Your guide to a Lifestyle Newborn Photography Session

Oh wonderful, you’re expecting a new bundle and after a good nose around you’ve decided you quite fancy a lifestyle session to capture all the little details before they are a little less little.

So what happens next?

How do I prepare for it?

What do we wear?

Do I need to deep clean the house?

Honestly…this is such a relaxed session so please don’t stress. You’ve got enough on your plate at the moment. Let’s make this bit super simple.

When you get in touch to book I’ll ask you to arrange a wee chat at a time that works for you.

Your Family

The first thing I’ll ask about is your baby! How far on are you? How are you keeping? Ugh yeah, the heartburn is the pits isn’t it!

I’ll ask about your significant other and if you have older kiddies that we will be including in the session and their ages (the kids, not your husband!). It helps to be able to know a little more about your family and what combinations we’ll need to include in the session.

Your Home

On our initial call I’ll also ask you about big windows/patio doors you have in your home (it’s a light thing). And I might ask you if you know what time of day the light streams into different parts of your house. It gives me an idea of when would be best to schedule your session. It’s o.k. if you don’t know, you can watch it over the course of a few days and get back to me.

For an in-home session we go wherever gets the best light. We want your images to be as flattering as possible and we do that with good light. That might not always be found in the living-room and more often than not it can be in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Does that mean you have to blitz the house?

No no no no no! Don’t worry about it. If there’s something that is going to be distracting in your images, I’ll move it. I could well be shifting the odd bit of furniture around and if you have some bits and bobs you don’t want me to see before I arrive then fling them in a cupboard.

I’ve done the whole newborn thing a few times over. I get that having your house perfect is pretty far down the list and it’s certainly way lower than feeding/changing/eating and sleeping. Believe me I don’t judge. My small boy infested house is always, always worse! Shameful but pretty much true!

I’m really not keen on the whole in-home thing…

Can we come to you?

Sure thing.

If you really aren’t keen on me coming to you, that’s ok.

I have a home studio that looks just like a room in a home. It’s white and neutral and deliberately done this way so it is a blank canvas for your family to come and have your images taken in it.

Your other children can play…I have wifi! And whilst I work with baby you can chill out in the client room - have a snooze on the sofa if you like! I remember the sleep deprivation stage. An hour or two of not being hands on with baby is well worth making the most of!

Here’s a wee video which shows you how it all looks.

These were all taken in my home studio. Nice, simple backdrop so the focus is on your little people!

It will still be a super relaxed and not overly posed session - just in my home instead of yours. Perfect!

What to wear

I’ll always ask if you need a hand with clothing. Please don’t take offence if you are a proper fashion goddess. Most of my clients like to at least run their choices by me to make sure they will work well in the photographs.

Clothing wise if you can co-ordinate outfits then that’s marvellous! Co-ordinated clothing really does make the images go from ‘aww’ to ‘wow!’

I usually encourage couples to keep their clothing pretty neutral for in-home sessions. Block colours and classic combinations will help your images last the test of time and avoiding anything with logos or writing is always a must.

This sounds a bit odd but I’ll probably ask you to take off your socks. Socks look weird in images. They just do. Trust me.

And make sure whatever you are wearing is comfy. Be kind to yourself, you just had a baby. Don’t be attempting to get into anything that is going to make you feel too hot, restricted or uncomfortable.

For baby, pop them into an outfit you’d like them photographed in. It helps if this outfit is relatively easy to remove and dress them in it without a vest underneath. Taking a vest off over their heads always disturbs them, if you don’t already know this you soon will!

And the last thing we’ll chat about is some key things I need you to do for me before I arrive.

1.       Put the heating on.

New babies snooze better if they are cosy, cosy, cosy and we will be stripping them off and getting them changed into various outfits and wraps. If the house is warm this helps them to sleep through it all. Don’t worry about them getting too hot, up until a wee while ago they were a toastie 37° inside you. Tropical is nice for them!

2.       If you can, and only if you can, feed them before I arrive.

It just means that when I come in they are ready to snooze and good to go. It’s not the end of the world if this doesn’t happen. I can take nursery photos, have a look around and get organised or work with the older siblings while you see to your little one. I’m fairly comfortable blethering to kids of all ages (teacher to trade…it comes with the territory!)

3.       Have any shawls or blankets ready that you would like to include in the session.

I’ll keep you right with the flow of the session but if I’m working with your baby on their own then for the love of God get your feet up! Get a cuppy. Close your eyes for a bit. Get something decent to eat. Check your phone. Enjoy the wee break from being on baby duty and chill out for a while.

What happens after the session?

After the session I’ll share a little preview on social media of one or two of you images (with your permission). As a little bonus, if you share it on your own socials, tag my business page and reach 80 likes then I will pop a little extra in with any order you make after receiving your gallery.

Your gallery will be ready for you to view online 10 - 14 days after the session. You’ll have a few days to look over them and pick which you would like to buy (if any - if you don’t like them you don’t buy them).

So, are you ready to get in touch?

I’m dying to hear all about this baby of yours and find out a little more about you too.

I know in this day and age it’s a bit alien actually picking up the phone, believe me I get nervous before every call, but you’d be surprised how much easier it is meeting on the day if we’ve already gotten to know each other on the phone first.

Hope to chat soon!

G x