‘Natural style’ newborn photography | Cornwall

If you’re expecting a baby, you may be considering a newborn photoshoot.

When you begin looking into photographers in your area, it can feel a bit overwhelming. Not only there so many to choose from, each have their own style, way of doing things, pricing structure etc.

The most important thing to look for when you want to hire a photographer to capture your newborn is their style. This is an individual preference and comes down to personal taste. This time only comes around once, so you’ve got to love the images you end up with. Going a newborn photography style you like will make all the difference.

Styles of newborn photography

Some photographers specialise in traditional, posed newborn photography, which is highly skilled and takes a long time to perfect. These are all about correct angles, finely tuned positioning, and require babies to be very fast asleep in most cases. Done correctly, these baby photos are exquisite and heart melting.

Then you’ll spot the more ‘relaxed’ style of photos, which we refer to as ‘lifestyle’ photography. Some photographers specialise in completely documentary style, which takes remarkable skill and talent as well, capturing something completely candid in the moment. Again, done well, these will give you all the feels.

My style and approach falls somewhere in the middle. I call it ‘naturally posed newborn photography’ - not overly posed, but crafted - using the light, textures, colours and positioning to evoke the type of emotion that is being felt.

Natural style newborn sessions in Cornwall

When you bring your baby in for a natural style newborn session with me you will already have received some general prep info and most likely we’ve talked through the details so that you arrive feeling relaxed and confident.

When you look at my portfolio and social media, you can see that there is an aesthetic that runs through my work. For natural style newborn photography in particular, I tend to keep things simple, white, with subtle textures.

Keeping things simple

Your baby won’t have to go into a deep sleep for me to photograph them - as long as they’re content I can create a beautiful gallery of your baby, just as they are.

If your baby does sleep during the session, I will pose him or her either wrapped up on her back, or lying on her tummy. You might even be offered a ‘prop shot’ - baby lying in a basket, basically!

But if your baby doesn’t sleep, I love capturing the various expressions and beautiful moments of eye contact that sometimes happen. Also, there is plenty of opportunity to bring parents in and to really capture the real emotion and connection between everyone.

A typical ‘natural’ newborn photoshoot in the studio - meet Kody!

Kody arrived at his session wide awake, but fairly calm. We popped him straight onto the beanbag for some initial alert shots. I will usually begin a session like this.

At this stage, when you’ve just arrived, I’m using this time to gage your baby’s mood, and level of tiredness/hunger etc. Also, each baby is different and this is the first time I’m meeting them - it’s my ‘getting to know you’ time.

Sometimes they drift off to sleep and the session flows, or they get niggly, and it’s time for a top up feed.

Kody was tired but hungry, so when he began to grow unsettled was given to his mum for a feed. He didn’t settle immediately so I handed him to dad to do a bit of winding and rocking while mum changed. This is usually a good time to get some photos with one or both parents - when they’re comforting their baby.

Don’t panic

Many first time parents become a little stressed if their baby doesn’t seem to be settling, fearing that it’s all going wrong. It’s not! This is what newborns do!

The advantage of my natural style newborn photography approach is that I want to be capturing the real moments too, and not trying to get a perfect happy picture. The session doesn’t come to a halt while we wait for your baby to calm down (unless this is needed!). So many gorgeous shots are captured while parents attend to their baby.

Sometimes when we don’t know why baby isn’t settling, it’s a process of trial and error to figure out what will help, but babies will pick up on stress in the room so it’s really important that we remain calm.

There is no plan!

Kody did settle, after another lengthy feed (plenty of time is allowed - there is never any rush). I wrapped him up like a cocoon and just worked slowly through some shots of him, with his mum and some family shots.

At this point, it is typical of me to feel like I’ve got enough shots, but while baby is so settled and asleep we may as well try one more thing. Because he was so beautifully asleep it seemed a shame to have to finish and wake him up so I grabbed my beautiful nest from All Newborn Props and popped him in there.

He stayed asleep for a few shots and then as I began unwrapping him he woke up, so we ended the session there.

Sessions usually end when it feels natural to do so, which is normally after about 1.5 hours.

Last shot!

Because I struggle to stop, I suggested before we dressed him that we took one last shot in his daddy’s hands. He was quite squirmy and unimpressed but I did manage a very quick snap of him looking cute, before getting dressed and back into the car seat ready to go home.

This is a fairly typical newborn shoot - some unsettled time, some peaceful time, and occasionally a little snooze. Baby was comfortable and well attended the whole time. The studio was warm and cosy, he was fed whenever he needed a top up, and mum and dads hands were close by whenever he needed that bit of extra reassurance.

For me, it is important that you enjoy the experience, even though I know for some parents they are still in the overwhelm of feeling totally clueless and anxious.

Read more about what goes into preparing and shooting a newborn session with me in my previous blog post 'behind the scenes of a newborn session'

Natural style newborn sessions are offered in my studio in Truro, Cornwall, or I can come to your home. Natural style newborn sessions can even happen outdoors. To enquire or book get in touch - I’d love to hear from you.