NEWBORN FAQ’S

We try to schedule newborn sessions in for the first 6-21 days of baby’s life (exceptions for preemies as their dates are adjusted and for babies in the NICU or for Covid reasons). After this time newborn tucked and sleepy posing is still achievable, but baby’s tend to like to stretch out more so there may be less sleepy poses.

We can still achieve beautiful baby portraits up to 3 months therefore any baby booked in under 3 months old is considered a newborn and will have newborn type of posing including family connection type of posing. All poses may not be possible when they are older than 21 days old but we know we can create gorgeous imagery for you and your family that you will cherish for years to come.

All newborn sessions take place Monday – Friday at 9am. Your session is tentatively booked into the schedule based on your due date when you officially book by paying your session fee and we schedule the actual session when baby is born. We ask that clients contact us within 4 days of their baby’s birth just to let us know that baby is here and well and we will let you know of a few date options in our client calendar that you can choose from.

We recommend booking your due date into the calendar when you are in your 2nd or 3rd trimester to ensure a spot is reserved for you in the month surrounding your due date. We only book 6 newborn due dates into the calendar each month to ensure there are a couple of dates for you to choose from. By booking early we can start planning your session in advance and ensures we have the colours you want on hand in the form of props, outfits, wraps, hats, headbands, etc.

*Please be aware that our new bigger studio is located down a set of stairs so our studio is not wheelchair accessible. If you are wanting a posed newborn session in your home we can recommend a photographer that can come to you and create beautiful portraits using your own home as a backdrop.

Upon booking your session you will be given a contract to fill out and sign attached to your session fee invoice. Please read the contract and let me know if you have any questions at all! Once you have paid your session fee you are agreeing to the terms of the contract. The contract talks about Canadian Copyright laws, expectations on turn around time, etc.

Congratulations! Baby is here!! YEAH! We are looking forward to meeting him or her and seeing you soon! If you could contact us when baby is 4 days old (or earlier if you have time), even if baby is still in the NICU we would appreciate that (if you have time). It let’s us know that we should put aside days between a certain timeframe for you to choose from.

If we don’t find out baby is here until the 2 week mark, we will most likely not have space available until the 3-4 week mark for your session to take place. The earlier you tell us the easier it is for us to help plan and the more date options you will have to choose from.

We know that babies can sometimes have to go back into the hospital for a few days, especially in the case of Jaundice. That’s totally fine and sometimes we have to reschedule the newborn session. That is to be expected, and we will have dates set aside following the original session date for this contingency. Baby’s health and safety and that of Mom if she has to go back into the hospital, is our first priority.

Once you have chosen your date, we will ask you for the baby’s approximate weight now or at birth so we know the approximate size and can pick the appropriate sized props that will fit your baby’s length and weight.

Below you’ll find some great information on how to prepare your baby for your newborn photography session as well as what to bring. These are tips that we have found have helped parents prepare for their session so baby is as happy and sleepy as possible to get those sleepy images everyone loves. Please do what is right for your family.

– Keep baby awake for 1-2 hours before the session takes place (if baby falls asleep in the car that is perfectly okay). Giving baby a bath is a great way of keeping them awake and helps get rid of any oily hair that they may have from parents brushing hair with hands. But please do not put oily/shiny moisturizer on baby as it creates a shine on their skin under the studio lights in portraits. Babies all have dry skin and we remove most flakes as part of our regular editing process. If you would like to keep all the flakes be sure to let us know during the session.

-Give baby a full feed before leaving your house. This ensures that we can start the session right away upon your arrival. You can give any top ups or full feeds needed while at the studio. We encourage parents to feed baby on demand, which tends to be more often then usual because we will be moving baby around more then when they are sleeping soundly in your arms which expels more of their energy. If you are using Formula please be sure to bring extra with you.

-The studio is warmer then usual because baby will not be as bundled up in outfits as they are at home, and babies can lose their body temperature very quickly. So for their comfort the studio is set around 78-82 degrees and is changed on an individual baby basis. Jennifer knows what signs to look for in babies to see if they are too warm or too cold and will adjust the heat accordingly as every baby is different. Parents will be able to leave the studio and go outside if they want to cool down or need a mask break.

-Please bring a Pacifier with you as this will make a huge difference in if baby will settle into a pose. We always look for hunger cues but if it’s just a matter of fidgeting and they just need that extra comfort for a minute, we would prefer to use a pacifier instead of having to take baby out of a pose to rock to sleep. There is a the preconceived notion that using a pacifier will cause nipple confusion, but that will not be the case in such a short amount of time and often babies will settle with just a little patience. A pacifier is very rarely needed but it’s a good back up to have just in case. Of course this is entirely up to the parent and we never force pacifier use. When baby can’t settle without being held and needs to be taken out of the pose then it just makes the session longer but we still usually get the poses we are hoping to achieve. *We now have individually packaged, pre-boiled pacifiers from a newborn manufacturing company, the same green ones available to family’s at the hospital, available in our studio if you forget yours at home. Again no pressure if this is not something you feel comfortable using as we can work without one.

