If you’re reading this blog because you are adding an extra member to your family in the coming months, congratulations! We’re so excited for you and your family as you embark on this journey of pregnancy, surrogacy, or adoption. All of these paths towards expanding your family by one (or two or three!) are equally special.
When people plan a wedding, choosing a photographer is one of the first steps they take towards planning their day. But not everyone thinks about scheduling their maternity and pregnancy-related shoots when they find out they are pregnant. New parents especially will get caught up in the joy, excitement, and nerves of prepping for a new baby. Once the baby arrives, parents will scroll through Facebook and will see a friend who got incredible newborn portraits done. They might feel crestfallen, realizing that they never scheduled newborn portraits for their own baby. With every pregnancy related shoot, you have a very limited window of opportunity to schedule each session. With Fresh 48 sessions, you literally only have 48 hours. That’s why it’s essential to plan and book as soon as possible!
So how do you make sure you’ve got the photography coverage you want for you and your little one? Let’s talk through the 7 most common photoshoots you’ll want to schedule once you find out you’re having a baby! From your delivery room photographer to your newborn portrait artist, here’s when you need to schedule those sessions.
Session #1: Pregnancy Announcement
Scheduled: After the first trimester
In the olden days, you had to tell people you were pregnant in person. Or just wait until you were showing and let people figure it out for themselves.
Nowadays, most people find out about other people’s pregnancies via Facebook or Instagram announcements. Pregnant people and their partners have gotten super creative in finding ways to share this news! Some people come up with cute sayings, some pose their dog next to a sign that says “I’m getting a baby sister!”, some do a close up of a sonogram with a stuffed animal. There are so many options to choose from. Hiring a professional photographer will help you come up with a great concept!
If you want to be very fancy, you can even get announcements printed for you to mail out to your friends and family. You could even use this photo to send invitations for your baby shower. Having this moment captured professionally will give you a beautiful image to look back on this exciting moment in your lives.
Session #2: Baby Shower
Scheduled: Usually around the third trimester
Your baby shower is likely the last time you’ll see all of your closest friends and family in one room until the baby’s first birthday. And if you got married before this, the last time you likely saw all of these friends and family together was your wedding.
Capture this special moment when all the people you love gather together in one room to celebrate this new milestone with you. Not only will the photographer capture the event itself, they can get posed photos with you and all of your friends and family. It’s the perfect opportunity to get photos of you with every guest. If you have a partner, don’t forget to get adorable photos of you guys together.
Once the shower is over, you can get prints of every guest photo and tuck them into their personalized thank you card. It’s a wonderful opportunity to thank your guests for celebrating along with you in a personal, heartfelt way.
Session #3: Maternity Photography
Scheduled: Between 30 and 34 weeks
One of the most important milestones to capture during your pregnancy is your maternity portraits! You can get these done on your own, with your partner, with your kids, or even with your own mother. Capturing this moment where you just can’t wait to meet your baby is such a complex, beautiful moment. You’re anxiously awaiting seeing their beautiful face, wondering what they’ll be like, and thinking about what your future together will hold. It’s the last few moments to capture your present reality before your whole life changes forever.
No two maternity shoots are the same. Some of our Delaware moms want glamorous studio sessions, borrowing couture dresses from our client closet. Others just want something more casual by the beach. One of our Pennsylvania moms wanted to go to their in-laws’ farm and take photos with a horse! There are so many options to make the maternity photography reflect you and your pregnancy experience.
Session #4: Birth Photography
Scheduled: During labor
Many talk about how as a wedding photographer, you don’t get a do-over. While that’s true, you could always replicate the day in a styled wedding session. No one will know if your first kiss photo was truly your first kiss.
There is one genre of photography that truly and unequivocally does not give you a second chance: birth photography. That baby is coming out one way or another only once, and your birth photographer better be there to capture it!
Birth photography is a truly beautiful and underrated genre of art. During labor, you can only focus on a few things at once. One of those things is usually how much pain you’re in. That can truly cloud out every other angle of the experience.
With birth photography, you get the whole picture of your birth story. You see the look on your partner’s face when they see their child for the first time. You see your baby crowning, making their way out into the world. You see the doctors examining your baby on the table while you get sewn up. Having a dedicated birth photographer gives you the chance to view your birth experience from every angle. It’s incredible as a documentary photographer to capture all of these irreplaceable moments. Delivery room photography, whether that’s your living room or in a hospital, is truly something special.
Session #5: Fresh 48
Scheduled: Within 48 hours of the birth
Congratulations! Your baby is born!
The Fresh 48 session is when your photographer comes to you the day or two after the birth. You’ve had the chance to sleep, heal, and soak in the joy of your new family member. This is also a documentary-style session. Whether you’re in the hospital, birth lodge, or home, the photographer captures the location of the birth and the new life that entered the world. This session isn’t overly posed. There are a lot of close up, detail shots, from the room number of your hospital to your little one’s tiny toes. It tells the story of your birth without the raw, nitty gritty experience of the birth itself. If you don’t want any active birthing pictures, you’ll definitely want to schedule that Fresh 48 shoot!
Session #6: Newborn Portraits
Scheduled: 1 to 2 weeks after birth
Newborn photography is one of the most difficult and beautiful genres of photography. A lot of education and practice goes into those complicated photos you see on Facebook. Keep in mind that many of those photos are composites, and only extremely skilled photographers can do these safely!
The best time to schedule newborn photography is between 7 and 14 days. You can go a little outside that window, but the results will be different. What makes newborn photography possible is that they can still pose the way they were in the womb. As they develop, they lose that ability to fold into those poses.
On the other hand, scheduling lifestyle newborn photography has so much more flexibility. These types of shoots do not require complicated posing. In these, the photographer is using a documentary style approach to tell the story of the first few weeks of your baby’s life. You can include pets, siblings, and more detail shots. You’ll do some shots of them in the crib, in their parents’ arms, being held by siblings. This genre of photography gives you a great option if there are complications during birth and the baby and parent need more recovery time. Since you don’t have that strict window, you can wait much longer to do lifestyle newborn photography.
Session #7: Smash the Cake Session
Scheduled: Baby’s first birthday
Your little baby is no longer a newborn! They’ve made it to one year and it’s time to celebrate with a Smash the Cake session. Cake smash sessions are extremely fun (and aren’t just for kids! I’ve done a cake smash for someone’s 28th birthday. Puppy smash the cake sessions are also extremely fun). To celebrate their birthday, one year olds will have their portraits taken. After you get some photos of them in their cute outfits, you pull out a fancy cake. They use their bare hands to smash the cake into pieces. Some of it ends up in their mouths. Most of it just ends up all over them. All of it is super cute!
Budgeting For Your Birth Photographer
Pregnancy and childbirth are expensive. Sometimes it’s just not possible to cover all the costs you incur as a new mom or dad and get all the photography you want. A great way that we help new moms and dads is offer gift certificates for our photography services. When you put together your baby shower registry, you can include a link to our e-gift cards. That way your friends and family can contribute towards capturing these incredible first steps into parenthood. Photographs of these special moments are the one thing that cannot be replaced. Giving birth photography as a gift is an incredible way to show someone your support and love.
Consider booking your photography sessions with Still Poetry Photography for your Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York pregnancy and birth. Delaware moms (and dads!), send us an inquiry today!