I try to keep my Newborn sessions as relaxed as possible. You just had a baby and that is a huge deal! I will not ask you to have your house spotless and you don't even have to take a shower if you don't have time, because no one can smell you in a photo :) LOL. You can wait to get dressed until i'm there if you want my opinion on outfit choices, I really try to go with the flow.

This family was no exception. I have been photographing this family from the beginning of my Family photography journey. I photographed their newborn photos when their 2nd son was born and now they have just had their 3rd son. When I first arrived, we talked a bit and I scoped out the house to see which areas would have the best light for photos. Usually I will start with full family shots, but in this case, the 2 older boys weren't quite feeling it so we started with some photos of mom and baby.

I prefer to take most of the newborn photos while your babe is in your arms. I want everyone to be as comfortable as possible and it feels so unnatural to me to take baby away from his mom and place him in unnatural poses. That being said, I will usually take a few photos of the Newborn on the Bed either swaddled, in a diaper, or in a simple outfit or onesie and we will keep the poses very natural. If your baby is particularly sleepy, I may try to do a couple of shots with the diaper removed and the baby on his tummy, but to me, there is nothing more beautiful than a baby in his mothers' or fathers' arms.

We will take as many feeding breaks as are needed, if you are breastfeeding and are open to it, I can take some images of you feeding your little one. I took some of this beautiful mom and they are some of my favorite photos of the session.

to give you an idea of how this session was going early on, here is a pullback of Mom and baby and the 2 older brothers were still playing and burning off some energy and it's totally fine! I always want the littles to be happy. I may gently try to coax them over but if they aren't feeling it, we wait and they usually always come around eventually. Having a new sibling is a big adjustment for them too..

I will also try to get some details shots of those little toes and hands and eyelashes while mom is holding or feeding the baby. Again, it's where he's most comfortable and it's less stress on everyone.

I always try to get Dad in the frame as well. I know the Dad's all hate getting their photos taken but the way I shoot is (I think) pretty painless for them. It takes the pressure off of them as I make the focus more about baby and their connection with their new baby and with the family. If it's just dad and baby, I will often ask them to look at their baby or talk to their baby and If we are doing group shots I will often ask him to look at his wife or family. I may throw out some prompts to get more of an emotive response, such as ask how you met or even ask family members to tell one another what they think is most special about the other.

Eventually these boys came around and came in to play with baby and it was on their own terms so they didn't look upset or forced. I didn't get shots of all 3 them all sitting on the bed and smiling at the camera but what I did capture was I think intimate and honest and really sweet.

I will always try to get a traditional group shot of the family as well because I know that's important for Grandparents, etc but that's not what I specialize in. I will be the first one to say that if you are looking solely for traditional portraits, I'm not your photographer. I want you to have photos that you are happy with and we all have different tastes and styles.