Newborn Photo Shoots
Newborn photography is one of the most precious types of photography – those early days are gone so fast and before you know it, you have a baby instead of a newborn.
Newborns are just beautiful sleepy creatures and in those sleep deprived crazy first days home from the hospital, there’s a good chance you’ll miss this stage if you can’t look back on photos and remember.
I am a specialist newborn photographer with years of experience in safely handling and soothing newborns into adopting those beautiful sleepy poses in a safe way. I also have a wide range of props, blankets and accessories in the studio that you have access to during your session although of course you are also invited to bring along anything else that you would like to personalise your session (think favourite outfits, first bears, football colours and other hobby related props…)
I’ve been a full time professional photographer for more than 15 years, and I’ve been photographing newborns for nearly ten of those (so right at the start of this very special type of photography’s rise in the UK) I work to the highest possible safety and care standards of course. I never force a newborn into positions that are uncomfortable for them, or leave them unattended and will always use a parent as a ‘spotter’ if baby safety requires it. I believe in safe comfortable baby led sessions give you the best possible pictures and studio experience.
Traditional & Lifestyle Newborn Photography Styles
When you have booked your newborn photo shoot, you’ll be able to choose between either a traditional or lifestyle newborn style. When it comes to the difference between the two styles, a traditional newborn photo shoot will be something that you’re very used to seeing – including shots of the baby on a giant beanbag, wrapped in blankets or naked or shots including any props. A lifestyle newborn session makes use of my bed set up and Moses basket to create images with a more lifestyle feel. Your baby won’t be naked in the finished photos (although we might strip them down to their nappy in order to swaddle them). All of the details and options available will be on your pre-shoot options form which you will receive the day before your session.
Lifestyle Newborn Photography
Traditional Newborn Photography
What does Newborn Photography Cost?
A newborn photo shoot costs £95 which includes your three favourite digital images to download, print and share as much as you would like to. Sessions also access to my props and accessories and, most importantly, include two hours of photography time to allow us plenty of time for feeding, settling and to keep the session relaxed and stress free. A newborn shoot also includes membership to my Baby Photography Club – a whole year’s photography for one fee.
My studio is a warm and cosy space in Crawley Down with a large comfy chaise where you can relax and watch your images being created.
We start with your newborn but parents and siblings are welcome to join in the session and you also have access to all my extensive collection of props and accessories during your session. The day before your session, you’ll receive a newborn options form which will allow you to select the style of shoot you would like, let me know of any props that you’d like to include or colour palettes you’d like to work with.
No Sales Appointments & Free Baby Club Membership
As with all of my photography, there’s no sales or viewing session to attend. You have enough on your hands with your new arrival so you simply view and order your images from the comfort of your private online gallery where you are welcome to purchase additional prints, digital images or canvases if you would like to.
In addition, when you book a newborn photo shoot, you automatically receive free membership to my baby photography club worth £39.95. You receive three sessions in the first year with your little one – one each at four, eight and twelve months plus a souvenir triple aperture wall frame containing your favourite image from each session.
No Sales Appointments & Free Baby Club Membership
As with all of my photography, there’s no sales or viewing session to attend. You have enough on your hands with your new arrival so you simply view and order your images from the comfort of your private online gallery where you are welcome to purchase additional prints, digital images or canvases if you would like to.
In addition, when you book a newborn photo shoot, you automatically receive free membership to my baby photography club worth £39.95. You receive three sessions in the first year with your little one – one each at four, eight and twelve months plus a souvenir triple aperture wall frame containing your favourite image from each session.
About Your Newborn Photo Shoot
Newborn sessions take place in the first two weeks of their arrival into the outside world (the perfect time is between 5 and 10 days).
After this point, newborn babies tend to be more alert and wakeful so they are difficult to manipulate into those beautiful sleepy poses. They are also less keen on being folded up in the way they were in the womb. Each session is scheduled for two hours and I never take back to back sessions so we are never rushed if we run over that time. Two hours of photography might well sound a bit horrendous when you’ve just had a baby but it really is just a case of getting yourselves here and you are free to relax in the studio whilst I take care of everything else. While your baby is warm, relaxed and sleepy, I take the pictures leaving plenty of time for feeding, cuddles and settling as required.
