When should I book my newborn photo shoot is a very common question that I get asked.   The problem is of course that you don’t usually know exactly when your baby is going to arrive.

Here’s the thing. If you wait to book your photo shoot until you have them in your arms, it’s pretty easy to get home from the hospital and by the time you’ve looked up, you’ve missed the two week window to get newborn photos.  It’s a brutally short period of time that babies allow us to capture them in those sleepy tucked up poses – ideally you’d have your shoot when your baby is between five and ten days old and definitely before they are two weeks old.

They will obviously still be sleeping a lot when they are two weeks old but they will likely have at least begun to unfurl and so they won’t hold the tucked positions that they do when they are very new.  Also, they are already getting very aware of the world around them and so once asleep, they are extremely difficult to manipulate without disturbing them and no one really likes to be awakened from a lovely nap.

So I always strongly recommend booking your newborn photos while you are still pregnant – this also gives you a little more time to think about what you’d like and gather together anything that you’d like to include. Of course you don’t need to bring along items to add to your session – I have lots of things we can use in my stash at the studio – but I always think it is nice to personalise things with one or two items of your own.  Toys and blankets are popular options as well as sports shirts / scarves and anything really that reflects your hobbies and interests.

Obviously we don’t know exactly when your baby is going to make an appearance so we simply book for your due date plus seven days.  Then you add me to the list of people that you let know when they arrive and we move your appointment if we need to. Simple as that.  The studio can get pretty busy and newborn sessions take up quite a bit of time being booked for two hours and so this allows me to keep an eye on the calendar and make sure that I keep space for you if your baby is early or late.  The deposit when you book is £20 and the balance of £75 is due the week before your session.

So here’s the much shorter version of the answer to the question of when you should book your newborn photo shoot.

As soon as you decide you want one, and definitely while you’re still pregnant!

Of course, if you’ve already had your baby (and they’re still under the two week old mark) and decided that you want to come and visit, I’ll always do my best to find you some studio time so just get in touch and we can talk over your options.