-If you are breastfeeding and your baby is gassy or has tummy issues please refrain from eating/drinking these items 48 hours before your session takes place: dairy products, caffeine and citrus. This will help ensure the smoothest newborn session possible and are only a suggestion. Please eat and drink what feels right for you. Our own personal experience with Dairy causing huge issues with our son made us aware of how much this can affect them in Mom’s milk.

-Please pack a light snack that you can munch if you get hungry especially if you are bringing little children with you to get sibling portraits and you need to stay with them the whole time because of the distance away from your home. We will keep masks on while not eating or drinking, but I can show you an area that is further away from me where your little one could have a snack if they need it. Please bring water with you as we are not able to provide beverages and snacks during Covid.

-You are more than welcome to take a nap on the couch while you are waiting or you can watch your newborn being photographed. It is completely up to you. We do ask that at least one parent stays for the duration of the session.

-We have sanitized toys for older siblings to play with if they need to stay for the duration but it’s always a good idea to bring something they like to play with quietly or read.

-Please bring a mask and a backup mask. Masks must be worn at all times unless I have let you specifically know that you can take it off for your family portrait at which point it should be put back on right away when we are finished taking that portrait. Masks must be worn by all people older than 4 years old unless there is a sensory issue. If you are unsure if you can wear a mask for a long period of time then we recommend you purchasing the 10 Image Newborn Portrait Session where it will take less time to photograph and you’ll be out of the studio quicker. You may take mask breaks at any time outside on the porch. We are aware that masks mandates may end at the end of March or April 2022, our studio masks mandate will stay in place unless otherwise stated.

-If you have something small you would like to include like a rosary, bible, heirloom toy, moccasins, blanket knit by Grandma, etc they are welcome to be included.

-If your baby is being circumcised please contact us so we can schedule your session before or a week after it takes place so it has time to heal. Often freshly circumcised babies cannot do poses on their stomachs and do not like to be wrapped.

-Safety is our #1 priority and we will never do a pose that we think puts your baby in harms way. If you are wanting a specific pose and you do not see it in our portfolio please get in touch with us during the planning process to see if we are able to accommodate your request. Poses we specialize in can be found in our online Newborn Portfolio found here.

-Please bring extra diapers with you and wipes.

-Please bring baby dressed in a easily removable snap up or zipper onesie pajama (nothing that gets removed over their head). This will ensure that we can keep baby asleep when I undress them at the start of the session. Extra blankets on their feet when coming from the car should keep them nice and warm without having to have a puffy coat on.

-There is always a chance that we have to feed baby in the middle of the session. If baby is already undressed we often will let Mom nurse baby or a parent bottle feed baby when baby does not have a diaper on and we wrap baby in a receiving blanket. Sometimes accidents happen so it’s a good idea to have a spare shirt in the car in case baby decides to pee on you. A badge of honour 😉

-We have a family styling guide we will send to you to help you prepare for what you are going to wear to your family portion of the newborn session. We recommend neutral colours for children’s clothing so that the focus can be on the connection between siblings. In the end your portraits are your own, so if you love bright bold colours for your outfits please feel free, especially if your outfit has a cultural importance – those are the best kind of outfits and will make your portraits more personal.

Pre-Covid the answer would have been the immediate family of your newborn baby and grandparents if they were also getting portraits taken as part of the set choices. In the midst of Covid we have changed how our sessions function and so that also includes no Grandparents or outside family members, Nannies or friends that do not live with you. We ask that you help us keep the number of people in the studio as small as possible so that we can all safely socially distance to protect both of our families. Parents of the newborn baby, the newborn baby’s siblings IF they are getting portraits taken and that is all. Any one else that comes to the studio will unfortunately have to wait in the car. When siblings are done getting their portraits taken then they are welcome to be picked up by a grandparent that is part of your bubble or to leave with one of the parents while the other one stays behind. If there are no sibling portraits being taken then just the parents of the newborn may attend. Exceptions would be in the case of a surrogate Mother who is still nursing your baby or if you require extra help taking care of siblings because of your C-Section (in which case we normally recommend waiting until 2-3 weeks after your surgery before coming to the studio so you can heal a bit first). Please let me know if you have another exception that needs to take place.

