Professional family photography is not something I do terribly often, although I love doing it! Especially capturing real life at in-home sessions.
Newborn Connecticut Family Photo Session
OMG how do I even begin to tell you about this documentary newborn family photography session that I did at the family’s home in Norwalk, Connecticut? Well, first of all, the family is my friend and former roommate Annie and her husband, Mike. They just had a baby! Her name is Mia Louise and she is just perfect. It was so fun seeing my friends in their new role as first parents. An experience that is pretty familiar to me, having given birth to my first just 10 months ago. But man, I’d already forgotten how tiny newborns are!
Father and Daughter
It was pretty obvious that her daddy is already a pro – just look at him with his daughter! Of course, I had to take a photo of his adult-sized hand next to his daughter’s tiny newborn head for scale. I realized afterward that you can actually see his face reflected in his wedding band if you look closely.
Posed Newborn Photos
Once she was all fed, we moved on to a posed newborn setup. We tried to get her to sleep at first but she wasn’t really feeling it, so I did some awake photos.
I did finally get her to sleep for a bunch of “naked baby” photos at the end.
Then Mike showed me an antique cradle that has been in his family for generations (which I promptly broke slightly oops), so of course, we had to get some photos of the newest family member in there. Mom dressed her up in the outfit she wore to come home from the hospital.
Sleeping Baby
By this point, it had been over an hour and Mia still hadn’t gotten any substantial sleep, so the goal was to swaddle her and get her to sleep so we could do some family photos before her next feeding. Dad adjusted her headband as mom swaddled her and, well, let’s just say she was NOT impressed. The aftermath resulted in the photo below, which I love so much. It reminds me of something I heard at the Fearless Workshop I recently attended in Texas. Kirsten Lewis was talking about the most important photo she had taken in 2018 and how it was a photo of her. Not actually a photo of her, but a photo where she saw herself in her subjects. At the time I understood what she was saying, but couldn’t completely relate to it personally. Then I took this photo….which just perfectly sums up my own existence for the last 10 months. This is real life.
I was obsessed with her little baby toes!
After a bottle, she fell asleep and had some quality time with her parents.
So fun! I can’t wait to see how she grows over the years to come.
To see more of my family photography work, click here. Contact me set up a Connecticut family photography session here.
