CAN WE USE PROPS FOR OUR NEWBORN SESSION?
You look down and smell the top of your newborn’s head. There’s nothing quite like that smell. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of this new life, all their potential, their perfect newness. You’re exhausted, but your cracked nipples, and aching breasts tell you it’s time to nurse again. A raw season, alternating between beauty and pain, joy and struggle. It’s a sacred space, where you and this new life exist in mutual dependence.
You’re sitting there, on the edge of your bed holding that precious new baby. Your toddler runs through the room, and you smile because you can’t believe how big he is. It was only yesterday that he was this tiny, in your arms, completely reliant on you. Now he’s running, laughing, jumping off of the most random things. Yet, he still needs you to rock with him when he’s tired, he needs you to snuggle on slow mornings, he’s big but he’s still little.
These are the moments we capture during an in home newborn session. We document life, a little as it is, and a little romanticized. My camera preserving the details of your newborn, you as a freshly new mother, your other children as older siblings. The beginnings of new relationships and roles.
Your newborn is perfect.
I’ve mentioned it in other blogs, in welcome guides, in FAQ’s but it bears repeating: your newborn is absolutely perfect. Exactly as they are. We don’t need props to capture the beauty of this season of life. The raw newness of it. I do not photograph infants in baskets or tiny beds, on swings or with their head in their hands dressed like tiny frogs.
Props distract from the connected moment.
You’ll find my newborn work to be relaxed, intimate, cozy. You’ll find lots of snuggling, holding your baby and kissing their head. All the things you do naturally as a parent. Its enough. You don’t have to add anything extra to your baby to make them beautiful, they already are, just as they are.
If you have an item of sentimental value:
I totally understand wanting to document a blanket lovingly knitted by your grandmother, (my grandmothers were handmade sentimental gift givers as well). These items we can absolutely include in your session. I don’t find family heirlooms like that to be distracting like props. If you have an item like that, a bonnet, or baby blanket, a quilt of family significance, etc. Have those things gathered before our session. I’ll do my best to incorporate them.
WHAT DO WE NEED FOR OUR NEWBORN SESSION?
I recommend having a swaddle or two, an extra outfit (newborns always tend to spit up on at least one outfit!) Having diapering supplies readily available, and access to your feeding method. That’s it. Really. Most of the time your baby will not leave your arms. The session follows baby’s cues, and needs.
You relax into the rocker in the nursery, the gentle light falling across the room. Its quiet, you put your newborn to your breast and they begin to nurse. Everything is relaxed, you almost forgot that I’m here, the only reminder a subtle shutter sound. You run your free hand over your baby’s silky soft skin, treasuring these moments. Knowing that there will be images to come to bring you right back to this moment, this tiny snapshot of time in the life of your motherhood, in the life of your family.
