This sweet baby girl was a joy to photograph at her newborn photography session and her parents were very excited about creating these gorgeous portraits of her as well. I love that our studio is just the perfect size to have multiple sets ready to go and is warm and cozy so that the baby’s coming into the studio can easily feel safe and secure and have a great nap! Miëlle was so sleepy for us and barely made a peep! It is such an honour to be a part of her and her parents journey. I love being able to create gorgeous portraits for them to love for years to come.
Mom had said that Miëlle was a darker skinned baby and she didn’t know if that would affect my sets at all. But of course this is no problem at all! I actually find that darker skinned baby’s have no problems with colours (except on occasion yellow as it can create unflattering colour casts on skin) and that with lighter skinned baby’s you come into problems with the mauve colour as it can be too close in colour to their skin. So I was not worried in the slightest and wanted to make sure Mom didn’t have anything to worry about.
Mom and Dad asked for a colour palette of blush pink, grey, white, and other neutrals if we needed them as well as one set to have a turquoise in it for Dad because he really loved that colour. She also wanted the sets to feel girly, classy and posed with a crown with bling (which we have in our Jennifer Willard Photography (JWP) prop collection) and if we could add in any lace, sparkle or pearls that would be great too! She also specifically asked for a floral wreath set. So with all that in mind I started thinking about ways to incorporate these special requests into sets. Mom and Dad chose the 20 image package so I knew that I would be creating 5-6 sets for a variety of portraits to choose from in their private online proofing gallery.
I’m excited to share with all of you what sets I came up with that reflected their vision for the session and also how absolutely gorgeous Miëlle is (and Mama too!). Enjoy a look at our time together!
Set one is this beautiful flower wreath handmade by me. I have so many different elements in our JWP prop collection to create different looks based on chosen colour palettes. I purchased this new circle basket just a few months ago and it is becoming my favourite prop to use for the prop from above set choice which Miëlle’s Mom and Dad chose. Then I weaved the lighter colour greenery through the holes in the basket and surrounded it with darker greenery to give it that wreath look and feel. I added the blush pink wool for the center and used varying shades of cream and pink flowers in different sizes to create a circle wreath look. I paired the wreath with our cream wood floor and thought the extra detail of the white wrap with the white floral headband would help finish off this beautiful and girly look. Even with all the details in this set, it is obvious that Miëlle is the star and she looks just gorgeous and peaceful laying on this bed of flowers!
Set two was a pretty feminine set with lots of blush pink. Mom and Dad didn’t want any rustic elements used and wanted to make sure it felt girly. I used a white wood crate and added the blush pink flokati fur to give the set lots of texture because I wanted to use the plain white floor drop to keep it more simple. I paired this very dainty blush pink romper that has some lace elements to it with a dainty blush pink headband with a single pearl. Miëlle looked absolutely gorgeous in it and she looks so comfy-cozy sleeping the session away. Mom loved that Miëlle kept kicking her foot out of the crate so we went with it! I think it looks super cute!
Set three was a pink and grey theme with a pink wood bowl and grey wool fluff from the JWP prop collection and we kept Miëlle in her pretty blush pink romper because it has the special detail of being lower cut in the back so you can see all of her adorable back rolls. Don’t you just love baby rolls? They’re the best! I photographed lots of different angles of this set up and Mom and Dad fell in love with this angle where you can see how peaceful she is sleeping but can see all the details of the set.
Set four was created especially for Dad with his love of turquoise. So I paired this pretty ruffled turquoise wrap with a lovely headband that is full of details on a blue flokati rug. I especially like this angle because you can see all Miëlle’s pretty eyelashes as well as her button nose.
Set five is a neutral set with beautiful lace details so that we could capture a classic and neutral pose without losing any femininity. Miëlle really shines on this set and I was able to get quite a few different poses because she was still sleeping peacefully for me. I started her with the pretty blush pink romper in the tuck fin pose (named by a really popular and sweet newborn photographer who created it in the US) and then went through my normal workflow of Side Lying, Bum Up, a variation of Huck Fin in a wrap and Head on Hands. I incorporated different textures in the wraps but still kept them neutral so Miëlle was the star and added some blush pink at the end. Mom was so excited to incorporate a crown into the portraits. She had seen one on my website that actually came from those clients but I had this crown which was just as striking so I was excited to use it on Miëlle. All props again were from the JWP prop collection. She really is beautiful and her parents loved these portraits from this set and I think they chose perfect ones !
Set six was family portraits on our neutral backdrop and I added a linen texture to the backdrop in Photoshop for a little something extra. When posing parents with their baby we start with a family portrait and I let the parents choose from a variety of posing options to see which one they like the best. We usually do at least two variations of both parents with baby together, and then set up two variations of each parent with baby. Go to poses are Baby Lying on Chest like the first portrait below, the traditional Cradle Hold, Baby on their Belly in parent’s arms, Baby’s head in parent’s hands while parent looks down at them taken from the profile side, Baby close up to parent’s face so you can reach to give a kiss on their cheek or have your cheek lying gently on their cheek, and then variations on those depending on how baby is that day. We always do baby led posing with parents because sometimes baby’s love being in certain positions, like on parent’s chest for example, with certain parents while the other parent might always hold them in cradle hold. Baby’s smell their parents and know which one they feel comfortable in for each parent and also are all different sizes and mold into their parents hands in a certain way so no two parent portraits will ever be the exact same. In each parent pose I ask the parents to look down at baby and look at me so clients have many choices in their online proofing galleries so they can choose which expression and pose they love the most! Often clients will choose a variety of looking down at baby and looking up. Our clients love that they have full control over which images they love the most so they get exactly what they love. In this instance, Miëlle’s parents loved the portraits of them looking down at their beautiful baby girl.
We give each colour version of a portrait in black and white as well so you’ll see variations of that below. I absolutely love black and white parent portraits so I wanted to share what they look like with all of you!
It really was my honour to create these portraits of gorgeous Miëlle and her parents. I think they will enjoy them for many years and Miëlle will look at them and be amazed at how small she was in Daddy’s arms. I’m looking forward to seeing Miëlle when she turns 6 months old for her complimentary sitter session and I wish her an incredible year of firsts!
All my best,
Jen
If you would like to have gorgeous portraits of your little one like sweet Miëlle then we would love to hear from you! You can use the Become a Client page on our website and find more information about newborn photography sessions and our packages available on our Newborn Photography Session Details page. We look forward to hearing from you!
