If you're currently pregnant or holding a brand new baby and wondering when on earth you're supposed to fit in newborn photos, here's the honest answer.
Book while you're still pregnant if you possibly can....and if that ship has sailed, book the moment you're home from hospital.
Don't wait.
Why timing matters more than people think
Newborn photography isn't like other family photography where a few weeks either way makes no real difference. Newborns change fast. That curled up, still-a-bit-froggy, barely-unpacked-from-the-womb look that makes newborn photos so special really only lasts a short window, and it starts disappearing well before most parents realise.
My preference is to photograph babies before three weeks old, and honestly, the earlier the better. After that window, babies start to straighten out, their skin changes, their sleep gets lighter and less cooperative, and a lot of that newborn softness starts to fade. It doesn't mean older babies can't have beautiful photos, they absolutely can, it just means you're photographing a different stage, not a newborn stage.
Book it before the baby arrives
This is the part parents underestimate. You don't need to know the exact date. You just need a rough spot loosely held in the calendar, so that when the baby actually arrives, we're not trying to find an appointment from scratch while you're running on two hours of sleep and stitches.
Booking during pregnancy means:
- You've already thought about it, instead of trying to make decisions in the newborn haze.
- I already know roughly when to expect your call (or I keep in touch) so we're not scrambling.
- We can lock in that early window while your baby is still tiny, instead of watching it slip past because "we'll sort it out once they're here" never quite happens.
If you're pregnant and reading this, that's genuinely your best move. Get in touch, get a rough date loosely pencilled in, and then just let me know the second baby arrives so we can lock in the actual session.
If baby's already here, don't wait for "the right time"
There's no such thing as the right time with a newborn. There's before three weeks, and there's after three weeks. That's really the only distinction that matters.
I know the last thing you feel like doing with a five-day-old baby is organising a photo session. You're exhausted, you're still figuring out feeding, the house probably looks like a nursery exploded in it. None of that matters. You don't need to be ready. You don't need the house tidy. You don't need to have lost the baby weight or found your energy again. You just need to get in touch.
What newborn photos with me actually look like
I want to be upfront about something, because I think it matters. I don't do the posed-into-a-pretzel, popped-into-a-pot, Anne Geddes style of newborn photography. No baskets, no props your baby is squeezed into, no elaborate setups where the baby is the accessory to the composition.
What I do instead is photograph your baby, and your family, as you actually are in those first few days. The tiny fingers. The way your newborn scrunches their face. The exhausted, besotted look on your face as you hold them for what feels like the thousandth time that day but is actually the most significant. Real, soft, gentle images that look like your baby, not like a styled prop shot.
If that's the kind of newborn photography you're after, get in touch. If you're still pregnant, even better, let's get something loosely in the calendar now so we're ready the moment your baby arrives.
