Babys First Milestones.
By now you probably know all about sleepless nights, messy nappies and endless piles of washing!
If you were among the many of the unfortunate parents that had your baby during the lockdown and were unable to have a newborn portrait session then all is not lost! Although disappointing please do not despair.
Babies that are now 3 and 4 months of age are an ideal age to photograph.
In fact, the sessions that I have had so far have been so good I am wondering why on earth we as photographers avoided this age all of this time?
I thought I would share a few pros and cons of this age. You will be happy to know that there are definitely more pros than cons!
In the first year, babies have many milestones that can be ideally captured and three to five old babies I have discovered are no exception.
Age three months is a lovely stage as babies are now giving lots of eye contact, smiling, and laughing. They can hold their head up quite well and with the help of lots of tummy time they can very briefly hold themselves up in a mini push-up style pose. They can lay in on their back and grab at their feet which makes extremely cute photographs. They haven’t yet developed any stranger anxiety which is also a bonus.
They are still very much a baby and if you missed getting a newborn portrait session then three months is the next perfect time for you.
At this stage, if we are lucky we can even get some natural sleepy shots once the ‘awake’ shots have been done. Mums especially love it when baby tires and they gently and naturally drift off to sleep enabling me to gently position them to get beautiful sleepy shots that they think they have missed out on. There is something very beautiful and peaceful beautiful about a baby sleeping.
Baby portraits at three months.
Baby portraits at four months.
Age four months babies have started to reach for things, hold things in their hands, grab and even roll.
Four-month baby portraits again is still a great time to photograph baby.
Something to think about is that some babies may have started teething. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem at this point for photographs. Plus at this age, you are now able to rub some teething gel on their gums and if the baby is showing signs of discomfort baby can have something for the pain.
At four months babies will respond well to songs and love to play games like playing peek-a-boo. We are able to get lots of interactive shots of baby with parents which are simply beautiful and a firm favorite with families.
Baby portraits four months plus.
I would advise the next best time to organize your little ones’ photoshoot is the sitting up stage. There is a gentle and natural order to a baby’s ability to develop as they grow in the first year. It is important for your baby to be sitting up securely for the sitting-up session. This can be anywhere from 5 months to 10 months, sometimes a little later. Please don’t worry if your baby doesn’t seem to be hitting all the milestones at the same time as everyone else’s baby. All babies develop differently. Once they have mastered sitting up all babies are naturals in front of the camera
at this stage.
Serious or smiles every single expression that they do is incredibly cute plus they are completely safe. No toppling over!
Sitting up securely can be reached with lots of tummy time this can be started for a few minutes every day from as early as two weeks. This will help strengthen trunk stability and also help develop the muscles in the upper body.
Each step in a baby’s development is a gradual but important process for the next step and each stepping stone is a huge accomplishment not only for baby but for parents also!
This is why it’s so lovely to capture these stages with a photoshoot. Each milestone in the first year can be captured and frozen in a photograph so that will never forget these tiny yet magnificent milestones.
Before you know it your baby will be celebrating its first year on earth! The first year goes by in the blink of an eye. As soon as you have a baby it really does seem as if someone has their finger on the fast-forward button. The first-year portrait session deserves a whole blog on its own as there are so many ways to celebrate to mark this very special occasion.
If you would like to see more types of shots that we can get with sitting up babies please click HERE.
To learn more about older baby portrait sessions please get in touch. I would love to chat.
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