Newborn, redux

Just as having my second child recently compelled me to revisit my maternity photos, I wanted to look again at my newborn photography because the babies are one of my favorite subjects to photograph.

My style has shifted some away from the lifestyle newborn (which I still love to do, to capture the cocoon of real-life at home) and includes more of the snug-bug baby wrapped and cozied in a bowl, or nestled in a parent’s hands to show scale, or peaceful and smoosh-faced on their own hands.

When new parents ask me why they need newborn photography, this is what I tell them: how these sleepy days will not stay in your memory, how the curl of a tiny leg that was just recently still inside your body will soon unfold, and how your baby will grow into their features and never look like they do now again.

The small details are so important: hands and feet, yes, but also the whorls of hair and curve of eyelash.

Whenever I can, I like to also include siblings with the newborn. Older brothers and sisters are typically both smitten with and aghast at these interlopers and bringing them in to the photo shoot helps.

I hired a newborn photographer for my firstborn because I wasn’t confident I could do it myself, but by the time of my second I was happy to have a constant model to photograph and I took advantage of the first two weeks of life (the best window of time for a newborn session) to take photos almost every day. Some of my favorites: