfect’. A toddler who stamps his feet in protest can be representative of a stage he’s in and mum wants to remember their determined little face. A toddler who is shy hiding behind dad’s legs is super sweet or a big sister who was teary as she wanted more cuddle time with mum all make for touching photographs. These are memories as well as the happy bright faces that we all want in our collection.

So if you have well fed baby (bring expressed breast milk as it's quicker to settle them if you can) or child (please bring non-messy snacks to keep them at their best), and they are well (avoid booking when your child has just had vaccinations or has been circumsized within 5 days of your session) then look forward to enjoying your session with me! I promise to capture beautiful images for you to treasure. ♥

If you're tossing up whether to get photos of your baby at 8 months or 12 months, then consider that at 8 months you get a lot more variety of poses as a baby loves to be on their tummy, their back, in a crawling position and sitting up.

Once they've mastered standing they very rarely want to lie on their back or sit down. I've found most babies are more content at being fussed over into new positions or clothing changes than at 12 months when their own little personality is much stronger.

The benefits of having photos before their 1st Birthday means that the photos will be ready to use for birthday invitations. Oh and they still have chubby legs at 8 months which are adorable!

 This is my most popular question so I created a general guide to help you. Every baby is different so you will be the best judge. The smaller and sleepier the baby, the longer you can extend the time to capture newborn photos where they are curled up sweetly. It's worth booking a newborn session in whilst you are pregnant to ensure the date you want is available. This can easily be moved according to the actual birth.

*If you're baby is prem or was born early, then they will be at a different stage to what is explained above.

Even though you may have missed the 'ideal' age for what photos you had in mind, remember that any newborn photos are better than not having any photos. I will always create beautiful photos no matter what age your baby is.

♥

What a great feeling it is to have accomplished a project that means so much to me. A wall full of photos! Yep, after all the planning I'm loving our wall of memories from travelling and our lives together. Scroll down to see the steps I took to create this.

1. I bought some super cheap 6x4" frames from ikea and spray painted them white to match the others. I already had the paint so worked out cheaper to just spray them than buy 6 white frames.

2. I traced all my frames and blu-tacked the paper templates into position and swapped a couple until I was happy.

3. Then I began replacing the paper templates with my frames using 3M command strips. 

Tip: I combined a couple of post-it note packs to make the exact width I needed between each frame so it was all even.

4. Wollah! Our finished photo wall. All our travel photos and moments on display. Our hallway is now an interesting, brightly coloured piece of art and a fun talking point. And because of my randomised design I can keep adding new frames and swapping the photos in each frame as I wish. Love it.

And just another photo because I love it so much.

Feel free to share this blog with others. ;o)