After having a baby, the recovery can be hard. Either your birth canal hurts or you’ve just had major abdominal surgery. Leaving home with a toddler and a newborn to carry everyone off to a newborn studio shoot, can be difficult. and too much on your postpartum body. This is just one of the many reasons I love in-home newborn photography.
Keep reading for the top 5 reasons to have your newborn shoot at home.
#1 It’s more authentic.
In the 80s and 90s, we captured some newborn photos at the hospital with the traditional pink and blue hospital hat and the bracelet, but we also took a lot of candids at home with our cameras. Somehow, with the modern way we get photos done, we seem to have less of our candid lives. Having someone enter your home and simply be a fly on the wall, letting you be comfortable leads to more authentic images. You’ll be able to look back at them and see the things that were on your coffee table, telling the story of the year you had a newborn. (like, maybe a Stanley sits there, and you would remember when the Stanleys were flying off the shelves). You might remember in the 80s, it was common for there to be a large circle ash tray. Something so simple can tell the most amazing stories. You would remember the sofa you had during the newborn stage. The way you had her nursery set up. The way her older sister adjusted to life with a little baby in the house. The middle of the night feeds, the way she grabbed tightly onto your finger. There are all of these tiny moments in our every day with a newborn and it only lasts 7 weeks.
#2 Getting photos is easier at home.
With little to no posing, Everyone, including big brother or sister, and dad, can be relaxed in their environment rather than walking into a studio they have rarely been to, and being told to sit here and smile, or kiss baby, etc. Which creates pressure. That pressure can lead to melt downs, and inauthentic and forced photos.
#3 There is no schedule.
When I show up, Im there on your clock, not mine. In a studio setting, there are usually set windows for each client. But when Im at my client’s home, I can pause when baby needs to nurse (and can capture that if mom wants) and can take a break if the older sibling is feeling overwhelmed. I can set my camera down, and just be a friend who came over for a visit. I do whatever leads to authentic photos. Im never rushed and am only there to tell the story you want told.
#4 Each baby is beautiful just as they are.
While I spent years posing newborns, I have since learned that when I chose to do that, I was preventing mom of memories of how here baby was as a baby. How they chose to lay, how they preferred their hands to be. How they chose to lay their head. Oftentimes, parents will see their photos of their newborn baby and say “oh my gosh, she did that in utero!” and refer to previous ultrasounds or just the way baby seemed to constantly bring their hand up by their face like they had done it 100X before.
#5 There is no special window to capture baby in.
Depending on if you want newborn videography or just photography alone, You can have your session anywhere from 2-6 weeks after having your baby. If you want videography, I let my clients choose, of course, but often recommend around 4 weeks when baby is starting to interact with mom and dad, so we can really get some great audio and footage. I work with each family individually, and customize their session to what they want. Even if they want an earlier newborn session, we don’t have to capture it in that first 10 days to get the posed type of photography, so we can even wait until baby is 2 weeks old and mom is moving around better and feels more herself. Plus, given that I’m trying to tell the story of what it was like to have a newborn, I tend to like mom and dad to have some time to process the fact that they have a newborn! It’s so surreal at first!
If you are in the Nashville area, or want me to travel to you, feel free to reach out or take a look at my work!
