The Four Most Important Photography Sessions in Your Baby’s First Year

If you ask me to name the most important photography sessions during your baby's first year, I'll tell you there are four.

If you absolutely can't do all four, there are three I wouldn't want you to miss.

But before I tell you which ones, I want to tell you why.

Because this isn't really about photography.

It's about remembering what it felt like.

As I write this, I dropped my oldest daughter off at college just a few weeks ago.

Watching your child leave is such a strange mixture of emotions. It's beautiful to see this person you've raised standing on her own feet and spreading her wings. And it is also incredibly painful to feel your family changing.

When your children are babies, you can't really imagine that day.

Eighteen years feels so far away.

And then suddenly, it isn't.

There is literally no way to get those years back.

Yes, I have thousands of photographs and videos on my phone. But digging through a camera roll trying to find pieces of my children's childhood isn't the experience I want for myself. And it isn't what I want for my clients.

I want the albums.

I want the photographs on the walls.

I want to know exactly where the memories are when I need them.

And looking back now, these are the four chapters of baby's first year that I would make sure were part of that story.

Maternity: Before You Ever Meet

I believe the story of your baby's first year actually begins before they're born.

There is so much hope in pregnancy.

You're thinking about names. Wondering about eye color. Imagining what this little person will be like.

If you have older children, they're wondering too. They're talking about becoming a big brother or sister. Your family is already changing to make room for someone you haven't even met yet.

There is something really beautiful about documenting that anticipation.

Years later, your child gets to look at those photographs and realize:

I was already there.

They get to see their young mother carrying them. Their dad with his hand on Mom's belly. Their siblings waiting to meet them.

The family story doesn't begin when you meet face to face.

This is the beginning.

Newborn: The Stage That Disappears Almost Immediately

If maternity isn't possible, this is where I would absolutely begin.

There is no other time in your child's life when they will be shaped quite like a newborn.

Their knees tuck into their chest. Their little backs arch when they stretch. Their hands seem impossibly tiny. They yawn with their entire bodies.

And they weigh almost nothing.

I think what new parents don't always realize is just how quickly this particular stage disappears.

Those first few weeks can be a blur. You're tired. You're learning your baby. You're figuring out feeding and sleeping and how your entire life works now.

And while you're trying to keep up with all of it, your baby is changing every single day.

This is why my newborn photography isn't about creating elaborate poses or turning your baby into something they're not.

I want to remember how small they were with you.

How their entire body fit into the crook of your neck.

How tiny they looked against Dad's chest.

How an older sibling suddenly looked enormous sitting beside them.

The photographs I want most are the ones that let you remember what it felt like to hold that tiny body.

Because that version of your child exists for such a short time.

The Sitter Session: When Their Personality Arrives

This may be one of my favorite stages to photograph.

We call it a sitter session because it happens once baby can confidently sit on their own, but before they're really on the move.

I care much more about that developmental stage than an exact age.

This is when those beautiful, classic baby portraits happen almost effortlessly.

They sit with their little legs spread out in front of them, sometimes leaning onto their hands for balance. They're looking around with those enormous, doe-like eyes.

And then they see Mom or Dad.

Their whole face changes.

They smile. They giggle. They interact with you. Their personality is suddenly so present in the photographs.

They're also still deliciously baby.

Those chubby little legs. The soft arms. The round cheeks.

Once babies start crawling and walking, they're moving constantly. Their bodies begin to change and some of that baby softness starts slipping away.

The sitter stage is this wonderful little in-between.

They're becoming themselves, but they're still so very much your baby.

And it passes before you realize it.

The First Birthday: The Cherry on Top of the Year

And then somehow, they're one.

The first birthday feels like the cherry on top of the entire year because you aren't only celebrating your baby's first birthday.

You're celebrating your first year together.

A year of learning their personality.

A year of figuring out how to parent this particular little human.

A year of changing nap schedules just when you thought you finally had them figured out.

By now, they may be standing. Some are walking. They're interacting with you in an entirely different way than they did even a few months earlier.

I love beginning first birthday sessions with beautiful, simple portraits.

I want photographs of your child as they are at one.

And I want photographs of your family loving on them.

Cuddling. Snuggling. Tossing them into the air. Getting those enormous belly laughs that only Mom or Dad seems to know how to find.

Then, if you want to celebrate with cake, we finish there.

I keep cake smashes very simple. A beautiful little six-inch white cake is enough. It's small enough that we can still see your baby's face and simple enough that it doesn't become the subject of the photographs.

The baby gets to steal the show.

We let them touch it, taste it, squish it between their fingers and make the inevitable mess.

It's fun.

But more than anything, it's a celebration of how far all of you have come in one year.

What Should You Wear for Baby's First-Year Photos?

I approach styling these sessions much the same way I approach newborn photographs.

Simple. Soft. Natural.

I love neutral colors and beautiful fabrics like cottons, linens and soft knits. Whites, creams, flax and subtle tones photograph beautifully in the studio.

I don't think babies need big outfits, elaborate dresses or little bow ties to make a photograph special.

They're already enough.

I want the clothing to feel like something your family could genuinely wear while curled up together at home.

Think about a slow Saturday morning.

Everyone is piled onto the couch under a blanket. Your baby is tucked into you. Maybe you're kissing their cheek or they're reaching up to touch your face.

That's what I want you to bring into the session.

You don't have to perform. You just have to show up ready to love your child.

I'll take care of the rest.

If You Can't Do All Four

I understand that four professional photography sessions in a year is an investment.

If maternity photographs aren't possible, I would prioritize the three stages after your baby arrives:

newborn, sitter and first birthday — but honestly, maternity is one of my favorite sessions to shoot!

This is one of those investments whose value is difficult to fully understand while you're making it.

At four years old, you'll look back and barely believe your child was ever that small.

At ten, those chubby sitter legs will seem like they belonged to another lifetime.

And someday, you may be standing in a college dorm helping your child make a bed that isn't in your house anymore.

I can promise you that the amount you spent creating the photographs won't be the thing you're thinking about then.

You'll simply be grateful that you have them.

Don't Let the First Year Live Only on Your Phone

This is the part I feel differently about now than I did when I was a younger mother.

Print it.

We all take thousands of photographs on our phones now. I'm grateful for every one of them.

But I don't want to have to search through 30,000 images to find my children's childhood.

I want to walk through my home and see it.

Maybe that means a few small framed photographs that change over the years.

Maybe we create a gallery together and continue adding to it as your family grows.

Maybe each year becomes an album and eventually you have a beautiful little library of your family's story.

Maybe your first-year sessions become one album that takes you all the way from that hopeful maternity portrait to the baby sitting in front of their first birthday cake.

I want your photographs somewhere you can pore over them.

Because when your children are older, you don't only want to remember what they looked like.

You want something that takes you back to what it felt like to be their mother then.

The weight of that newborn against your chest.

Those chubby sitter legs.

The way they reached for you.

The way all of you fit together before your family changed again.

I know now, nearly two decades into motherhood, how much I want those years back sometimes.

I can't have them back.

But I can hold the story in my hands.

And that is why I photograph the first year.

ABOUT REESE & CO PORTRAITS
Reese & Co Portraits is a Denver portrait studio specializing in maternity, newborn, milestone and family photography. Photographer Laura Esmond has been photographing families for more than 25 years, creating thoughtful, artful portraits designed to live beyond the screen.

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