Milestone Photo Sessions for Your Baby’s First Year
The Most Important Milestones to Photograph in Your Baby’s First Year
If you read my blog often you’ll probably recognize this sweet family! (I’ve photographed them ten times before). It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Perkins family: Amy, Chris, Ferris and Edison. I've been photographing them since 2017 when Ferris was born. This session was focused on Edison's one-year milestone.
Milestone Photo Memories:
Have you seen that documentary on Netflix called Babies? (I’d recommend it, it’s truly fascinating!) The film reports that in their first year of life, babies will grow faster than in any other time in their life.
As if it didn’t already feel like it was going by in a flash – now science is backing this up!
And yet, I can believe it – when my clients come in for a newborn session and see photos of six-month-olds in my gallery, they are shocked to realize how much growth awaits their baby just in the next few months.
But when everyone’s saying how quickly it goes by, I want you to focus on this instead: Slowing down. Soaking it in. Preserving it. Savouring it. It’s when you slow down, breathe in the baby smell, take mental images and write things down that you can make memories so the moments will last forever.
Have You Experienced This?
I can remember running into this situation a lot when my children were babies: seeing someone for the first time in a couple months, and predicting the look of shock I’d see on their face when I’d lift my baby up to show them... and 3-2-1 –
“Oh my goodness you’ve gotten so big!”
“I can’t believe how much she’s changed!”
“You’re growing so quickly!”
Like clockwork. Every time. And secretly – I LOVED it. It was so fun to see my child through a fresh set of eyes for a minute and to feel such pride and adoration for my baby.
But as a mom, when is the last time you got to gaze at your child from this kind of distance? To experience this kind of amazement? It’s hard to notice their growth when you are with them all day every day. This is where I believe the routine of baby and family photography sessions can help; at Reflections of Life Photography, I’ll help you slow down wherever you are right now, and take delight in this moment of your baby’s growth. And even more? Having these photos that track their first journey around the sun will allow you to experience the pure amazement of looking back on them in weeks, months and years from now and wondering, how on earth were you ever that tiny?
You'll notice they brought a necklace from home with a lightbulb pendant to represent her name, Edison. How sweet is that!?
Your Fail-Safe Baby Photo Timeline:
As a mother myself, who has photographed growing families and their children for over 15 years, I have found this timeline to be really helpful! It will help you capture the most pivotal moments of your baby’s first year:
Maternity – at 32 weeks, your growing baby bump will be the perfect shape and size to be photographed! Often many of my clients use this opportunity as part of their “Baby-Moon” experience for the whole family, soaking in their last weeks as the family they have been before a whole new character changes their story forever.
Newborn – an exciting opportunity to welcome Baby into the world! We’ll capture the perfect tiny features of your new baby with swaddled poses, close-ups on hands, feet, lips and of course, lots of snuggles.
At three months old – it’s tummy time! Working these muscles is the foundation of many development stages to come. For some lucky parents, this stage is called the “enchanted months” because Baby is now in a rhythm of sleeping and eating, making them relatively happy, smiley and predictable. Their smiles also become a lot more intentional at this stage, especially when they’re proud of themselves for rolling over from their tummy to their back – oh, my heart. Priceless.
At six months old – it’s Baby’s first sitting photos! (This also means adorable baby-bum shots when they can sit down with their backs facing us and then turning towards the camera.) These poses really add a new dimension to your photo collection as we move on from swaddles, cradling and floor shots to more action, like grabbing toys, reaching for Mom’s arms, or sitting in a chair. We’ll also capture them on their backs, reaching for their new favourite things – their toes! The big smiles, giggles and coos are abundant when they visit my studio at this stage.
At nine months old – watch out world, Baby is on the move! Let’s capture him or her in motion while they crawl in the wide-open studio space, climb over pillows, chase their siblings at lightning speed on hands and knees, and play with toys. I’ve got a plethora of fun, beautiful ways to encourage just that right amount of playful mischief for some extra-cute smiles.
At one-year-old – happy first birthday Baby! Some babies are ready to stand, and some babies are ready to take some steps when they visit me again for their first birthday. No matter where they’re at, we’ll celebrate the achievements you’ve seen in this first year of their life. I’ll bake a cake to add some festive joy as we watch them celebrate, clap, and maybe even bounce to music! (And we can give them a cute bubble bath afterward to clean them up).
