I hadn't seen Natalie and Josh since I photographed their wedding in the fall of 2005, but I was delighted to meet up with them again recently for a photo session with their baby girl. Natalie writes an entertaining blog called Mommy Boots so I already knew how amazingly cute Nellie is, but I had no idea how sweet she would be. She was really so easy to work with. The most difficult thing about the whole session was trying to find a parking spot.
Newborn photos are really important because babies change so drastically and so quickly in those first months. However, I think that if you only do one baby session then the period of time between learning to sit up and actually crawling is probably the best. This is usually right around eight months which is why I recommend documenting the first year with milestone sessions at approximately birth, 4, 8, and 12 months instead of the more common 3, 6, and 9 month interval. This way you can get photos of your child when they begin holding their head up and smiling, when they are sitting on their own, and when they are taking their first steps.
When I found out that Nellie has started dragging herself on her stomach, I knew that we needed to do the photos soon because she'll be fully mobile in no time. Once that happens, she'll be off exploring her world non-stop, but for now she'll just sit and smile and laugh for the camera. Babies like this are a photographer's dream, and we ended up with some beautiful, expressive photographs.