I have to limit the amount of these sessions that I take on throughout the year as they are naturally time consuming and I need to be sure that everyone is getting absolutely the attention and time that they deserve. So I’d recommend that you book your session while you are still pregnant to guarantee it. How this works is that you book and pay for your newborn photography session for your due date plus 7 days. Then when your baby arrives, just get in touch and we can move your appointment to suit if necessary.
There’s no denying that any baby born now is likely to have more pictures taken of it in its first year than our grandparents had in a lifetime. And don’t get me wrong, there’s an incredible amount of value in all of these captured memories.
However, newborn ‘formal’ photography is still a specialist area which is difficult to replicate without the right skill set, experience, environment and equipment.
My Studio is Designed for Newborns
My studio is especially set up to deal with newborn photography. Firstly, and most importantly, there is an extremely comfy sofa for you to crash out on while I create your images. Vital stuff.
Secondly, it’s fully insulated so I can keep it nice and toasty. Babies can’t regulate their own body heat and lose it four times faster than adults especially when they’re naked (which they might be for some of their shots). This means that the temperature stays perfect for them, even if it’s a bit warm for us. (That’s a little hint to you to dress accordingly!)
Frequently Asked Questions
A newborn photo shoot is £95 and that includes your two hour studio session, plus your three favourite digital images to download at print quality and share as much as you would like. You also receive free membership to my baby photography club which you can find the full information on here. With this, you get three additional sessions in your baby’s first year, one each at roughly four, eight and twelve months (which can be a cake smash / tub splash session if you’d like it to be). At the end of the year, you pick your favourite image for a triple aperture wall frame. The normal cost for the Joey Club is £39.95 for the year.
We schedule the studio for two hours although I never take back to back appointments so we are not rushed if we need a little extra time. How long the actually photography takes depends entirely on how your baby is feeling, but we have plenty of time for feeding and settling if we need it.
I’d definitely recommend booking your newborn photography while you are still pregnant, any time after your 20 week scan is perfect. This ensures that I have availability for you in your baby’s first two weeks as the studio can get quite busy. If you are late booking, I’ll always do my best to accommodate you if I can but booking early means that you don’t have to worry about it when you’re just home from the hospital.
Obviously you don’t usually know exactly when your baby will arrive but it’s best to book your newborn photo shoot while you are still pregnant to guarantee I have availability for you. We book your session for your due date plus seven days and then you just need to keep me posted if your baby arrives early so we can adjust it. I’ll be in touch with you the week before your session if I don’t hear from you to see if we need to move it to a later date.
I have plenty of props and accessories at my studio for you to choose from at your photo shoot so you don’t need to bring along anything other than your usual baby bag and maybe some drinks and snacks for yourselves. However, if you’d like to bring along items to include then you’re welcome to. There’s an article you might find helpful here – What to Bring to your Newborn Photo Shoot.
It can be a busy time when you’ve just had a baby so there’s no a lot that you need to do before your newborn photo shoot. However, some things can be helpful
- Try to keep your baby awake for an hour before you come
- Dress them in just one layer and use blankets to keep them warm for the journey
- Leave feeding your baby until just before you come (or feed them here if you have a longer journey) so they are as full as possible for their session.
There’s a whole article here that you might find helpful – Preparing for your Newborn Photo Shoot
Newborn photography ideally takes place when your baby is between five and ten days old as this is when they are at their most sleepy and poseable. After two weeks, they get much more aware of their surroundings and harder to keep asleep, or in a tucked up position. Multiple births (which tend to be a little early) and babies that come along significantly before their due date have a little longer so it’s always worth getting in touch to talk things through.
A lot of newborn photos are taken with your baby in just their nappy or naked (although they may be swaddled or wrapped). Multiple outfit changes can be tricky as most babies don’t tend to like getting changed and so it is hard to do it whilst keeping them asleep so I don’t recommend bringing along a lot of clothing changes. If you have an outfit that you’d like your baby to be photographed in, then I would suggest bringing them along already in it so we can get that done at the start of the session without having to change them. It’s really helpful to me if you don’t bring them with lots of layers on as that just means I have to strip them off again and potentially disturb them so I’d suggest one layer and use blankets to keep them warm and toasty on their journey over.
