Its a boy!

I had the pleasure of photographing this beautiful boy a few days ago! 

Ive just wrapped up editing his gallery and it is stunning. 

I love the one with mum laughing, such a beautiful candid moment. 

www.nmarchphotography.com.au 

Cousins at the Park

I had so much fun photographing these gorgeous cousins on Sunday!  It was a special time for these 2 families as one live in the US and the other here in Brisbane.  

A Day in the Life - Newborn Session

So heres my day. 

It's full of cuddles and fluffy bunnies and hot coffee. Well... the last one anyway!  I love photographing newborns, but a lot of time goes into before and after a session. I thought I might give some insight so to give you an idea here's how my day breaks down for a newborn session:

6am - up and get my kids dressed, fed and off to daycare
8am - check/reply emails
8.30am - set up for newborn session at my home
9.30am - welcome beautiful family
10am - family photos

11am - session break, change of background, feed time for baby
11.30 - sleepy blanket shots of newborn

12.30 - farewell beautiful family and pack away backdrops/props
1pm - upload photos to computer and sort best 35 from session
1.30pm - edit facebook preview photo for family
2pm - update website and blog / design and print cards, labels and other paperwork from session
3pm - update marketing materials / design albums
4pm - collect my girls from daycare
5pm - kids have dinner
6pm - post preview photo on facebook
7pm - girls to bed
7.30pm - have dinner with my husband
8.30pm - start editing the morning's newborn session (this takes two evenings of editing)
11.30pm - bed! phew! 

It's a big day, but so rewarding when you create photos like this

Why the first 2 weeks are so important

Many newborn photographers will tell you that you MUST photograph in the first 3 -10 days of baby's life.  While I recommend this too, I am not hard and fast on it as I understand how overwhelming the first few weeks are after welcoming a new baby to the family. 
However. There are good reasons for this time frame:
1. They are still very sleepy. Sleepy newborn photos are so adorable because they are so peaceful. It is also safer to pose a sleeping baby than one that is awake. Also, awake babies tend to try and pose themselves and since they havent done the posing courses I have, they do not know where their arms and legs need to go to look comfortable and cute.
2. They are still very bendy. Since being all cosied up in a confined space their arms and legs snuggle around nice and tight for these sort of photos. After a few weeks, since they havent been doing yoga or pilates their muscles contract and they no longer curl up into cute little bundles anymore. 
3. Skin is best. Around the two week mark things like baby acne can start to occur, and while we can photoshop it out, I like to keep the photos as real as possible. I am light-handed with the airbrush.  

So yes, the optimum time to schedule your newborn session is within 3 - 10 days of birth, but of course not always possible, and while it greatly increases the chances of these beautiful sleepy baby photos, you can never be certain. I have had a week old baby refuse to sleep and a 4 month old baby sleep soundly through the bean bag workflow. At the end of the day, we get what we get and that will always be treasured memories of your babies start in life. Awww.