Setting up child or family photo sessions for each of these stages of development will allow you to capture an array of firsts in your quickly growing baby, and leave just enough time in between for you to be mesmerized by how much they’ve grown since last time.
Of course, every baby is different and will develop in their own time but it is so fun to see and really take notice of the week-by-week changes in your baby during their first year of major milestones. These days will one day be some of your best memories.
While capturing the Perkins family over the years, we’ve held photo sessions in the studio, like Edison’s newborn session and 6-month sessions, and outdoors for Amy’s maternity photo session. Every stage of your family is unique, and we can embrace the kind of scene and feel you want in each new chapter.
What a joy it is to travel with Edison and her family from maternity, newborn, 6-months old to her first steps.
Good Memories are Good Feelings:
What are your good memories? The ones that bring up the strongest feelings of happiness, peace, fun and love?
Summer vacations?
Christmas festivities?
Friday night pizza dinners with your family?
Saturday morning cartoons and Eggo waffles with your siblings?
Summer camp friends?
Sleepovers at Grandma’s?
There’s a good reason why so many of our best memories are traditions. Part of the joy of doing something is soaking in the nostalgia of all the times you’ve done it before, and wondering where you’ll all be when you get to do them again (especially if they’re traditions you had as a child that you’re now repeating with your family as an adult).
I think the best memories are the ones you get to look forward to milestone by milestone, year after year.
For so many of my clients, milestone photoshoots of their children are a tradition their whole family can look forward to. Their children get to know me and become so comfortable and confident in front of the camera. Moms love getting pampered and taken care of in my studio before their photos and of course – Dad loves watching his family so happy and excited. It’s magic.
What Makes a Good Memory?
As a mother of four, and a photographer of over 15 years I’ve become quite an expert at creating good memories – and making them last. Want to know my secret recipe?
There are three steps:
Setting the stage for beautiful moments
Preserving the memories well
Reveling in the memories afterward
Step 1: Setting the Stage for Beautiful Moments
When you have your photos done with Reflections of Life Photography, you know you are walking into a space that has been curated especially for your family’s happiness. An open, comfortable space to relax and move around in. And here’s the best part – you don’t have to lift a finger! Because I take care of your hair, makeup, wardrobe (and coordinating your family’s wardrobe too) the only thing you’ll have to do is simply soak in the good times! I will prompt your family through some poses when necessary, but mostly I’ll create situations and scenes to capture naturally. I have beautiful wooden toys, soft comfy furniture, lovely children’s books and fun little props (like big white feathers) to spark some true joy!
I have designed my studio to be the kind of place where joyful, picture-perfect moments happen. It’s my happy place, and I hope it can be a place of peace, presence, simplicity and joy for you too. I’ve written about some ways you can make this photoshoot day with your family special before and afterward too, in simple little ways.
Step 2: Preserving Your Memories Well
Once you’ve experienced the joy of creating the memory, I’ll help you hold onto it as a chapter in your family’s story.
It is one of the greatest honours of my life to be your family’s memory keeper as your family story unfolds month after month, year after year.
As your trusted family, newborn and baby photographer, I really believe that the way we keep our memories matters.
You don’t deserve to have all your precious memories buried in an iPhone photo album, thousands of photos deep, but rarely looked at, remembered or cherished. Our memories can only bring us joy later if they’ve been preserved well today.
I want to provide you with photo prints in gorgeous frames so you can hang them on your walls and see those faces every time you leave the house for work. When you have a beautiful handcrafted photo album to place on your coffee table, you have something for your mom to flip through when she comes over. You can pick it up on a Friday night ten years from now when you’re all playing cards. And it will be there for you after a tough day when you need happy memories to go back to, and be present with for a while..
I transform your memories into heirloom works of art so they aren’t just another photo that never escapes your phone – but one that is created with the intention of enjoying it regularly (maybe even setting the tone for the kind of moments you want to keep creating on a daily basis).
“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it”
Step 3: Reveling in the Memories Afterwards
And of course, because you’ve created a beautiful moment, saved it with artful intention, you will get great joy out of looking at them for years.
The first time your photos are ready we’ll sit down together to enjoy in your Image Reveal session. When you bring them home to your family, you can all enjoy them together (over a perfect evening of hamburgers on the barbeque, a family photo reveal, and watching Madagascar for the 25th time?)
