NEWBORN BABY PHOTOSHOOT WITH AN UNSETTLED BABY

One of the biggest concerns most new mums have when booking a newborn portrait session is that their baby might not be settled during the shoot. I want every new mum to know that although beautiful images can be captured whilst your baby is sleeping, the aim of a portrait session is to capture the memory of your brand new baby. My aim is to provide you with image of your beautiful baby as small, delicate and beautiful as they are.

It’s OK if your baby isn’t settled during the photoshoot!

Earlier this month I was excited to photograph the Christmas Giveaway Winner. A gorgeous newborn baby girl.

Now it might not be obvious from this photo but this beautiful baby girl was very unsettled during the shoot. And this happens. Babies are all different and some sleep deep and heavy and others just don’t. And that’s OK. These beautiful little beings have been thrust into a whole new big and overstimulating new world and it’s a lot to process. Many breastfed babies go through periods of cluster feeding and some babies just hate being away from mummy. It’s all perfectly natural and normal.

I have a lot of tools at my disposal for settling babies. And I managed to get this little lovely settled for a short while. By using white noise, swaddling, some gentle swaying/rocking and a lovely warm environment many babies can drift into a lovely deep sleep. And thankfully we got a short nap from this little lady.

I know that new mum’s don’t really want to spend hours and hours away from home and they certainly don’t want to sit and watch their baby be unsettled for any prolonged amount of time. I know that some photographers prefer to try and try to get baby settled so that they can get the photos expected from their portfolio but I personally prefer to give it a good try but then give mum & dad the option to either come back and try another day or go for poses which are more lifestyle; so mum and dad holding baby etc.

So that’s what we did. We took photos of the family all together and with mum and dad holding their beautiful newborn and then I asked if mum would like to come back in a few days time to try again for some more settled and posed shots.

A few days later….

We tried again. And we got a few more shots but this poor little sweetheart was just wanting her mamma and the comfort of breastfeeding. And that’s ok. As well as getting great photos I want parents to enjoy the experience of their photoshoot, I don’t ever want them to look back on some picture perfect images with the horrible memory of how unsettled their precious baby was and how much they wanted the session all to be over as fast as it could.

But I also understand that parents still want some lovely photos.

So here’s what I did….

I took the settled images of this beautiful girl and spent some time in photoshop creating beautifully composited imagery so that mum could have a variety of gorgeous photographs.

So did I deliver a full gallery of images even though during the session baby was hardly settled. Yes I did. And I truly hope that the whole family are happy with the results.

I know every mother hopes and wishes that their baby will be settled. I also know that one of their biggest fears after investing financially and emotionally in a session is that their baby just doesn’t settle and instead cries the whole time. But there really is no need to worry at all. All baby are unsettled sometimes and it is expected, I expect it, and I have ways to either get them settled or work in post production with whatever I do get. My job is to provide you with the beautiful memories you were hoping to capture.