Lyla’s mum, Charlotte, contacted me via e-mail at the end of July, to book her daughter’s newborn session which was meant to be happening in September. We exchanged a couple of messages and I was pleased to find out that Charlotte had quite clear idea as to how she’d like her daughter’s photos to look. She had attached a few examples of the photos she had seen on line and liked.

“Just had chance to think about the type of photos that we like. We are happy to have some photographs with props and dressing but we do really like the simple poses.”

I usually have most of my clients letting me choose everything when it comes to their set up, and I absolutely love creating those, but it’s a breath of fresh air to meet a mom, who has a clear idea of how she’d like her baby to be photographed. It was nice to see the photos Charlotte had attached, as all of them put full focus on the baby, with no distractions. They were all edited in black and white and simply beautiful. I started my research!

One of the most amazing newborn photographers in the world right now and one of my personal favourites is a young lady based in Florida, called Bethney Backhaus. She has built her career and her style on simplicity. Her photos are baby centred and lack props, with 50% of her editing done in black and white. Her style allows your baby to shine through, and be the star of the show, instead of being buried in a pile of props, which may or may not be “in fashion”, when our kids are old enough to appreciate their early photos.

I signed up for Bethney’s online training to learn more in order to meet my client’s expectations, which turned out to be one of the best investments I have made. She has converted me. Less is definitely more. I still love my colourful setups and will be offering those with most of my sessions, but I will certainly be adding more of the simple, natural poses, because at the end of the day what we want to remember years from now, is our baby. Not the beautiful, little rompers, as cute as they are. We want to see the glimpses of personality, already visible in their early days. If your baby likes to stretch, I will photograph them stretched as well as posed. If they would rather curl up into their womb position, I will photograph them like that too. They are the star of the show, and who am I to argue with the stars! 🙂

Little Lyla came to see me at one week old, accompanied by her beautiful mum and grandma. At the beginning, she was quite content, happily posing on my beanbag, but after a couple of hours, her patience ran thin and she decided it was time to snuggle up to mum’s boobies and stay there indefinitely. Fortunately, Charlotte is not a quitter, so we decided to reschedule for another day. It was a great decision, even though Lyla wasn’t impressed with this turn of events, we managed to capture a couple more gorgeous photos with her mum and grandma. Here are some of the images from our sessions:

Lyla’s lovely grandma has been present during both sessions, so we couldn’t just let her off without having at least one picture with her gorgeous granddaughter, especially that Lyla is her first grand child! Congratulations grandma! xx

If you are interested in having your newborn photographed, please book as early as possible, to avoid disappointment. The best time to have a newborn session is between day 4 and 10 after your baby is born. For more information, e-mail me at maggie@dinkyfeet.co.uk