Preparing For Your Milestone Session
If your baby is growing and capturing your heart daily, it’s time to capture that beauty! Let’s talk about milestones, when to photograph them and a few tips for successful sessions.
There are a few milestones a baby goes through in the first year. You’ll want to watch for these developmental stages rather than relying on a specific age.
Milestones
Big, joyous smiles. Baby will start showing off big grins around 3-5 months. Don’t rush this one. Since baby can’t do much more than lay on his or her back, without smiles these portraits might fall flat.
Pushing up in tummy time. And we mean, really pushing up! You’ll want to make sure baby enjoys this position and it’s no longer work. Head and shoulders should be lifted high. Keep in mind, there are some babies who don’t enjoy this position until much later. Don’t sweat it if you miss this stage. Because the next is our favorite.
The Sitter Portrait. At this point baby can proudly sit without risk of falling backwards. This is our favorite! By this point, typically around 7-8 months of age, we can fully engage your baby capturing both joy and wide-eyed wonder, all in one session.
Standing. This session might happen at the one year birthday or might not. All babies are different. If you want to capture standing, we recommend booking a session as soon as this milestone happens. If you wait until they are walking, well, we will all be running a bit more to keep up!
First birthday. Whether you go with a simple portrait or a beautifully styled cake smash, this is the one you won’t want to miss. Go big for the one year portrait!
Prepare for the session
There are only a few important guidelines for how to pull off happy milestone portraits.
Try hard to book a morning session, shortly after baby wakes up from either the night or the morning nap. Afternoons are rough. Even if your sweet babe is an angel at home in the afternoon, the change in environment might throw your baby for a loop.
Keep the day of your session free of stimulating activities such as play dates, exercise, or doctor visits. In fact, be sure to schedule your session at least 3 days away from immunization shots.
Pack your bag with these essentials: a bottle or sippy cup, snacks that don’t make crumbs, a favorite (and photogenic) stuffy or blanket, and a backup outfit option in case the first gets soiled.
And, the most important tip of all, make sure your baby is well fed before any portrait session.
Styling your session
Plan on baby being photographed in just a diaper cover for part of the session so we can capture all those sweet rolls and toes one last time. When it’s time for clothes, the simpler and softer the better.
simple, soft, texture
We love textures like crushed linen and chunky knits. Keep clothing minimal and unfussy such as a simple diaper cover, a pair of cute linen shorts or a sweet romper or sundress. We do not recommend stuffy, grown-up clothes such as bow ties, little boy suits or frilly dresses. They are uncomfortable and often make it difficult for baby to get in cozy positions.
a neutral & light color palette
Tender baby skin will be highlighted best against neutral, soft fabrics. Choose a color palette of white, soft wheat and cream, blush, very light soft greys, greens, and blues. Avoid all dark clothes.
There are some great shops online that offer reasonably priced and adorably comfy clothes for babies.
Reverie Threads - It’s as if these clothes were just made to be photographed. Cute, on-trend, great color options. You can’t go wrong.
Hope & Henry - “Hope & Henry was born from the belief that beautiful, high-quality clothing can be affordable to all without sacrificing the well-being of our people and our planet.”
Etsy - A few of our favorite shops: Pata TaTa Dress, Babe Basics, Edmund And Rose