How to prepare for a documentary newborn session

A documentary newborn session is different from a traditional newborn photoshoot, as it aims to capture truly candid and natural moments of your newborn's first few weeks of life. Here are some general tips to help you prepare for a documentary newborn session:

1. Find a photographer: Look for a photographer who specializes in documentary newborn photography, not lifestyle or studio photography. Check out their portfolio to ensure their style aligns with what you are looking for. - Congrats you already found me!

2. Schedule the session: As with traditional newborn sessions, it's best to schedule your documentary newborn session during your pregnancy to ensure availability. However, with a documentary session, the photographer will work around your baby's schedule, so there is more flexibility. - When you book during your pregnancy I use your week 41 date just as a placeholder on my calendar that almost certainly will be shifted once baby arrives. You can still book a newborn session after baby is born though!

3. Plan the session: Discuss with your photographer what you want to capture during the session. Make a list of important moments, such as feedings, diaper changes, and snuggles with family members. Decide if you want the session to take place in your home or another location. - I will send you a short questionnaire after booking that will ask you what important parts of newborn life you’re hoping to have documented.

4. Prepare your home (sorta): If you're having the session in your home, prepare the space by lightly decluttering and ensuring there is enough natural light. Your photographer will likely want to use areas with the most natural light. - I also invite you to just leave the mess! Or task your partner or a helpful family member to prep your space for you! You have a newborn and this is all about real life! Embrace it!

5. Keep your baby comfortable: Dress your baby in comfortable clothing and keep the room/home warm to ensure they are comfortable throughout the session. - Babies really are on their own schedule. Feeding, sleeping… it’s all going to happen while I’m there. No need to stress about those details ahead of time. Just listen to baby’s cues during your session as you would without me there.

6. Embrace spontaneity: The essence of a documentary session lies in capturing genuine moments. Relax and be yourself, engaging with your baby and loved ones naturally. Allow your photographer to seize these fleeting yet precious instances. - The joy of documentary means you don’t have to worry about smiling at the camera. Just enjoy your baby and leave the rest to me! If an older kiddo wants to go outside and play while I’m there, lets do it! It’s all about going with the flow and trusting the process.

If your heart is saying this sounds like the perfect newborn session for you, let’s make it happen!

Documentary Photo Session Ideas

With the documentary approach, it’s all about documenting your family’s real life, the little things that make up your day or week that may go by unnoticed or normally undocumented. But you still might be wondering, “What does that actually mean? What should we plan for and what will you photograph?” Below are just a few ideas of moments/events/things that could be part of your sessions.

While we never need to have a schedule for our time together, I hope this list helps you consider the possibilities of things that could be documented during your session! There’s really no limits to what I can capture for you. I become your family’s historian for the day and hopefully future as well.

Maternity/Before Baby:

• Shopping for baby 

• Decorating/setting up baby’s nursery

• Baby shower

• Daily walk

• Cooking with family

• Hanging out with older kids at home or at the park

• Your normal Saturday routine

• Early prepping of food for your family postpartum

• Check up with your midwife (out of hospital)

• Building any new baby furniture (crib, rocker, changing table)

Newborn/Babies:

• First bath at home/general bath time

• Skin to skin time

• Tummy time

• Trying first solids

• Nursing

• Pumping

• Meeting/Snuggling with siblings

• Meeting/Snuggling with grandparents

• Walks around the neighborhood

• Story time at the library

• Snuggles with mom and dad

• Napping with mom and dad

• Playing with extended family (aunts/uncles)

• Morning/Bedtime routine

• First Birthday

Family:

• Breakfast

• Waking up

• Morning routine

• Lunch

• Dinner time

• Bath time 

• Brushing teeth 

• Bedtime books

• Family game time 

• Playing together in the yard/outside 

• Trip to a playground

• Trip to a museum

• Trip to the farmers market

• Trip to the library

• Trip to the grocery store

• Trip to the aquarium 

• Practicing musical instruments

• Playing sports outside together

• Making cookies/treats in the kitchen

• Cooking a meal together

• Grandparents visiting

• Playing with the family pet/walking the dog

• First day with new family pet

• Yard work/raking leaves/planting trees

• Gardening 

• Blowing bubbles outside

• Building legos together

• Building a fort together

• Salmon watching

• Mushroom hunting

• Exploring the beaches and natural wonders of the puget sound

• Holiday family traditions

• Birthday/Family milestone

• Making crafts together

• Moving into a new home

• Backyard camping

• Backyard fire and s’mores

• Backyard movie time

Ready to book your documentary session?

5 Reasons to Document Baby's First Year!

You may be thinking, do I actually need a reason to document their first year? I mean come on! Look at those tiny toes! Well here are a few reasons you may not have thought about and why the documentary approach might be the right fit for you.

1. They change so fast. No seriously they do. If this is your first baby, ask anyone who has older children. That first year, one day you wake up and realize they’ve grown and changed seemingly overnight. You can’t go back in time. By the end of their first year they will be a drastically different small human.

