I am always going on about how newborn photos should be taken within the first two weeks, but I have to eat my words here. This little guy was six weeks old, and the best. baby. ever. He slept when we wanted him to sleep, was awake when we wanted him awake, and there were no, um, accidents related to being diaperless. We were finished in about an hour, which I think is world record time for a newborn. I wish I could post his name here, because I adore it, but I don’t like using first names on the blog.

Little family shot

Gazing into momma’s eyes…

Nighty-night!

His blue eyes are stunning. I did his brother’s newborn pictures a few years ago, and he had the same gorgeous eyes.

More momma love…

When I was pregnant with my son (my oldest child), I was so hoping he was twins! My mom is a twin, and several other people in my family have had twins. I have known several sets of twins, and they seem to have such a special bond. One of my past clients told me the likelihood of having twins increases the closer you are to age 40, so maybe I should talk my husband into just one more baby. And now I shall find out if he reads my photography blog or not, haha! These two were actually preemie twins, so we did the photo shoot when they were almost six weeks old. They are so incredibly cute, and it’s amazing how you can already see their little personalities emerging.

Little boy, I.:

Little Miss M.:

Every time we tried “together” portraits, one of them was awake and the other was asleep, or one was happy and one was not, etc. We did get a couple of cute ones, though. Here’s my favorite:

Remember, the best time for sleepy, curly newborn portraits is in the first two weeks for full-term newborns. For preemies, it depends on how premature they are, and of course, we wait until it’s completely safe and healthy for them to be handled for portraits. If you are pregnant now and are hoping for newborn portraits, contact me with your due date and I can leave a space in my schedule around your due date. Obviously, babies come when they come, but if I have a slot saved for you, I will be able to fit you in, as I have a set number of sessions I do per week/month. This is especially important if your baby is born July-December, as that is my crazy busy half of the year when it’s harder to get a session on short notice. Of course, sessions with older babies are super cute, too!

Here’s one of my recent newborn sessions. She was such a sweet baby!

I think I say this every time, but I wanted to keep this baby. I wanted to wrap her up in a blanket and RUN to the car and speed away. But, her mom and dad and auntie seemed a bit protective, so I didn’t dare try. I DO plan on going back to visit and photograph her again, though! Oh my goodness, she was so sweet. She hardly fussed at all and was very cooperative with our moving her around.

She was so sleepy and good that we only got a few awake shots, but here’s a cute one!

Sleepy smiles are the best! They are real smiles, too. That whole “gas” thing…WHATEVER.

We tried out a bow.

Sooo cute and cuddly and curly!

I love this momma and baby shot. They are so happy together! You did miss this few seconds right before this when Momma couldn’t stop laughing!

There are no parents more proud of their little one than these two!

This is the year of maternity and newborn portraits! I have more coming up, too… Check out this stunning momma and her cute little boy.

I love shadowy maternity images that accentuate the edge of the belly. She has the most perfect belly, seriously.

I try to always do a silhouette, as I think the outline of a pregnant body is so beautiful!

I told you–perfect belly! I love her nails, watch and bracelet in this image.

I actually photographed her little guy as a newborn, and it was fun to see him again. He was sooo sweet with his momma!

Oh my goodness. It’s been over a month since I updated here? Well take it up with my daughter. Ever since she learned to stand up in her crib, bedtime is later and later and my time to blog is less and less (I do all of my blog/Facebook/online playing after the kids go to bed). But she’s so cute I don’t mind.

I’ve already done the newborn session for this family–that’s how delayed I am on posting maternity images. Here are a few of my favorites from the maternity session. I’ll share the newborn ones in a few days.

I have a few maternity and newborn sessions coming up…stay tuned! Here’s my most recent. Baby is due at the beginning of March, but she was having regular contractions the other night, so I think it may be sooner than that! I think this is the first maternity session I’ve done since having my own pregnant belly…I have to say I really miss that belly of mine! I love baby bellies! These were all taken in their home. I prefer to do maternity and newborn sessions in the clients’ homes because we can include the nursery.

Creating my end-of-the-year slideshow is one of my favorite tasks of the year. It’s also one of the most difficult; choosing a single favorite image from each session is no easy task. I took on less sessions this year due to Campbell’s arrival, but I was surprised when I went back through my year’s work how many images I had. Thank you to all of my clients, friends, and family for your support in 2010!

When I was first pregnant, I imagined all of the fabulous photos I’d be taking of my own newborn in all of the curly, sleepy, newborn loveliness. I had ideas of all of the new poses and props I could try out…

Well, THAT didn’t happen, and here’s why. When you are the mom of a newborn, and you finally get the newborn into a deep, relaxed, hours-long sleep, who in their right mind wants to risk waking up that sleeping baby? What I wanted was a nap for myself! And a snack! And time to do the laundry…you get the idea. And then there’s the fact that taking the photographs would involve getting out and putting away equipment. So, my fear of waking up our sleeping princess and taking away some of my “me” time prevented me from doing many newborn shots. I took a few in the hospital, and then a few when she was four days old, and then I didn’t attempt any more until today.

And today I was reminded why newborn shots take place within the first two weeks, and ideally within the first week. Even though I had the luxury of hanging out around the house until Campbell was fully asleep, and I mean the type of sleep where you pick up their arm and it’s limp, she would wake up every time I set her down and tried to position her. Most babies older than two weeks, give or take a day or two, are no longer willing to allow you to position them while they are asleep in the same way. I tried my usual tricks, but nothing would keep her asleep.

Now I’m not saying it’s impossible to take good newborn pictures after two weeks. You certainly can and I’ve had some very cooperative older babies. However, the chances of getting the “newborn” looking shots significantly decreases as the baby approaches that two-week mark. As you can see in the shots I took today, Campbell is already looking older and less like a brand-new baby. Excuse me while I grab a box of tissue.

I received a box of headbands in the mail today from an Etsy seller and a hat from another Etsy seller, and I knew I had to at least attempt a few shots!

Speaking of portraits, I will be taking a limited number of sessions starting in July. Those of you who have already contacted me about sessions this summer will be hearing from me later this week.

These are the hardest newborn shots I’ve ever taken. Reasons: I was the mom and the photographer, I was tired from being the mother of a 4-day-old baby, and I used a five-year-old assistant. But luckily, when you are working with super cute subjects, even tiring photographs can turn out well! Campbell is an amazingly good baby and we love her to bits!

She really did hold her head up like this…albeit briefly!  On her stomach, she bobs her head up and down and I was lucky enough to capture a couple of shots.