Awake Newborn Photos | Older Newborn Photography | 50 Day Old Gurellahi | Kingston Portrait Studio
How sweet is this little one that came into the Kingston Portrait Studio recently to have her newborn photos taken. Gurellahi was 50 days old when she came into the studio and we were fortunate enough to get some sleepy portraits but mostly wide awake ones. And that’s okay! Newborns are only really sleepy in those first few weeks of life and we always speak to our clients about changing our expectations for their newborn photographs if their baby is older than our usual under 21 day old sessions.
What you can expect with awake newborns
The expectation needs to be that we will try to get those sleepy portraits but there is no guarantee and that wide awake portraits of your new baby is just as beautiful! I mean look at how gorgeous she is and don’t you love seeing her big wide eyes?
I think it’s so fun to get wide awake portraits as they are full of different expressions and arm and leg movements and Gurellahi was no exception to this. She had the funniest expressions with her mouth, she’d pucker up or smile or give a little half smirk. It was wonderful to see and document! She is still so little and we love that Mom and Dad knew they wanted to capture this special time in her life.
Often times photographers will not take on photographing babies older than 14 days old, for many reasons including less experience with older ones and how to handle those awake portraits and while yes, they are a bit trickier at this age and you may not get those curled up sleepy poses you see with one week old’s, your baby still deserves beautiful portraits at whatever age they come into our studio.
Some babies are much older when they come in for their newborn photos because of long NICU stays or for cultural reasons. Whatever the reason we are happy to welcome all babies of all ages into our studio and we hope that you can be assured that we will create beautiful portraits of your little one that you will love.
I wanted to share with you how much her parents loved this wide awake portrait of Gurellahi and picked it as one of their favourites. She was able to move her arms around and her little toes as you can see and I patiently waited until she was in a great position to get this newborn portrait and she happened to give this fun look to us! She’s awake but just perfect, isn’t she?
NEWBORN POSES YOU’LL LOVE
I especially love blanket portraits like this because it really shows each babies personality and we often capture wide awake portraits that are close up too so you get a wide variety of poses to choose from in your private proofing gallery. You can see some of the pose options for blankets on our Newborn Set page. The pose I helped Gurellahi get into is called the Huck Finn Pose. It’s funny how these things get named as the newborn photography community is actually a lot smaller than you think thanks to the internet and Facebook. So the photographer that started dubbing it this is a worldwide educator and teaches others how to achieve this pose.
THE MOST POPULAR COLOUR CHOICE FOR NEWBORN PHOTOS FOR A GIRL
I also loved that her parents chose our pink, cream and white colour palette which you can find on our Colour Palette Page as it’s one of our most popular choices for baby girls, and has been for the last 3 years! Definitely a client favourite! We paired my favourite pink blanket and wrap, which are so soft to the touch with this fun pink floral headband from one of my favourite photography vendors who handcrafts each piece and it really adds to the overall monochromatic feel of the set.
BABY LED POSING FOR WIDE AWAKE BABIES
When dealing with a wide awake baby and/or an older newborn, we start in the pose we want but let the baby lead us to how they want to settle, which works out to unique individual poses for each baby based on the original pose. Newborn photography is such a fun and evolving career and over the last 12 years I’ve perfected what works best for me and my clients in my studio. Expertise in posed newborn photography takes time, dedication and patience, which I’m thankful to have.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about photographing wide awake babies in our Kingston newborn portrait studio and how with a little bit of flexibility, proper expectations and allowing baby to lead the way during a session you can have beautiful newborn photos of your little one that you will just love!
Jennifer Willard Photography specializes in Newborn Photography in Kingston, Ontario. Awake Newborn Portraits with older newborns can be challenging but often local photographers will send older newborns to Jennifer as she is known as a baby whisperer. If you have an older newborn baby and know you want beautiful portraits of him or her please get in touch with us to book your session today! We usually book out 2 months in advance but leave a few spots open for last minute bookings each month. Go to the contact page to book your session with one of Kingston’s best newborn photographers.