I am often asked what the best ages to photograph babies from birth through age one would be.  In a perfect world I would suggest doing a maternity, newborn, 6ish months, and 1 year session.  There are a lot of reasons I’d suggest these age and I’ll go into the details on the whys below, and I’m certainly not discounting other ages.  These are just my favorites and the “musts” from my way of seeing things. 

I know it can be tempting to skip a maternity session when you are pregnant and feel huge and ungainly, but I promise that you will regret not having nice photos from this stage of your life.  How would I know?  Because I’ve gone through two pregnancies and while I have snapshots of myself pregnant they just aren’t the same as a portrait.  In fact I don’t have a single image of myself pregnant with my son that I didn’t take by myself in my bathroom mirror.  Don’t let the same thing happen to you!  I promise that you will love the photos from your maternity session and you won’t regret having them done.  I take great care in directing you into flattering poses and celebrating how beautiful you are.  Because you are beautiful.  I usually suggest we do your maternity session when you are between 34 and 38 weeks pregnant to catch you at your best and hopefully before baby arrives!
Newborn sessions are best done in the first 10 days of life, but I certainly won’t turn you away if your baby is older.  I prefer to book newborn sessions before your baby is born so that I can keep space in my schedule around your due date.  If you are a little late in the game it’s ok to contact me and schedule a newborn session at the last minute.  I really don’t mind, and I totally understand.  The biggest reason I prefer to do newborn sessions within the first 10 days is because newborns are at their sleepiest and curliest during that time and our session will tend to be quicker and easier.  A baby a few weeks old is a little more alert and is starting to stretch out more.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that a more awake baby will have fewer posed photos and more “lifestyle” type of photos.  Plus you’ll be more likely to get some photos of baby’s beautiful eyes!

My next favorite time to photograph babies is when they are sitting pretty well by themselves.  Since all babies hit this stage at different ages I hesitate to call it a 6 month session since it could happen anytime between 5-8 months.  This is such a delightful age and makes for absolutely adorable photos.  It’s also a great age for fun props like tutus, hats, diaper covers, buckets, and baskets. I definitely recommend taking your baby’s schedule into consideration when you book your session and try to pick a time that they are usually pretty happy and avoid naptime. 

Finally I suggest doing a session with your baby at one year old no matter what stage of physical development they are at!  Some one year olds are walking (or running!) and others aren’t quite there yet.  If they’re up and walking I highly suggest we do most of our session outdoors because the chances of your baby being happy to sit quietly for a studio session for more than 20 minutes is probably not very high.  It’s entirely possible to mix indoor studio and outdoor shots in one session, we just need to plan for an outdoor location that is close by to keep transportation time short.

I realize my list of ages/stages is a little different from the more traditional 3/6/9/12 months timeline but I think my approach is a little more realistic and doable.  Of course if you’re interested in doing photo sessions more often or at different ages then I suggest I am happy to oblige.  In fact I’d totally understand because I do photo sessions with my kids way more often then most people just because I can and I love to do it!