Preparing for your Newborn Photography Shoot / London Newborn Photography

Feb 25

I am delighted that you have chosen to bring your newborn baby to have this incredible time permanently recorded. These gorgeous portraits will be treasured forever not only by you and your family but also by your children and future generations.
My sessions are baby-led so we work around your baby and take it from there but a sleepy baby is an important part of your newborn photography session enabling me to achieve the charming sleepy shots you see on my website and on Instagram.

I have put together some information to help you prepare for your session. I will do a guide to clothing in another post but the info provided here can be really helpful with the newborn shoot. I have broken it down into three sections: how to prepare for your session; what to bring; and family/pets at your session. I am very happy to have a chat with you and to answer any questions you have.

My sessions are usually around two to four hours and are broken down loosely into three main parts: family pictures; blanket work (simple pictures but this section may include some awake shots); and some shots with props, which will require a sleeping baby. Your baby is the most important person in the room so time is allowed for nursing, nappy changes, soothing, etc..

Here are a few of my top tips to prepare for the shoot:

Try to relax and take it easy: don’t get stressed out about how baby will perform on the day. You are bringing your baby to a professional and experienced photographer. I am very chilled and really want you to enjoy your session.
If you are breastfeeding, please try to avoid any spicy food for up to 24 hours before your session and try to avoid drinks with caffeine on the morning of your session.
Our aim is to get baby asleep so it really will help if you tr to keep baby awake until you get here. I understand that this is not easy but it may help if you give baby a bath and interact with them as much as possible in the time leading up to the shoot. I have my feet firmly planted in reality and realise this may not be possible but if you can try, that would be amazing.
If you can, dress baby in something that is easy to remove i.e. a very loose fitting baby-grow with poppers so it is easy to get off. Please try to avoid the tight fitting vest (often worn under a baby grow) as that is hard to remove and often we wake up baby trying to do so.

Things to bring:

Please bring along baby’s dummy if you are using one: it can be really helpful and useful during a shoot.
A well fed baby is generally a sleepy baby. If you are breastfeeding, bring bottles of expressed milk, if possible; if bottle feeding exclusively, that is all you will need; if you are topping up occasionally with a bottle, please bring those along. Babies drink a lot in these sessions and it can really help us during a shoot.
While I am talking about feeding, if you are using infacol/colief or similar, please bring that to the shoot as preventing wind can be very handy.
The shoot is long: tea, coffee and biscuits are provided but you may want to bring along a snack or some lunch for yourselves.
I understand that leaving the house with a new baby is new and can take a little longer than it did before. It is important to try to plan for this. The studio will be heated and ready to shoot at the time we have agreed, so please be punctual; if you are late it may eat into your session time.
You will need to bring nappies, a spare set of cloths for baby and, preferably, yourselves as well as any toys that you may want included in the shoot.You are welcome to bring some special things with you e.g.receiving blanket, special teddy, etc. and I will try to incorporate these into the shoot although I have plenty of beautiful things here so please do not feel it necessary to bring anything with you. I am really open to discussing ideas with you, please feel free to set up a call to discuss.

At the studio:

The studio will be very warm: you will need to be comfortable.
Your baby will be naked for some of the shoot: please do not worry if I or my stuff gets poo-ed or wee-ed on. It is part of my job and happens all the time.
It can be helpful to give baby a big feed on arrival and have them go to sleep here but we play this by ear.
No cameras are, or photography is, allowed during your session. This is a private studio and I will take all the pictures you need. You can just sit and enjoy watching your baby and enjoy a time of peace and relaxation.

Family and siblings photographs

I will always take pictures of baby with parents. These are such important photographs.

Other important portraits we will take at your photo shoot are those with siblings. The shoots can be fairly long and it can be a lot easier if we can:

split the session so we do the newborn part of the shoot whilst the siblings are at school or nursery and then just do an hour long session with them to get sibling and family shots towards the end of the shoot;
have them dropped off or collected so we can do them at the end of the shoot which means they are not hanging around getting bored;
if these are not an option, daddy could take the siblings to the park or to lunch and leave mummy with me to take pictures of the baby.

Pets. I love it when families bring their dog to the shoot. Please let me know if this is happening so that I am prepared for it. Please bring puppy treats to the shoot.

I do encourage other family members like grandparents to be part of the shoot. However, my studio is not big and, again, it would be best if they came for the last hour of the shoot.

These sessions are all about your baby. It is a wonderful experience to watch an expert perform this magical job. Leave your phones in your bag, sit back, relax and enjoy your session. In years to come these timeless and wonderful portraits will remind you of these very precious early days when baby was once so perfect and tiny.