Some days I still remember the smell of my little one’s head during her first days of life.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I was addicted to that, addicted to her entirely.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Earlier today I saw her leaving home with her backpack, going joyfully to
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
She’s almost 3 and learning a second language. She’s happy, growing fast like she does since she’s born, she loves drawing and puzzles, she absolutely adores books. She’s becoming a bigger human every second, and I still remember the smell of her head when she was just days old.
I remember how it felt to have her in my chest, fitting there like a little treasure made especially for me. ⠀⠀⠀
She was a baby so little time ago, where did those days go?⠀
Why choosing documentary photography to hold those moments forever
There are many reasons why I prefer documentary photography over all the other types of sessions.
The most important one, at least for me, it’s respect.
I want to be respectful of my clients’ choices, of my clients’ way of living but most importantly, I am respectful of the little ones I photograph.
And that’s something I love about my clients: they don’t force their children to pose, to smile, to wear something they don’t want to wear, they don’t try to hide or disguise the personality of their children, they are proud of those little ones and they want to treasure that uniqueness in images.
With newborn photography there are also other reasons I’d like to mention:
1) The comfort of being in a familiar place and not having to pose and feel embarrassed.
People who choose documentary photography often find traditional family photos cheesy.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t want pictures of their families. They struggle with posing and most of the time, they also struggle when they see themselves in the pictures: some because they have issues with their own image, and others simply feel they’re not themselves in those photos, they don’t feel real.
If this is your case, and you want to be in the pictures of your new baby, this is the kind of session for you.
You will get portraits of your baby, of course, but in a documentary photoshoot you’ll end up holding your story in photos: The sweet chaos of having a newborn which always translate in a messy home (I promise you, it last just a few years and you’ll feel deeply nostalgic when remembering it), the comfortable big t-shirt you wear because you just need to, the unique, unapologetic, beautiful way you and your baby look at each other.
2) The flexibility in scheduling the session (anytime up to a month).
You know,
3) Everyone gets to be in the picture (even your pets!!), and older kids will feel so much relaxed… they’ll actually have a lot of fun!
Becoming a big sibling deserves a whole new blog post. It’s an enormous challenge for our little ones, even for teenagers (you wouldn’t believe how they can feel about that!).
To be part of a respectful photoshoot where nobody will force them to smile, pose, and where they can just be themselves and do whatever they want to do, it’s much more relaxed. And when everything starts to fit in their new role and new life, they’ll appreciate so much having photos that hold such an important part of their story.
4) You’ll feel comfortable, and your baby too.
This is important for women when recovering from childbirth, but also, is important for the baby. This new person who just arrived in this noisy and brighter world feels much more comfortable and safe.
5) You can keep precious memories of how all the things in your life are changing.
Are you worried about your house being too tiny, or that the light is not good enough for the pictures? Do you care too much about the mess you are dealing with and think that you won’t get nice pictures?
Here’s the thing: your house is just an environment where you share life. And that life is what I focus and capture: the connections, the love, all those little rituals you someday will remember without even caring about the size or order your home has had.
And last, but not least: a documentary newborn photoshoot is not for you only, is for your children.
It’s a way to preserve a tangible slice of your story, to pass it down through generations. An opportunity for your kids to see how loved they’ve been since the first second they arrived.
