As you know, I am primarily a wedding photographer. I love weddings and shooting couples is what I feel most comfortable with. Occasionally you may see a family or maternity session here and there, sometimes even children. Children, not babies. I have avoided photographing newborns like the plague. I’m not saying newborns are a plague, but I have always been terrified of photographing them. I tried it once a loooooong time ago and it was just a situation I was not comfortable with. It may sound weird to you, but I get more stressed/anxious when I’m about to shoot family/children photos than I am before shooting a wedding. Weird, I know.

Anyways! I decided to finally get out of my little comfort zone bubble and try shooting newborn photos. However, I had some rules for myself: it had to be outside (preferably a dreamy location, of course), I didn’t want to do any of those “froggy” poses or have a baby hanging from a hammock in a tree (you know which ones I’m talking about – don’t get me wrong, those can be super cute, but it just is not what I would want to shoot), and it had to be with my friend’s newborn. My friend, Sam (I’m sure you’ve seen her on here a billion times before), is the most easygoing mom. Ever. I knew that doing a newborn shoot would cause me to be frazzled, anxious, stressed, and basically a big ole’ ball of annoying. So I needed a mom who was going to pretty much coach me through it. Seriously. And she did it wonderfully. She let me put Amy in a crate in the middle of the woods, laying on a chair underneath a huge tree, and was totally fine when we only got about 20 minutes of shooting in. Piece of cake. While I was shooting with Amy and Sam, Paul was with Jeremy and the other 3 kids (can I interrupt and say how much I love this family?? Paul and I had agreed that it’s like we grew up with these kids – when we started photography, they were our first shoot – the two youngest hadn’t even been born! And now they’re so old!! Anyways, I just love them. :)). I love the photos that Paul got so of course, I’m sharing them too.

So, here are some of my favorites from my first (technically second) newborn shoot! :) Also, all of the photos of Amy may look like they were edited differently – I used a variety of my actions because let’s face it, I love playing in Photoshop (actions can be found here) :). Enjoy, friends!!

Isn’t she precious?? This photo makes me melt.

Such little hannies!! (hands – that’s how I say hands in my baby voice)

Such a dreamy location. We’ve been there so many times but it never looked like this!

And on to Paul’s photos. :) JJ is such a little ham.

I know it’s blurry but I love this one. :)

Aww little Luc!!

I am in love with this one!! Paul, you amaze me. :)

Little loves. :)