For a lot of a newborn session, we will be working on my giant beanbag but I do have a range of props that you can select from as well if you’d like to – from miniature beds, to bowls and even a little vintage style trolley. Working with newborns in / on props does require them to be fairly settled and so I don’t recommend using more than two in a session. You can find out more about my props by taking a look on my blog and there’s an article that might be helpful to you here – Newborn Props.
I’ve been a photographer for nearly two decades and photographing newborn babies since it first entered the UK market about six years ago. So I’ve probably seen a few hundred in my studio over that time and have lots of experience in capturing these tiny people.
Parents and siblings are welcome to be in the photos – although it’s not obligatory as sometimes new mums and dads don’t feel particularly camera ready. Where siblings are still young themselves, I recommend that they join us at the end of the session so that they can be in photographs without having to be bored by having to wait around. If you’re bringing them along for the whole of the shoot, then definitely bring them something to keep them entertained. Just as a note, we don’t have very good mobile phone signal here so it’s worth downloading things that you want before you come if you are planning to use phones or tablets to play movies or games. There’s an article below that you might find helpful.
Speaking as the mother to two fur babies myself, I know that dogs are definitely part of the family. You are welcome to bring your dog along to a newborn photo shoot if you think that they will be happy to attend and able to settle relatively well. It’s helpful for me to know in advance and also the size of dog you will be bringing so I can make sure I am set up for them to join in some of the pictures.
One or both of those is pretty likely to happen during the course of your newborn photo shoot as it’s very rare that babies turn up fast asleep and remain that way throughout. We have plenty of time to feed, settle and soothe them back to sleep so if they wake up or are unsettled, we just work through it until they are happy to nod off again. Here’s an article you might find useful – What if my Baby cries at their Newborn Shoot
It’s perfectly natural to be protective over your brand new baby (or your child of any age for that matter) but you can be assured that I am very experienced at handling newborns. Your session will be totally baby led and I will always be watching to check that their temperature is right, their circulation is good and that they are comfortable at all times. Of course babies will sometimes cry during their session but I am skilled at knowing whether they are just having a bit of a grumble or whether we need to make adjustments to get them comfortable. All the poses that I use are safe for your baby and I would never leave them unsupported or able to startle and fall. Where poses require extra help, I will ask for assistance from a parent and use digital compositing to create a beautiful image in a situation where it would not be safe to leave a baby unsupported – an example of this would be picture that you might have seen with a baby in a hat or helmet or resting their head on their hands. In cases like these, there is always a parent supporting them from different angles and then the images are stitched together to remove the parent from the final image.
It’s best to book while you are still pregnant to guarantee that I have availability at my studio for you. However, if you’ve already had your baby and just decided that you’d like to have a newborn shoot, I’ll always do my best to fit you in if I can. Just get in touch.
Most baby’s have dry patches on their skin after a few days, especially if they’ve been born past their due date. It’s not a problem at all for your sessions though, I’ll use posing to minimise how much is on display and then editing to reduce (if not remove) the dry patches. I don’t actually over-process a baby’s skin in your finished images as I don’t like images that make them look waxy and unreal. They’ll still have their skin texture which may include some little flakes and dry spots but then that is part of who they are at that moment in time.
Your baby’s cord can still be attached for your newborn photo shoot and it doesn’t cause much of an issue. We’ll use fabrics and posing to hide in the finished images and it can mean that I have to work a little harder to get them comfy when they’re tucked up on their tummy (depending on the clamp placement) but it doesn’t normally cause an issue.
If you take a nappy off a newborn then it’s more than likely that they will pee or poo at some point during their session. I expect it to happen and it doesn’t bother me in the slightest – everything in the studio is washable including me. We clean them up, change the stuff that got messed up and just carry on.
More than likely that your baby will need feeding at some point during your session and so that’s no problem at all. We have plenty of time built in for feeding and settling. Breast feeding is perfectly fine obviously (would be quite weird if that was going to be a problem). It’s a warm and safe space where you won’t be interrupted by anyone so if you’re new to it and want to take your time, then that’s not an issue.