The day before your session you will need to screen your family to see if you have any of the following symptoms that could be related to Covid as outlined by the Government of Ontario:

-Fever and/or chills -Temperature of 37.8 Celsius or higher

-Cough or barking cough (croup) – Continuous, more than usual, making a whistling noise when breathing, not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, asthma, post-infectious reactive airways)

-Shortness of breath – Out of breath, unable to breathe deeply, not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, asthma)

-Decrease or loss of smell or taste – Not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, allergies, neurological disorders)

– Sore throat or difficulty swallowing – Painful swallowing, not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, seasonal allergies, acid reflux)

– Runny or stuffy/congested nose – Not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, seasonal allergies, being outside in cold weather)

Headache that’s unusual or long lasting – Not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, tension-type headaches, chronic migraines)

-Nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea – Not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety in children, menstrual cramps)

-Extreme tiredness that is unusual or muscle aches – Fatigue, lack of energy, poor feeding in infants, not related to other known causes or conditions (for example, depression, insomnia, thyroid disfunction, sudden injury)

-Have you or a member of your household traveled outside of Canada in the last 14 days?

-In the last 14 days, has a public health unit identified you or a member of your household as a close contact of someone who currently has COVID-19?

-Has a doctor, health care provider, or public health unit told you or a member of your household that they should currently be isolating (staying at home)?

-In the last 14 days, have you received a COVID Alert exposure notification on their cell phone?

If you answered yes to any of these questions please contact me right away to discuss rescheduling. This unfortunately is the world we live in and we need to make sure both of our families stay safe and the babies that come to the studio to see me.

-In return, I promise to you and all my clients that I will screen me and my family every day for these symptoms and answer these questions to the best of our ability. If I feel that myself or a family member could be compromised I will contact you right away to reschedule. There are no penalties in rescheduling your session due to illness, and we promise we will still be able to create gorgeous portraits of your child no matter when we see you in the studio.

When you arrive at the studio in Odessa, Ontario you can park in the driveway and bring baby’s car seat and diaper bag inside. All clients will come inside the home masked and use the hand sanitizer provided at the front door and remove their shoes inside the foyer and hang up their jackets and make their way downstairs to our NEW bigger studio. You’ll notice that our renovations are not fully complete (we hope to be done soon) as we’re still paint on our ceiling and in our bathroom but you’ll find a comfy and inviting couch to relax on and put your bags near by. I’ll use hand sanitizer again and we’ll take baby out of the car seat and I will take baby to spot near by to undress him or her.

You’ll notice tape on the floor that indicates the location I will be in and location you can be in to watch the session take place. I will let you know when you can come into the designated space in the case of needing you to spot baby if I need to walk away to adjust a light (baby is never left alone). The Designated Space is to help us have a visual clue as how far away 6 feet is from each other. This green tape space is new as we have found even with the best of intentions clients have appeared directly over my shoulder less than 1 foot away and as we are in a pandemic we have had to come up with this system to protect Jen’s health and the health of parents. You will be close enough to watch everything just not within elbow’s reach anymore unfortunately. We hate to enforce this new rule but it has become necessary as each client has different comfort levels when it comes to Covid safety precautions.

Jen will begin by taking baby out of their snap up or zipper onesie pajama (like discussed in what to bring above) so that we can keep baby calm and as sleepy as possible. Jen will work her way through a workflow of baby sets and poses, changing positions based on baby’s cues (if they don’t like being on their belly for example) and will let you know if we need to stop for a feeding if baby is giving feeding cues. If we are taking parent and or sibling portraits we will start with those first, otherwise we will work our way quietly through the poses and sets Jen has created based on your chosen colour palette.

When Jen is done she will pass baby back to you fully dressed again (after requesting a new diaper if needed) and you’ll be able to put baby back in their car seat and make your way home. You should expect to be in the studio from 1-3 hours long depending on how sleepy or upset baby is. If baby comes fully fed we can start right away and stop in the middle of the session if we need to feed or feed baby before you leave. Newborn Sessions are from 9am-1pm Monday-Friday. If you would like a weekend spot please add $200 to your creative fee and ask about availability as spaces are limited and are on a first come, first serve basis.

After our session together, I carefully curate the images to show you the very best from our time together. You will then be able to see your Private Proofing Gallery online within 2 days of your session date. We believe that you will love your experience with us even during Covid!

Once you receive your online proofing gallery link and password you may share the link with your family to get their advice as well. Remember that the images will not be edited, so you may see flakes, scratches, red or jaundice skin, missing blanket corners, and even sometimes my socked feet when I take a portrait from above! All of these will be edited out after you choose your favourites for me to edit. Take your time, there is no rush even though I may check in from time to time. I know it can get busy with a new baby at home!

