A lot of mum's ring me for a newborn photoshoot when their babies have already been born.
I am often asked when is my baby too old for a newborn shoot?
In an ideal world a newborn portrait shoot should take place before 2 weeks of age. At ten days to two weeks, babies have already become a lot "straighter" then they were all curled up in the womb, cartilage is already hardening to bone. They no longer like to have their legs tucked up, or their hands and arms swaddled.
Not only that, they are more aware of their surroundings so if you are moving them around or using a flash light they tend to want to know why and stay awake. Even babies that "sleep all day" according to their parents can spend three hours awake at a photoshoot.
However, some success can be gained with babies older than 2 weeks, dependant on the baby. For example a bottle fed baby will sleep more heavily. A premature baby may be five weeks in this world, but not yet due to be born, so very sleepy.
Here are some examples of different aged babies and what might be acheivable...
This baby was three weeks old. We got lots of lovely wide awake shots, but she did eventually sleep...
This baby was only 5 days old, so it's not unusual to get wide awake shots from them either...
This baby was 5 weeks old and slept all the way through...
This baby was four weeks old and refused to sleep for the whole four hour shoot, however being a third baby she was early to smile, so we had great fun and giggles too...
This baby was 8 weeks old and just came for a one hour shoot...
So you can see no baby is predictable, Yvonne will do the best she can for your baby and your portrait shoot.