For newborns, I find that we get the best success rates when sessions start at 10 or 11 am. This is because babies don’t tend to sleep all that well at night (which seems like poor planning for everyone involved) and so they are at their sleepiest during the morning. Sessions that start later can result in a more wakeful baby although of course it isn’t an exact science. The latest session start time that I will take for a newborn is 2.30pm as much later than that, and you are in the baby witching hour of 5pm when they can be very unsettled no matter what you do.
You’re welcome to bring along anything that you’d like to include in your newborn photo shoot to make it personal to you. Over the years, people have brought all sorts of things including sports equipment, team colours, toys, blankets and even a giant duck. I’ll try to work in anything that you want to have in your finished images. Multiple outfits can be difficult to manage whilst keeping your baby asleep so I’d recommend bringing them already in your favourite outfit if you’d like them photographed in it. If you’re bringing along a prop for your baby to lie on or in, I’ll work with it if I think it is safe to do so and doesn’t pose any risks to them. Here’s an article that you might find handy for inspiration – 5 things to bring to your newborn photo shoot
I wouldn’t ever use a dummy on your child if it didn’t already belong to you and I’m certainly not going to wade into the dummy / no dummy debate. If you have one, it can be a useful tool in terms of soothing a baby to sleep so I will use it if we think it will help. If you don’t want to give your baby a dummy, then that’s no issue with me, we’ll get there by other means. These are your parenting decisions and I’m not going to have an opinion either way.
Each of your finished images will have been edited by me and this takes at least as long as the session itself and most of the time, a lot longer. Whoever said that someone had skin as smooth as a newborn had obviously never actually looked at a newborn. So I work on their skin a lot to smooth out the colour and texture (without making them look waxy – you still want to be able to recognise that they are little people). I will remove little scratches and spots and other temporary blemishes but I would never take out any birthmarks as that is part of your baby. If you have special requests regarding image editing, then just need to let me know and we can talk it over.
You’re always welcome to be part of your newborn photo shoot and those early days family photos can be ones to treasure. In terms of what to wear, I recommend keeping clothes plain and neutral and coordinating tones if you’re both going to be in the images together as it will give you a nicer feel to the the finished images. It’s worth bringing along your chosen outfit to change in to (I have a changing area) as the studio will be really warm so you might be more comfortable in something else whilst you are watching your images being created. Here’s an article you might find useful – what to wear for your newborn photo shoot.
About two weeks after your session, I’ll have your images edited and uploaded to your private online gallery. There’s no sales or viewing session to attend. I’ll email you a link and a password and that will take you straight to your finished images.
I believe in complete transparency when it comes to pricing so you won’t get any nasty surprises. You’ll already know what your session fee includes in terms of images, and you can simply order more from your online gallery if you’d like to – there’s no sales or viewing session to attend.
Here are the prices for additional digital images and prints.
Each of your images is professionally edited and so there will be a bit of a delay before you can see your images while I get everything ready for you. This can vary according to a number of factors but generally, it’s about a two week wait before your images are uploaded to your private online gallery. I’ll be able to advise you better on exact waiting times at your session.
My studio is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 6pm.
This is question that I get asked a lot and it’s a really tough one to answer as it depends on so many things. If I’m photographing a baby and they’re in a great mood, then you have lots of photos where if they are finding things a bit difficult then you get less. Gun to my head, if I had to offer an average image count, then I’d say that you can expect to find about forty fully edited images in your finished gallery but that can vary wildly so it’s probably not a very useful statistic for you.
You need to pay for your photo shoot when you book it. If your session is more than two weeks away, then you have the option of paying a £20 deposit with the balance being due the week before your session. Otherwise the full balance is due on booking.
Recent Blog Posts
If you’d like to find out more about me and my work, then my blog is a good place to have a browse. You’ll find lots of previous work plus some helpful articles on how to get ready for your newborn session and the kinds of things that you might like to plan for or bring along…
Editing and Newborn Photography
At a newborn photo shoot the other day, somebody asked me if I had to edit newborn photos or if I could upload them straight from camera.
Newborn Hands – A Classic Newborn Photo
There's always room for creativity when it comes to newborn photography and I love coming up with new ideas to try. However, classic newborn shots are classic for a reason and this little 'hands together' set up is just such a one.
Just a Little Teddy Bear
Nothing to see here, just a tiny teddy bear hanging out on the shelf with his buddies! My Teddy Shelf newborn prop is available for selection when [...]