3-Week-Old Baby Sleeping Like an Angel

Isn’t she just the sweetest thing you have ever seen? The sweetness of newborns never stops amazing me. She was a sleeper, and the last of my Fresh Faces models. I’ve had babies who couldn’t be woken up for love, money or even food and babies who couldn’t be coaxed to sleep even in an 85 degree room with full tummies. That’s one thing you always have to remember about photographing newborns – you just have to go with the flow.

Now this little sweetie was older than I usually like to do newborns; she was over 3 weeks. I like to schedule them in that 4-7 day range as that, usually, makes for sleepy babies who still curl up into adorable little balls. Once they get a little older the shoot can be harder as they are more alert, less, well, bendy and 3 weeks can be a very difficult age as that 3-week newborn growth spurt can result in a baby who wants to eat 20 hours out of the day. As you can undoubtedly tell from her picture she was, despite her advanced age of 3 weeks, quite happy to sleep.

Itty Bitty Sleepy Girl | Connecticut Baby Portraits

I am wrapping up my spring Fresh Faces project and have a pile of neatly packaged prints to take to the post office including some of this little cutie. Isn’t she a sweetheart? She decided to arrive on the scene a wee bit early and as a result was one of the smallest peanuts I got to play with so far this year. You can see her in my Simply Babies gallery too, which I have totally redesigned and refreshed after this winter’s baby rush.

Newborn portraits are such a delight to do. I get to see all the wonder of new life. Sure, I get peed on during most sessions (though not, actually, during this one). And urped on. And now and again I get pooped on, but there is a reason I wear jeans to the sessions and the joy of a little baby is more than worth the many fluids that come out of them. All of which is to say, in the babbly way that lets you know it’s been an interesting day with my twins, that I have the best job in the world.

Little Baby Boy | Windsor Newborn Photography

This little guy came to me for a newborn portrait and decided he wanted to stay awake. I think sometimes people worry too much about getting the baby to sleep, especially since I talk about needing to make sure your house is warm, warmer, warmest for the shoot or the baby won’t sleep. But, really, wide awake babies are cute too. Awfully cute. Yummily, munchably, terrifically cute.

One thing I learned when I had babies – you can’t make a baby do anything. You really have to go with the flow and be prepared to follow the child’s lead. So, though I encourage people to look through both the Simply Babies gallery and the Dreams & Stories gallery to let me know about any specific poses they would like to capture the reality is that some babies don’t sleep soundly enough to hang in a sling, some babies won’t lay their heads on their hands and some babies will shriek in fury if they are draped over an arm. Newborn poses are wholly dependent upon the temperament of the baby. It’s part of what makes your baby portrait special to your family – even in the simplest baby sleeping pose you see the personality and characteristics of this new little person, unique, wonderful and wholly his or her own self, even at 7 days old.

Winter in the Barn, With Tutu

I love this location. There’s a barn, fields, a bridge and animals. It’s also where I’m having my mini sessions this April.

Library Snapshot Week in West Hartford

I love the West Hartford Public Library and so do my kids. The children’s preschool room is truly incredible with fabulous comfortable sofa benches, a train table, doll houses, a puppet theatre, a play kitchen and more along with books galore. My kids ask to go there regularly and along with the basic “free-ness” of the library they also validate parking for the closest parking garage which is great in the winter when, well, I’m not walking the 4 blocks to the library with two three-year-olds if I don’t have to. They getting there isn’t so bad, it’s the getting them back home, tired, overexcited and grumpy, that’s less than fun.

Given how much I love the library volunteering for Library Snapshot Week was a natural fit for me.

The primary purpose of this community-based project is to showcase the library through photographic images. During Library Snapshot Week selected photographers will take pictures of our library, the building, patrons, staff, etc. Of the photos taken, some will be chosen for display in the Noah Webster Library Gallery, on the library website, or used for library promotional purposes, but all for the benefit of the community.

Over 30 photographers participated coming in both one Sunday morning for what I called “still-life day” and then taking pictures through the libraries during one week. Over 1,000 pictures were donated to the library for them to use promoting their services, 20 of which were selected to be hung in a gallery show.

Two of mine are there, including this one:

The exhibit will be up until March 31st and I encourage you to drop in and take a look.

Twins on Tuesday

Guess who was kind of cooperative and who simply wasn’t having it today…

Sweet Sweet Sweet at 1 Month Old | Farmington Baby Photographer

I thought, OK, we’ll try it. I mean, I try to keep expectations low for baby pictures if the baby is getting on in days. You know, by the time you are the ripe old age of 9 or 10 (days) you are starting to find the world too interesting to sleep all the time and, well, without sleep you only get photos like this one.

Of course, that isn’t so bad. I think it’s awfully sweet. In all truth, if I were working out of an actual studio and paying overhead and such I’d be hanging that one as a giant sample on the walls. We had been shooting up in this room for a while and were about to head downstairs to to the “head in hands” shot when big sister and baby brother settled in for a snuggle. I couldn’t resist. And I just love the result.

The head-in-hands is a classic I almost always do. These are mom’s hands; we did a set with each older sister as well for the perfect triptych.

And, despite being such an ancient baby this guy slept like champ too.