As a Hampton Family Photographer, I adore working with families and helping them expand in their joy in celebrating their moments. I love working with them to create a way to hold onto their memories as the years progress.
My best friend, Shannon, recently had a newborn baby girl. And we have been planning this moment since the day she told me she was expecting.
Firstly, Shannon said that she didn’t want a big to-do and that she wanted to just photograph a day at home. Then, she said she didn’t want fancy hair and makeup, no perfectly positioned furniture (although, we did move the furniture a little bit). And she didn’t want it to last all day long either.
Check, Check and Check.
Luckily, that’s my specialty.
Wanna know how it went down?
Okay, I drove about thirty minutes from Hampton to Smithfield, pulled up at their house, and we hung out. LITERALLY.
We spent time together laughing about the kids and talking about how the delivery went. Also, we talked about how she was doing after being home for a couple days, and how things have already changed. And, I listened to her perspective discussing the dynamics of having two children versus only one. We went over all of Shannon’s favorite things about Kaylee that she had discovered so far, and we made sure to capture those.
Overall, we absolutely created the space for Shannon to really soak in the new mommy feels all over again, while photographing this special family moment.
It was important to capture Shannon and Kaylee in the quiet moments of this new phase in motherhood. Bonding as mommy and daughter and setting that foundation was really important to her. She was able to do it with her son, Ethan and she wanted to make sure to do the same this time, as well.
So, we did that.
We broke away from the chaos of the rest of the house, and began; Kaylee had finally fallen asleep with a full belly. Then, we shut the door and Shannon talked to her, rocked her, gave her lots of little kisses. She told the story of her labor and she reminisced about her feelings of this being the last time she would go through this phase. It was sort of bittersweet. In this quiet room, the emotions were palpable and the silence was loud.
In those moments, you just let it all happen.
Finally, it was important to Shannon to have a few photos for Kaylee to have as she grows up. She wanted to be able to pass down a keepsake for her to view . She wanted her daughter to see the beginning of her story and where it all began. And, we did just that.
Also feel free to leave a comment below and tell me your favorite thing about the newborn days! And if you’d like to preview what your own newborn documentary photography session could look like view it here: View Gallery.
