When I first started in my photography journey, I never thought I’d take newborn clients on. For starters, the only newborn photography I’d ever really seen was ultra-posed with studio lighting and as much as I love little ones, I was not comfortable wrangling a tiny newborn into some of those unnatural (albeit, impressive) poses. So, I wrote off newborns as a “never gonna happen” business endeavor. Only…all my maternity clients started having their babies and some of them wanted a more true-to-life style when it came to their newborn sessions. They wanted to remember their baby’s nursery, they wanted to remember what it was like to be home with baby the first couple of weeks, they wanted that in-home feel so, I figured: let’s do this. Instead of learning how to pose the newborns like traditional newborn photography, I thought why don’t I let the baby lead, instead?

Thankfully, the McCarty family was totally on board with this strategy. They just welcomed the newest addition to their family, Jack and I had the distinct privilege of taking his first few photos. Jack was cute as a button and really, really tiny so the idea of twisting his little body into traditional newborn poses gave me hives. Thankfully, his mama was into the true-to-life newborn posing style so I didn’t even really have to touch this little guy, I just let him take the lead and I documented all his cuteness.

It had been a somewhat stressful delivery for mom, so an in-home session was the perfect setting. I personally love the fact that you really only need one corner of your house picked up for newborn sessions because honestly, who has time to clean the house when you’ve got a new baby on your hands? (Well, Mel’s house was pretty spotless but she’s a unicorn so…) Anyway, I’d met the McCarty’s when they scheduled a maternity session with me, and do you know those people who you meet and just fall in love with instantly? That’s the McCarty family. They are warm, kind, and simply a joy to be around, so any excuse to see them again was a great excuse for me.

Here’s just a little sneak peek of Jack’s in-home newborn session.

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I want to hear from you!

Do you like traditional newborn photography or are you more inspired by the true-to-life newborn posing? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to hear your thoughts.

xo,

Jess