Welcome to our 6th edition of stories about newborn photography sessions. This time we will talk about most comment challenges around newborn photography sessions. There are many things which can go wrong, but if you work with experienced newborn photographer, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Let’s dive in.
Newborn photography sessions challenges
#1 Baby is not cooperating and stays awake
Yes sometimes this can happen. Little one is the best sleeper at home, but once you have stepped into the studio, eyes open and very curious looking around. I have set of poses I would do with awake baby and also I have few props which actually look better if newborn is awake. This is why session is normally around 4 hours to ensure that there is plenty of time and nobody is rushed out. Generally there will be a point always when little one is awake, but then in an hour or so newborn would go back to sleep.
#2 Wants to be fed all the time.
Around those 10-14 days newborns normally have a growth spur and it can be more difficult with feeding. If mum is breastfeeding, baby might be on the boob for whole time. There is not much what we can do about this. Sometimes dummy helps or sometimes I would invite family back in few days. It has happened few times and there were few occasions when baby was topped up with formula. Worked very well and little ones could last trough the whole session.
#3 Stay longer in hospital.
Happens very often. I would simply try to reschedule the session for a little bit later time. Latest I have photographed newborn was 5 weeks. You would have mostly awake images, but I would ensure that you would still get a nice set of photos to take away.
#4 Skin problems.
Dry skin, jaundice are very common problems. You shouldn’t be worried about this for the session. Both of the issues are fixable. Depending how much dry skin newborn has I can fix it. Sometimes it can be harder to do it on facial parts, but every case is different.
#5 Feeling sick.
If mum or baby is simply feeling not well or are rushed back to hospital I will do all my best to get you another slot before those 4 weeks run out. Here and there it happens and we just need to deal with this.
#6 Baby arrived very early.
If baby is around 5 pounds or less, I would always recommend to wait a bit till baby gets a bit more flesh on bones. It all depends how rounded baby is. Some look absolutely fine, but for some I would wait around 3 weeks to get some weight on and only then photograph. There was perfect case when baby was just a 20 weeks new and I did little project about it. You can see this newborn photography story here. Of course this would be very extreme case.
Of course let’s not forget about small accidents during the sessions as well :) These actually pretty much never affect the session apart of happening in most unexpected moments :)
Thank you all for coming along and please feel free to look back on our first series of the must know points about newborn photography.
Would you like to find out more about my newborn photography? Please visit my newborn photography educational page here.