When your family sees their photos for the first time, take a step back and watch them take in the photos. Watch their eyes light up when they see themselves. See which ones make them laugh. Pay attention to which ones they want to keep flipping back to. These are all clues, telling you something about what kind of moments and feelings each of your children is drawn to.
The reveling in beautiful memories can have such an important influence on our sense of belonging, and learning to recreate moments in our life that bring us happiness.
Mom Brain:
Now you might be starting to think, “Karen, all this talk about memories sounds really nice … but in this last week I feel like I have lost 50% of my brain function --
I can’t remember what day it is
I can’t keep my kids’ names straight
I canceled an appointment saying I was sick, but I actually just couldn’t find my car keys. I found them 3 hours later in the laundry basket.
The struggle is real. Don’t worry, it’s not just you, I too have stood in front of the refrigerator for the fourth time in one day wondering why on earth I walked over there.
But I would have to agree with this article in the New York Times that says Mom brain is really an adaptive survival technique, that helps us focus on the things that matter most and shift priorities from the way we used to exist.
This is also why I want to help you make a story, a collection of photo memories documenting the most important milestones in your children’s lives so you can focus your incredible, amazing Mom brain on just being present for yourself and your family. You can rest easy knowing that you have stunning pictures to enjoy no matter how quickly these days go by.
The Things Moms Remember During Baby Photo Sessions:
And here’s one final thought about remembering.
It’s not just the photos that help us remember.
It’s the act of creating the photos that help us remember.
When you have been supported and taken care of in my studio, getting your hair and makeup done, having someone style you and your family’s wardrobe … you will be able to see your children with fresh eyes.
Simply observing. Just adoring them. Just remembering what it is to be full of wonder, self-discovery, innocence and unconditional love like our children are.
In fact, maybe kids are our best teachers because they are constantly reminding us of the parts of life we’ve packed away as we learned to survive adulthood:
Listening to our bodies
Asking for help
Being curious about the world around us
Being fully, physically and emotionally present to the moment
Not comparing ourselves to others
Being proud of ourselves … even delighting in ourselves
Being unabashedly affectionate
Being free from the little criticisms and self-doubts that keep us playing small
They remind us that these are the paths to that true, authentic feeling we’re all really looking for.
“All grown-ups were once children, but only few of them remember it”
Let the kiddos come, let them show up just as they are in the stage they are in so we can remember what it’s like to be that authentic and true to ourselves – and we’ll preserve it for you, and for them to cherish for years to come.
Conclusion:
It is such a beautiful experience to have a collection of photos from your child’s first year, that summarizes their journey throughout the major milestones:
Maternity
Newborn
3 months (tummy time)
6 months (sitting)
9 months (crawling)
1 year (standing and walking)
What an incredible journey to showcase for your children one day when they’re older. So they can see themselves through the adoring eyes you have, and always will have for them. I can help elevate the keeping of your family’s story with natural studio lighting, handcrafted linen heirloom albums, and prints to showcase on your walls.
Let’s document your family story together. Book a session today!
About This Beautiful Family
Traveling with the Perkins family through maternity, newborn, 6-months and 1-year milestones has been a true joy! Their family has developed a beautiful bond through each new stage, and now they have photo collections documenting each chapter of their family journey.
First Year Wall Design
You can also tell your family’s story with a wall gallery like this. We can design it with a combination of maternity, newborn, six-month, and one-year portraits. If you want to create something beautiful like this for your home and family, message me. I'd love to give you more information on booking a portrait session here at Reflections of Life.
Client Testimonial
"From the moment you walk into the studio, Karen makes everything wonderful. She makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. She's full of such positive energy it pours throughout the entire session. We just had our second photo shoot and we love being there and can't wait to go back." - Amy Perkin
If you’re expecting a new baby, connect with me. I highly recommend that you book your portrait session in advance to save your spot. 😊
Want to shop the studio wardrobe?
Hi there, I'm Karen! I am obsessed with newborn baby yawns, giggling kids, and jumpsuits. I'm a mama of four who understands the busyness of everyday life. I've learned to love and enjoy it through lifestyle photography. I know what it’s like to look back on my children’s first years and feel like they flew by so quickly. I don’t want any other mamas to forget what their baby’s little fingers and toes looked like all curled up. My hope is that I can help you create albums and prints to serve as physical reminders of these sweet times throughout your baby’s early years. Contact me for info.
