When is best to have photographs taken of your baby?

The Baby Photographer

Published on Thursday, 25 August 2011 18:01

Last Updated on 25 August 2011

Michael Shilling

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For those of you that are Daily Mail readers you might have come across the story in yesterdays paper looking at newborn baby photography. The images from Glasgow based photographers Yvonne Watt and Fiona Potter are certainly reminiscent of Anne Geddes but it’s a style of photography that has become very popular.

 

 

People are always asking me when do I think the best time to have professional baby photos taken.

 

My answer is normally suggesting different times throughout the first year as each session can be completely different.

 

Many parents do want to wait until baby is smiling more or starting to sit up but in all honestly you’ll be missing out.

 

Ideally I would suggest 3-4 photo-shoots if you really want to capture that first year in the best way possible.

 

First photo-shoot – Newborn

 

There is a certain art to taking newborn portraits but it does require two very important things….. Time and patience.

These session can normally last 2-3 hours as having a sleeping baby is what it’s all about.
To be a ‘proper’ newborn shoot this session would have to be done within 10 days of birth. That not to say that you can’t get similar results with a 4 week old but it’s just not quite the same.

 

2-4 months old

 

This is when the smiles start to creep in and the photos start to get really cute.

 

We normally keep these sessions quite simple and make them about just baby and his or her startled looks.

 

When booking these sessions just make sure they are not too close to injections as we’ll end up having a stroppy baby on our hands!

 

6-8 months Sitting up (sort of)

 

By now baby has a whole repertoire of smiles and reacts to just about everything.

 

We like to get the parents involved in these shoots as they can be quite fun.

 

We also introduce a more elaborate setup in terms if backgrounds and props. The picture below is from one of our faux-country house set-ups.

 

 

The 1st birthday

 

Sitting, standing or wobbling every baby is different at this stage. We like to take families out on location, if weather permits, and capture natural and fun shots.

 

This is also the best opportunity to get some really nice images with siblings and (I’m going to regret saying this) the family dog.

 

All this considered there really isn’t a best time as every photo-shoot offers something a bit different.

 

We offer a whole year photography package at Memory Gate as it’s nice to capture a variety of images.

 

Picture of the Week

 

Each week we’ll be publishing one of our favorite images from the week. The lucky parents will receive a Memory Gate voucher to spend on lovely photos!

As we’re talking newborn photography this week’s image has to be a newborn!

 

You can see all of our latest baby portraits at The Portrait Photographers