I have been a newborn photographer for many years now. When I did my first newborn training course back in 2013, I was taught there is only a short window of time to photograph newborns with the best age being 2 weeks old and under. As time has gone on, I have come to realise, this is simply not true.
I will say, that I do still advise my customers to book their newborn session within the first 2 weeks of birth, however I am more than happy to take bookings for older newborns as I would never want parents to miss out on the opportunity to have beautiful images of their babies, no matter how many weeks old they are.
There are a number of reasons why parents may have missed that early window of time and in the current situation, that reason is mostly due to lockdowns.
After the first lockdown in 2020, my newborns that I had to reschedule, were all up to 14 weeks old by the time they had their session, with the eldest being 17 weeks old. I have to say that I really enjoyed the challenge and loved the gurgles, the smiles and seeing their little personality shine through. Very different to a newborn session, as for early newborns we need them to be sound sleep to be able to pose them but with an older baby we can do more simpler posing and they can be awake or sleeping. With a newborn session we may spend a lot of time soothing and feeding little one because if they are not sleeping, I can not achieve sleeping newborn poses.
Age 4 weeks old 
Age 10 weeks old 
Age 6 weeks old
Age 14 weeks old 
Other reasons why you may need to schedule a newborn session later on is because mum or baby may need a longer time frame to recover. This is very common and no problem at all. I always admire the mums that come to me when their baby is less than 7 or 14 days old. You ladies are a real life superwoman. I’m pretty sure I spent the first 2 weeks or more in my PJ’s on the sofa, breastfeeding and crying. This is completely normal too for those who feel like getting dressed is the biggest chore in the world.
If this is your first baby, it is most likely you had no idea what age is best to photograph newborns and message a photographer to book once your little has arrived. This just means there may be a little wait until I have a slot to fit you in. I like to advice all mums to book ahead in advance to avoid disappoint. I am very flexible with the date you book as we all know it is completely unpredictable to know when your baby will make an appearance. I usually pencil in a date 10 days after your due date and then we keep in touch and move the date if need be, once little one arrives. I do not photograph little ones late afternoon as I always find they never settle as well as they do in the morning. I will book you in for the morning or 12pm at the latest. A newborn session can take up to 3 hours and an older newborn session can take up to 2 hours.
What to wear?
So before lockdowns hit us, all of my outfits were for tiny newborns. I now have a few bigger items now for older babies but I also do still do some nude if you are happy to and also some wrapped poses. Wrapping up babies or swaddling them if you prefer to call it that, is a great way to settle babies. It gives them the same comfort they had being curled up in the womb. I do understand that some mums love a nude shot and some prefer them just dressed. It is completely your decision. If you can bring any plain baby vests or grows, that would be great. I would avoid outfits like big dresses, jeans, shirts and bow ties, keeping it simple works best for babies. Please feel free to have a chat with me about outfits and we can plan in advance to make sure we have everything we need.
If you would like to have some family and or siblings shots taken, which I do always encourage, I always advise to try and dress coordinated with either the same colours or tones that compliment each other. Again try and keep it simple and remember these are going to be displayed on your walls at home so don’t wear something that may look out of place on your walls at home. Keeping it simple means the images will look timeless in years to come. It is so important to me that you feel completely happy and comfortable before and during your session. We can chat on the phone to discuss your session before hand to ensure you feel happy and prepared.
I look forward to hearing from you and booking in your session. If I can answer any questions please feel free to fill out the contact box.
Charlotte
https://photographybycharlotte.co.uk/contact/
Age 17 weeks old 
Age 17 weeks old 
Age 10 weeks old 
Age 10 weeks old
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