Newborns are such amazing miracles! As a professional newborn photographer, I’ve been around enough newborns to know one thing for sure. They don’t stay that little for long. The newborn phase is by far the shortest time of all of your baby’s milestones. It’s a race to age one and it starts fast. Capturing your memories by photographing your baby’s delicate toes and brand new eyelashes is one of my favorite things in the world to do.
If it’s the curled-up, sleepy-posed newborn photos you’re after, these are best taken between 4-14 days after your baby’s birth. This is the time when most newborns are at their sleepiest. As your newborn gets older, their sleep is easily disturbed which makes posing them a bit more difficult. Also dry, flaky newborn skin tends to set in a couple of weeks after your baby is born, then baby acne.
However please remember there is plenty we can still photograph about your 3-4 week, old baby! Don’t let that stop you from contacting a professional newborn photographer for photos. Often an “older” newborn can still be coaxed into a pose or two, so don’t despair.
Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Professional Newborn Photographer:
1. Newborn Photography Safety
Just say that out loud for me: “number one, the safety of my baby.” If you see a photo of babysitting perched with his or her head resting gently in his or her hands you might think, “Wow, how did they do that?”. The truth is, a baby’s head is giant and heavy. Babies cannot hold themselves up in this way. The rare baby is able to hold this pose, but only years of experience have taught me how to first create the setup. And then next how to coax the baby, safely, into this pose (see middle photo above). The majority of the time the photo is a composite done in photoshop. That means my hands have never left your baby’s head or body for a second. Her hands are photoshopped out after. This leads to the second reason you should hire a professional.
2. The hands of an assistant
The second reason why you should hire a professional photographer to take your newborn’s portraits is that you generally need more than 2 hands to pose a baby safely. I do recommend making sure the photographer you hire has a trusted assistant. My assistant helps the session run smoothly by helping to soothe your baby and keeping your baby safe during each and every pose.
3. The Junk
The props, headwear, blankets, and photo equipment needed to take photos like the ones you see in my newborn gallery would make your head spin. My portraits are meant to feature your baby in a simple way. Hiring me as a professional newborn photographer means access to my ever-growing collection of props. These are items that wouldn’t really be things your baby would ever use again. This is certainly true for the photo equipment.
4. Post-processing
I like to prefer this as my Mojo! Ha! Half of the magic of newborn photography is done in the studio with styling and poses. That leaves half of the magic on the table. So where does it come from? The polished, angelic look you see in my images comes from Photoshop. A lot of years perfecting images in Photoshop at that. Especially when you consider reason #1 above, safety. Without Photoshop there would be a lot of strangers’ hands in your portraits, ha! In general, your newborn session itself will last about 2 hours. What most people don’t realize is there are another 2-4 hours of editing in Photoshop required to “finish” the look of your portraits.
5. Experience
I provide you with tips and tricks to help you prepare yourself and your baby for your session. But every baby is different and only after years of experience am I able to know instinctively and quickly, what a baby might need in that exact moment. I also know when a baby simply has had enough. Lots of my clients are on baby number one, or two. But even if this is your 4th child and you most certainly have loads of experience with babies, you don’t have this exact type of experience. I have been a professional newborn photographer since 2012. I’d venture to guess I have seen just about everything there is at this point! So whether or not it is me that you hire to capture your new baby’s photos, please be sure to find a photographer with years of experience under their belt.
BONUS REASON – to hire a Professional Newborn Photographer: THE POO! THE PEE! THE SPIT UP!
Nakey baby shots are super popular these days. What happens when you ask a newborn baby to go diaperless? Baby EXPLOSIONS HAPPEN! A professional newborn photographer is not phased in the least and actually expects they may be pooped or peed on at any given moment. In conclusion, leave the explosions to the pros!