Photographing baby milestones
Our job as a portrait studio is essentially to capture Family and baby milestones. These baby milestones in your family can be small or all together life changing.
We put together a list of baby milestones that we regularly photograph at our Croydon studio.
Which baby milestones should I have professionally photographed?
Whilst it’s not that often that a customer would come to our Croydon studio and have all of these baby milestones photographed, some do choose quite a few.
This list is a great way to see what options you have for baby milestone photography. Some of these milestones you may have missed and other may seem a long way off. Believe me, time flies by so quickly when you have a young family. It is easy to let these moments pass you by.
Baby milestones Maternity Photography
It starts with a bump and grows from there. In my opinion, this is when a family begins. It’s also a really important baby milestone.
There really is nothing quite so life changing as having a child which is probably why we have a 9 month build up to get used to the idea.
The truth of the matter is that during pregnancy you’re mostly preoccupied with the birth. Sure nesting does kick in but that’s more about having a pretty nursery or fancy buggy.
Pregnancy is all about anticipation and excitement. That is what we try and communicate through our maternity photos.
Why is pregnancy an important baby milestone?
Physically your body is going through so many amazing changes. Capturing beautiful photography of your pregnancy is important. Even if you don’t feel amazing you do look amazing. You will look back at these photos and be glad you captured this as your first baby milestone to have photographed professionally.
Interested in maternity photography?
View some of our Maternity Favourites and visit the Maternity section of our website.
To book or make and enquiry contact us.
Baby milestones Newborn photography
In recent years there has been an explosion in newborn photography. Your baby’s first days on earth are of course an extremely important milestone. It’s not surprising that newborn photography is one of the most popular photography sessions we do at our Croydon studio.
The newborn baby milestone really is within the first two weeks. The ideal age for a newborn photography session would be somewhere between 6 and 14 days.
Why is newborn an important milestone?
As family milestones go the first few days as a new parents is when reality really kicks in. Newborn photography beautifully illustrates how tiny and seemingly fragile these little babies are.
It’s the point when everything changes and an amazing family milestone.
Find out why newborn babies smile when they sleep.
Interested in newborn photography?
View some of our Newborn Favourites, Black and White Newborn Favourites and visit the Newborn section of our website.
To book or make and enquiry contact us.
Baby milestones New Baby
There’s a point just as you pass the newborn stage where baby is either feeding or sleeping all day and before baby is smiling on demand and rolling over at will.
This is the stage when you still have the cot attachment to your brand new fancy buggy and your sleep deprived life is a busy schedule of the grand baby tour of friends and family homes and cafes.
It’s also the stage when baby hasn’t yet decided to “sleep through”.
It’s a lovely stage to photograph as you have a baby which is slowly coming into their features. Occasionally they might give up a coy smile but they have yet to find paper being torn the most hilarious thing in the world.
Generally we would consider a new baby shoot to be a baby that is between 4 and 10 weeks old.
Why have a new baby Photoshoot?
We would recommend anything that missed out on having a newborn photography session to book in a new baby Photoshoot.
Having a new baby after all is an important family milestone for the very same reasons I gave for newborns.
We appreciate that not everyone is really feeling up to making the trip to our Croydon studio with a baby only a few days old.
New baby photo shoots are slightly different from newborn but certainly worth having.
Baby milestones 100 Days old
This is a rather culturally specific family milestone to celebrate but it’s certainly worth noting.
The 100 day celebration is a Korean tradition and marks a significant milestone.
Traditionally this was due to the low infant mortality rate. Parents were discouraged from leaving the family home with a baby under 100 days old.
When the 100 day milestone was reached family and friends would bring bring a feast of food to celebrate.
Having a studio so close the New Malden which has one of the most dense South Korean populations in Europe means that we’ve photographed a few of these over the years.
The format is usually a baby sitting in a Bumbo with a giant 100 balloon which we need to skilfully feature in the image without drawing too much attention from the baby.
Your baby’s first year milestones
Although the next couple of milestones aren’t technically family milestones as such you could argue that when you have your first baby everything is all about them for at least the first year.
Over the past ten years our most popular type of Photoshoot we do has been our Watch Me Grow programme.
It includes three photo sessions at our Croydon studio capturing three key milestone moments.
Baby milestones Tummy time
Also known in our studio as Watch Me Grow Stage one.
This is when baby is around 4 months old, they’ve got nice and chubby and they are growing more comfortable on their tummy.
We normally have plenty of smiles and there’s loads of interaction.
As a family milestone it’s normally the point where you’ve become accustomed to sleep deprivation. If you’re really lucky your baby might even be sleeping through the night. Enjoy that while it lasts as teething is just around the corner!
Baby milestones Sitting comfortably
Photographing babies at around 7 or 8 months old is my favourite type of photography session.
It’s also a rather significant milestone as many mums are starting to think about or have actually returned back to work.
For a family it’s a big move and an important milestone to make note of. It’s also, in my opinion, the stage when they at their most adorable.
For some reason at this stage parents are keen for their baby to start to crawl. This is something looking back in hindsight they consider to be be foolish wish.
Baby milestones Standing Baby / First Steps
It will probably take about a week for your baby to go from taking his or her first steps to running around the house at a million miles an hour.
If in the past you’ve ever quietly judged parents for putting reins on their toddler now might be the time you start revaluate your high standards in childcare.
This is a actually a really lovely stage to photograph. More than a few times we’ve had babies take their first steps in our studio and thankfully we’ve captured it on camera.
It is also a stage when babies are rather prone to constantly injuring themselves…but don’t worry…we have Photoshop for that.
Baby milestones First birthday Cake Smash
Like most trends in baby photography this is something that has hopped over the pond and absolutely exploded in popularity in the last couple of years.
I have looked at trying to find out where did smash cake come from if you’d like more insight into the subject.
It’s a fun, messy and unpredictable Photoshoot but certainly one of your family milestones to capture.
If you don’t know what a cake smash is and how it relates to a baby’s first birthday then just visit the cake smash section of our website to find out.
You can also see some of our Cake Smash Photography favourites.
Visit the Cake Smash section of our website to book or make and enquiry contact us.