-Once you have chosen your favourites to make up your chosen package I will send you an invoice with the balance remaining. Once your balance is paid I will add your images to the editing queue. Depending on the time of year it can take 1-4 weeks for your fully retouched portraits to be returned to you. Our busy editing period is between August-October so it can take 3-4 weeks during this time of year.

Once your portraits have been edited to perfection they are uploaded to Dropbox and a link is provided to you so that you can download your portraits straight to your computer. We recommend saving the images to multiple locations (your computer, the cloud, an external harddrive) as technology can change and it’s safe to have back ups in case of a technical failure.

Jennifer is here to help if you need expert advice on wall art sizes and she will also have samples of different sizes available to see in person. Purchasing additional products is completely up to you. To learn more about the products available go to the Product Page.If you scroll down the page you will find information about our different digital packages as well as all of the different set choices we offer.*Payment plans are available for all product purchases. Payments can be made by Visa or Mastercard through Square, or Email Money Transfer to info@jenniferwillardphotography.ca once you have received your invoice asking for payment.

Payment plans are available and you are able to pay off portions of your package before your proofing gallery becomes available. Some clients like paying a little bit each month if they booked far enough in advance so that the amount isn’t as large while on Maternity Leave. Feel free to discuss the different options with us. We are here to help!

Yes! We offer both of those! You can add our name to your Baby Registry or in your Baby Shower invitations and guests can contact Jen for a gift card to give at the shower.

Gift Certificates can be purchased as a group to pay for the whole newborn session package or certain denominations towards your session total.

Because a newborn session can be a big investment we would highly recommend only purchasing the full amount of the session as a gift or making sure that the parents are for sure getting portraits taken in our studio and your gift certificate is going towards that total amount.

We’ve had instances where a small gift certificate was purchased as a lovely gift but the parents were not able to pay for the remaining balance of the package. Be sure to let family and friends know that you are getting portraits taken in our studio.

Contact Jen to make arrangements to receive a gift certificate before attending a baby shower.

You can see a variety of sets we’ve created in the past based on a client’s chosen colour palette on our portfolio.

We will choose the number of sets based on the collection you choose when booking your session into the calendar. The sets may be a combination of these: baby in bucket, baby on bed, prop shot from above, family portraits, sibling portrait, parent and baby portraits, grandparent portraits (not available due to Covid), flower bed, baby details like hands and feet, flokati rug, blanket shots, etc. You can learn more about our newborn sets here.

If you see a specific shot in our portfolio that you would like in your session please let me know and we’ll try to duplicate it as much as possible in your chosen colour palette.

We are big fans of colour coordination and love when multiple portraits from a session can seamlessly go together when creating a gallery wall of portraits.

We encourage each client to choose between 2-4 colours to create a cohesive look. We take the colours you choose and incorporate them into each set up from the blankets we choose to the wraps, outfits, hats and headbands that add texture and interest to each set design.

Sometimes we take a colour you choose and create a monochromatic set where we layer multiple textures but the same colour to add more visual interest.

We are always coming up with new ways to use our props so each baby session is unique. We update our carefully curated selection of high-end props so that you have access to the newest trends the newborn photography genre has to offer.

We look to the design world to see what colours are hot right now in home renovation and nursery designs to help anticipate which colour trends we may see in the future.

We have a great selection of colours to choose from no matter what you decide. Currently we have over 80+ blanket colours, over 120+ wrap colours and over 125+ hats, headbands and outfits to compliment any colour palette you could choose. If we don’t have your colour, we start our search for props that fit with what you are looking for when your session is pre-booked before baby arrives.

Not much of a colour person? Do you prefer neutrals or earthy tones? You are in luck! We are fully stocked with neutrals of all shades and with half of our clients choosing neutral colours we can create gorgeous sets to meet any of our clients needs.

Check out more Colour Inspiration by going to our Colour Palette page which we will send to you upon booking your session with us.

Covid Policies

– Just the immediate family (parents, siblings if it’s a newborn session) of babies are welcome to the studio during their child’s session.

– All people older than 4 should come with a face mask and must have one on the entire time. Masks will be removed if you are in a portrait and then put back on afterwards. If your child has sensory issues and cannot wear a mask please let us know prior to coming to the studio so we can take extra precautions by wearing a face shield with our mask.

– If you or a family member are sick, please reschedule your session with no penalty even if it’s 2 hours before your session is supposed to take place. And we appreciate your understanding if we need to do the same because Jen is sick or her family members are sick.

– If you or a family member are waiting for a Covid test result or know that you have come into close contact with someone who has tested positive in the last 2 weeks and you are isolating please reschedule your session. We will afford you the same courtesy.

– We ask that all families be honest and transparent in terms of their health and we promise to do the same.