newborn photography -

Lorna, Mark and James. The Bump to Baby session….

The thing I love about Bump to Baby photography is meeting a family excited and anticipating this big change coming in their lives. The change in a woman is incredible (we are absolute Queens for creating and growing these bambinos inside our bodies!). I met Lorna and Mark back in June for their Bump shoot. We had a simple session in the studio with just the two of them (and Lorna’s onesie!). Here’s a little peek of a few shots.

The optimum time for capturing a newborn is in the first 10 days… there are a zillion tips and techniques I can provide in the lead up for how to keep your baby sleepy and pose-able, but at the end of the day, babies are babies and we just have to roll with it and see where they take us!

Baby James was a perfect subject, he was obviously paying attention through all the Bump to Baby chatter! He slept, and slept, and slept some more!! While they’re sleeping is a perfect opportunity to go in with some close ups, to really remember those teeny tiny details.

Having a variety of props is always handy, babies have a habit of telling us if they’re uncomfortable or not, but Baby James was happy to sleep on like a trooper… it was clear he was a snuggler!

I’m a big fan of accidental shots…. I often take an images with a clear picture in my head of how it will finish, and sometimes the creativity will take me in the editing stage resulting with something unplanned, yet striking. These two are a prime example…. The Boy on the Moon and The Water Baby.

It was lovely to have Mark’s daughter along for the shoot to grab some family portraits of them together. She was a natural with Baby James! To say he was spoiled with kisses is an understatement for sure!

While we were doing some low key shots James decided this would be prime time to have a toilet break. Thankfully Mark had already gone in for the kissing of the feet close up and was spared a shower!!

As with all Bump to Baby shoot, Lorna & Mark’s completed baby session was presented in a Baby Book, handmade in Italy by Graphistudio, my favoured album design company. A beautifully presented, boxed photo album to thumb through and treasure forever.

I hope to see more of your growing family in the future, Fiona xx

It was so nice one evening to get a message from Laura about doing a newborn baby portrait photography shoot for her new addition, Rose. I knew Laura from many years ago when she was a young girl as I had worked with her dad. What a joy to see how she’d grown up into a beautiful young woman with a baby girl of her own.

Baby Rose was going to be 5 weeks old when I was booked in for the shoot, which is usually a little old if you want those cutesy-sleepy posed shots, but as she was born 5 weeks early I was hoping we may still catch some of that newborn-state sleep!

There are some tricks of the trade to keeping a newborn baby in a malleable, sleepy state for portrait photography which I shared with Laura, but as Rose was becoming more aware of her surroundings at times we discussed going with her flow instead for the shoot. We needn’t have worried. Rose was a dream…..in fact, she was dreaming…..the entire 3 hours!!!

I had set up my portable studio and various posing pods in their home in Findon Valley, we had coffee to hand and an ultra warm room to help keep Rose nice and toasty. Laura had some lovely headbands made by a friend (who works by the name of All Han Made) and an array of outfits at the ready which Rose modelled beautifully. We even managed to capture a few surprise smiles!

Little Rose’s cousins also popped in for a quick pose together, I’m sure she would have enjoyed the cuddles had she not remained resolutely asleep!! We even managed to convince her parents Laura & Rob to come in for a few shots. By this time the session was drawing to an end and yet Rose had not woken. What a perfect sleepy model.

The final step of this newborn photography shoot after editing the images was to design the album. For this I use an Italian company called Graphistudio with an album aptly named The Baby Book. With a soft touch box and book cover it comes with a variety of paper options. I chose the photographic paper with a high gloss finish for a contemporary look. A lovely keepsake of your most important treasure.