Babies in Baskets...
Hello to you all.
We hope this latest blog post finds you well and whatever your reason for clicking on here for a read, we thank you kindly for popping by. We've had a few newborn photography enquiries lately where parents have asked what a session entails. What should they expect? How does the session run? And so on. So we thought we'd share some of that with you right here, right now. First off, we love babies here at the studio - seriously, we're big fans.
So be assured we will dote on your wee ones during your visit here. We have a little man of our own so we are very acquaint with dirty nappies and escapee piddles, milky puke and the sort as well as the trials and tribulations of both bottle and breast feeding. So you'll know in advance that we know our way around a baby and everything that comes with the territory!! So we can tell you that it does not matter at all if baby has an accident on any of our props or indeed on us. Everything washes. Besides, it's lucky, right? We also expect to stop every so often for a milk top up, that is after all baby's most favourite thing! Newborn sessions are typically booked in for 4 hours max. Now that sounds like a long time. But believe us - it's wonderful. We want your experience to be relaxed and fun. It's cosy in the studio - a mild 28 degrees which is not bad for Peterhead - and you get a fine cup of tea and a piece. We've had a couple of dads comment that it's the first cup of tea they've had since mum and baby came home from the hospital! Whereas mums say it's the first they've not had to microwave or leave half of. Basically, you sit back on the sofa and relax whilst you watch us work away. We love hearing parents or granny cooing whenever we wrap baby up like a wee snug bug or put one of our gorgeous, handmade tiebacks on to get "the shot". It's part of what makes being a newborn photographer so fun! The other thing you'll hear is the sound of our white noise machine saying SSSSHHHH on a loop. This serves two purposes. Namely, to ease baby into a deep, comfortable sleep. But it also has the most incredible relaxing effect on parents who will undoubtedly start yawning and questioning the possibility of a well earned nap within the first 15 minutes! Most parents are astounded during their session that we spend so long soothing and shushing baby. But when babies are freshly born and ideal for newborn photography you want them snuggled up, squishy, cosy and SLEEPING! Which is why you must do everything in your power to keep baby alert prior to their session so that they're ready for snoozing. This can be best achieved by gently prodding baby every time they start to sleep, for up to 2 hours before their session (Joke!) Seriously though we want them arriving ready for a sleepy where you can.
Awake shots can most certainly be done and you can get some beautiful images. However, as far as possible, we want baby sleepy and content - as nature intends for this young age. Bellies full of milk, cuddled up safe and sound with their parents right close by. So the session is about 50% soothing and shushing, 20% posing, 20% milk and only 10% of the time do we actually have the camera in our hands. Whilst in the studio you'll see us wrapping baby up in some of our beautiful stretchy wraps. We use certain newborn photography wrapping techniques that involve baby being snuggled up tight and cosy. They LOVE feeling secure and enveloped so they tend to LOVE being wrapped up for photographs. We NEVER compromise baby's safety or comfort - this tiny person has just spent the best part of a year bent Houdini-style in the smallest space so appreciate and enjoy a snug wrap. On this note, we are constantly checking baby's colouring and level of warmth as well as monitoring their breathing for the duration of the session. This allows us to adjust the temperature, wrap up, or indeed de-wrap accordingly. We really do take the wellbeing of your precious bundle very seriously.
If baby has fallen fast asleep we aim for a snuggle pose on the bean bag, which is a stunning shot of baby on their side leaning on their arm. A personal favourite of ours. After we take a series of bean bag photos we move on to props. This is where you choose what says most about you and your lifestyle. Perhaps you live in an old farmhouse so baby would look amazing in a wee crate or enamel bowl. Or maybe you love the outdoors and nature so baby could be tucked up cosy in a nest. Maybe you're avid jet setters and want baby packed up in their suitcase ready to see the world. We have loads of props to choose from here at our studio in St Fergus, near Peterhead. Well, we hope we've uncovered some of the mystery behind newborn sessions and if you have any questions just give us a shout. We really are very nice, really. In the meantime, for those of you whose babies are much older now, please check out our latest post about our Back to School mini sessions. We are running these 11th-15th August and only cost £50!!
Bye for now, Katie and Ross X
