Once I became a mom, I sheepishly realized that I had no idea when to do baby photos! Trust me, your littles are gonna grow so fast that you want to capture every stage! Here is my recommendation on the best times to schedule those precious baby photo shoots!
Newborn
Newborn babies sleep. A lot. That makes it easy to get them to pose exactly how you want (and who doesn’t love adorable sleepy newborn pictures?). I recommend that you set up a session when Baby is ten days old or less. If you can anticipate a time that they will be sleepy, and feed them right before the appointment, that would be ideal! I promise that you’ll love capturing these first few weeks with quality professional pictures.
Bring any accessories or diaper covers you’d like in the shoot, but anticipate that your photographer will have some ideas too. Look at Tiny in her power color: dark purple! Our photographer Heidi just had an intuition about it, and Tiny looks gorgeous.
Tiny at a week old
6-9 Months
Babies change so much within their first year, many parents don’t even think to do a photo shoot during this time of life. (I didn’t get any professional photos done at this time with Kiddo except for Santa, and we all know how that goes… now it’s something I really wish I’d done!). Babies at this age are learning to sit up and crawl, and you can really start to see their personality come through! This makes the 6-9 month age a perfect time to get some great photos.
If you’re interested in outdoor photos, make sure you speak to the photographer about the ideal location, and time of day, which would be best.
First Birthday
Everyone’s seen those hilarious cake smash pictures on Facebook or Pinterest. They’re messy, adorable, and so much fun to do! Don’t you want some of your own? Make sure to schedule a one-year cake smash appointment: you bring the cake, let them take the photos!
You can make your own healthy smash cake with overripe bananas, applesauce, cinnamon, and flour; lots of vendors on Etsy can custom-make you a cute shirt for your child too!
see? this is what we get. spiderkid.
Once a Year
Your child will continue to grow and develop year after year, though sometimes it takes looking back at previous birthday photos to really see them through new eyes. Don’t have regrets later in life that you didn’t get birthday photos of your child as they grow up!
With Little Siblings
When our Tiny was born in October, we got newborn pictures of her as you can see; we didn’t think to have Kiddo in the shots with her, and I really wish we had. Invite the older child(ren) to take some pictures with the newborn – they could just lean in to give Baby a kiss on the cheek, or lay next to them. These pictures will be great to look back on in a few years when the kids are yelling at each other!
big brother adoring his little sister
Now you know the ideal times to schedule a photo shoot for your child, and all you need to do is find the photographer! You can look online but make sure it’s someone who is comfortable working with babies and children, and have appropriate accommodations to do so. Make sure you check out their sample work and get an idea of what your photos will look like; if they have references or came recommended, that’s even better!
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