2. You won’t be in the photos you take everyday on your phone. Read that again. Yes, I know you’re taking a million photos of your baby on your phone, what parent doesn’t?? But beyond the occasional selfie, are you in those photos? Will your baby be able to see you and how much you loved them, held them, cuddled them, and perhaps even superhuman multitasked with them, when they are grown and looking back at photos? Documentary photography allows you to get in the frame.

3. You’ll be busy. We all live busy lives, throw in a newborn and it goes up a huge notch. Planned documentary sessions throughout the year allow me to pop in, document, and let you keep on doing your own thing. There’s no outfits to coordinate, location to drive to, or stress of if baby will be in a good mood that day. You get to release all that for the entire year and just be a present parent.

4. The Baby Book dilemma. How many of us buy/bought a baby book for baby’s first year and never finished it? [Raising my own hand.] Think of this as a made-for-you baby book. Highlights from your sessions will all be printed in a book for you at the end of the year. Meaning no homework for you! If you are a journaler, upon request, I can even leave room for you to write notes in your book for each session, milestones that have happened, or things you’d like to remember about that time.

5. Your child will thank you later. Yup. Some day when they are older they will look through the photos taken and get to see YOU and THEM during that first year of their life. If you are like me, those photos of our parents and our family only grow more valuable over time. Not only will you be enjoying the photos as your baby grows into a child, a teen, and then an adult, but they will someday be thanking you for the photos that allow them to see a time they do not remember.

Whether you chose to only document those newborn days or opt for a larger First Year Package that includes multiple sessions throughout the year, you won’t regret having the time documented to relive later down the road.

Ready to document your baby’s first year?
I offer not only a First Year Milestones Bundle but can also customize any Year in the Life package to a First Year in the Life package.

Year in the Life Sessions - 2023 Enrollment

That’s time of year again! Enrollment is now open for next year’s Year in the Life!

If you are a parent who strives to remember the dance parties in the kitchen, the tears on the floor, the warm embrace of tiny sticky fingers, and even the parental multi-tasking master you are at the moment… and at the same time want to be in your own family photos and have them preserved in a way your family can revisit time and time again… you’re in the right place!

How is your family's legacy being recorded and preserved? When was the last time you printed photos or made an album? And more importantly, of the photos you do take of your family, are you in those photos? Will your children be able to see YOU - being silly, being a parent, being your true self - when they look back at your family photos one day?

Each year I craft a yearbook for my own family assembled from photos of our everyday life taken throughout the entire year. And of course, being my family's photographer, I am missing in 95% of the images. I work really hard to ensure I end up in those remaining 5% each year…

What if you didn't have to work as hard as I do each year? What if the hard work could be done for you? You could have your year documented in an honest and true way, a family album created custom for you, and ensure no one is missing from your family photos as well!

These are Year in the Life Sessions where I ensure your own family's story is captured on camera either monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly so you can get back to just being present with your family and know your family’s story will be preserved!

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Allowing more everyday family moments to be captured for the future.

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Year in the Life Packages

I offer three different Year in the Life packages to meet every size, budget, and need. With years of experience as a photographer and countless hours documenting real moments under my belt, you can rest easy knowing that no matter which package you choose, your family is in good hands and your final photographs will be memorable and print-worthy.

Monthly Sessions (12)

Each month starting January of 2023 you’ll have a 1 hour family session.

12 Sessions - $2400

Bi-Monthly Sessions (6)

Every other month starting January or February of 2023 you’ll have a 1 hour family session.

6 Sessions - $2100

Quarterly Sessions
(4)

Every 3 months starting in March of 2023 you’ll have a 1 hour family session.

4 Sessions - $1800

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What to expect

1. Fill out the contact form below to get started. Then we’ll schedule a quick chat to discuss how the entire process works and some ideas of activities or day to day life moments we can make sure to capture for your family throughout the year.

2. Next I’ll send over your invoice and contract to make it official.

3. Once you’re officially on my calendar for the year, you’ll receive a workbook and family questionnaire so I can learn a bit more about your family before your first session.

4. Your first session! Your first documentary family session will take place in either January, February, or March depending on which package you’ve chosen.

5. After each session you’ll view and receive your images in your personal online gallery. As a VIP customer you’ll also have a discount on other printed photo products through your gallery.

6. After your final session of the year you’ll receive a custom 8x8 Handcrafted Family Photo Album prepared just for you.

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Super-parents deserve to be in photos too.

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It’s time to get in those family photos and create a family heirloom at the same time.

Birth of Baby Leland - Empowered Cesarean - Swedish First Hill - Seattle, Wa

I’m so excited to finally share this birth story! It’s a true testament to the fact that YES you can have an empowered cesarean.

This was Kaci’s second birth. She hoped to have a different experience this time around, wanted support, and hired me as her doula. When she made the decision that a scheduled cesarean was the best option for her for this birth, we made sure that every step of the way it was a completely different experience from her first. The hospital staff were all so very supportive and left her feeling completely in control during the entire process. In fact the words, “This is your birth; we’re just along for the ride.” were said to her very soon upon admittance. And from then on it was so very clear that they meant it.

As you’ll see scrolling through, this was such the happiest of births. Thank you to the staff at Swedish First Hill that made sure her birth left her feeling empowered.