What is the secret to those cute newborn baby photos?

Everyone loves them, baby in a picnic basket, baby curled up on a blanket, baby in a flower pot.  So what’s the secret?

Three main things!

No 1: The baby needs to be newborn, & by this I mean really young – no more than 10 days old, 7 days old is even better. Why? Because the younger they are the more they sleep & the easier it is to get them to sleep, and they need to be asleep to pose them in those cute poses. Sometimes I get parents coming to me for a photoshoot with their baby three or four weeks old, and while they are still tiny newborns at that age, they are almost impossible to get to sleep – they sense that something is different & will fight to stay awake. That’s not to say we can’t create some lovely cute images but they just wriggle out of these poses.

No 2: Baby needs to be just fed, & by this I mean aim to finish the feed just before the shoot is due to start. I travel to the parents home for the shoot & I always say – leave feeding baby until I arrive and feed baby while I’m setting up the shoot. That way it helps get them to sleep and they’ll usually sleep for at least an hour or so while the shoot takes place. If you feed baby one or two hours before the shoot, they’ll just be thinking about waking up as the shoot gets underway.

No 3: Keep the area/room where the shoot is taking place warm, really warm – 85°F / 30°C. This not only helps keep baby asleep, it keeps them warm if we’re creating those cute birthday suit images