Baby Alana
Baby Alana
Hayley and I were originally due the same day. When she originally reached out to me inquiring about a maternity shoot, I was so nervous that she was going to hire another photographer since our due dates were the exact same. Luckily for me, she was totally cool with hiring pregnant Emma at the time. After her maternity photos were completed, I had offered her newborn photos if I hadn't gone into labor yet, and luckily for me, I didn't
Alana came into the studio weighing a little over 5 pounds and was the littlest newborn I had ever photographed! It took a little extra work to get her to sleep, so we started with wrapped family photos first. The goal in wrapping and getting the family shots first are to aid baby in falling into a deeper sleep. For most new babies, once they get into a deep, peaceful sleep, posed shots can come very easily. Sleep is one of the biggest reasons that posed newborn photos take so long, because sometimes babies don't want to sleep or are too hungry to sleep.
Bring on the big sister...
During the maternity shoot, Hayleys eldest daughter, Everleigh wasn't the most interested in taking pictures with mom and dad. I find this can be a big stressor for moms during photoshoots since their goal is to get a picture of everyone smiling. Everleigh saw right through my tactics and was not interested in any candy bribery I offered but we were still able to get good shots, just with a little hard work.
I was hoping when they came back in for the newborn photos that she would be a little more interested in taking photos but no such luck. I very common set up I do for newborns and small siblings is posing them laying down on a colored shaggy carpet, called a flokati. They add a lot of texture to the image but also provide a simplistic background. However, Everleigh was not at all interested in the pink shaggy rug but she was very interested in a little pink chair I had instead. So I decided to roll with the punches and sat her on there instead for the sibling shots.
and now one of the most important shots
Mama and baby
I always, always, always ask moms to be in photos with their kids. Even if it is just one of them one on one. It is so important for kiddos to have photos with their moms all through their life, especially as newborns. Luckily for me, Hayley wanted all the photos with Alana.
Before I started solo newborn photos, I made sure I got all the individual shots of her with mom, dad, mom/dad, and mom/dad/sister.
This worked out well for dad because he was able to keep Everleigh company while I worked with Alana and all the cute poses. I had originally planned to do a few more drops and poses with her but by the time everything was said and done, we were pushing over three hours. I always tell parents to anticipate a 3 hour newborn photoshoot. That is usually about the max time I will spend photographing a newborn in one session. Once we hit the 3 hour mark I always leave it up to mom and dad if we keep going or not.
I find this works because sometimes moms want more variety in poses/drops or they have a very specific image they are looking for. Although, most parents at the end of 3 hours usually agree that they are happy with what we got and are hungry and ready to head home. Occasionally, rescheduling is a must if baby is just a little too difficult to soothe.
So after we hit the 3 hour mark, it was safe to say we were all very exhausted and hungry. I was happy with all the images we got even though we had only gotten to use the night sky drop. Since she was a little more touchy and I wanted to make sure she was warm, I decided to put Alana in a fuzzy little outfit in hopes it would give us more to work with. Which it did, We got three different poses in. I even added a little color changing fun in the end.
