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knoxville newborn twins photographer
Come and be here in the present moment,
Come and be reminded of all that is beautiful and true.
All the things fear wants you to forget.
-Morgan Harper Nichols
A beautiful morning with this precious family seeing them live fully present in this season with their new baby girl. Blessings to you McCafferty family. <3
“There are divine things, more beautiful than words can tell.” - Walt Whitman
Time spent with this family is time well spent. I first met them when they brought their twins home and I’ve been fortunate to see them blossom into a beautiful family. It does a heart good to be around families that love each other in a deep deep way, and these are those people. Congrats Noll fam, you guys are such a wonderful family. <3
Several years ago when I started my business, my very first official client was a newborn session. I was instantly hooked. There is nothing like the time with your baby especially in those early groggy days. I mean, yes, there is the utter exhaustion and sleep deprivation but the flood of emotions during that time is palpable and I LOVE to photograph it. It's been a while since I wrote a blog post about how I approach my newborn work and I thought it was time.
I've always considered myself a lifestyle photographer when it comes to newborns, even in the beginning. That can mean different things to different folks so let me explain. To me, it means our session is done in the comfort of your own home and we focus on your natural interactions together. That doesn't mean I don't pose you or direct you into beautiful light, I definitely do. But the magic in the image all comes from the real emotion that's happening between you and your family.
As a mother of 4 myself, there's no denying that my work is heavily influenced by my own family and the photographs of my children and myself that bring me the most joy. These are usually the ones where I can see things the way they really were. How we loved each other, the way a lip curled when my daughter cried, how my son beamed when he got to hold his sister(or not, haha), the way a father smells the head of his new daughter, a mother's embrace. These are the images that stir me and these are the images I want you to remember and see of your own family.
When it comes to portraits of your newborn, I love simplicity. In my opinion, newborns are just perfect on there own so I definitely think less is more when it comes to any kind of props for your session. Besides a few neutral wraps and swaddles, I rely totally on things in your own home to incorporate into your session. To me, this makes your session even more personalized.
For your baby's portraits, I focus on baby led posing in a more natural set up like the bed, their crib, a rug, the couch, etc rather than a more formal set up with a backdrop. I used to incorporate some of this into my sessions but over the past few years I have come to realize it's not my strong suit, nor are these the images that feel true to my style. In addition to baby led posing for individual photographs of your baby, one of my favorite ways to take portraits of newborns is in Mama or Daddy's arms. Babies are always more content close to one of their parents and I personally feel like it adds another element of emotion which makes the photograph more meaningful to you over time.
Another aspect of my newborn sessions that is very important to me that I feel like goes without saying is that the entire family(siblings) is incorporated. Bringing home a newborn is a huge change for siblings and photographs of siblings are so important. I always do my best to get portraits of siblings together but I also love getting photographs of little glimpses of what life was like with a brand new baby in the house and the impact it had on your entire family. This is different for every family and I love that about sibling shots!
Last but not least, I like to get a good mix of family shots. I always get the good old, traditional everyone's-looking-shots but those are never my goal at our session. My favorites by far are the ones where everyone forgets I'm there and your true story unfolds.
I hope this was helpful in understanding the way I approach my newborn sessions. When it comes to newborn sessions there is definitely no right or wrong when it comes to photographic style but I do feel it's important to choose a photographer that best suits your family. So, if we're a match, and you're expecting, shoot me an email and we can chat about a session. :)
It is such a sweet honor to me to be invited into a family's home to photograph them as they've just welcomed in a new little one. It's an adjustment for everyone. Finding a new balance, a new rhythm, adjusting to little sleep, sharing mommy, sharing daddy. But my oh my, the beauty that lies within this precious and fleeting time. Inevitable growth and immeasurable grace. What a gift. Thank you Noll family for trusting me to capture these sweet moments for you. Blessings!
This family. Oh my goodness. I just love getting to photograph them. Their newborn session is still my absolute favorite. You can see that here. So, I was so excited to photograph them for their one year pictures. I love shooting clients at home. It is just so relaxed and comfortable and I always feel like it shows in their images. Thank you so much Noll family for letting me photograph your beautiful family again! Enjoy these sweet photos...
Happy Mother's day to all of you sweet mama's out there. In honor of Mother's day, I wanted to share some of my favorite images of mothers that I've taken for clients over the years. Enjoy! Now go call your mama and tell her you love her! :)
I am so excited to finally get to share my new heirloom albums I am offering to clients. Finally! I have wanted to offer these for so long but have gone back and forth for forever over the perfect album. I am not a sales person. Like, not at all. I will forever be all inclusive in my pricing because I always feel like my sessions tell the story of your family and I want you to have every single image! But I also want my clients to have the option to purchase beautiful professional prints and products to perfectly display the images I've created for your family. That's why every client get's an online gallery to purchase prints and canvases and now ALBUMS! Can you tell I'm excited? I mean, ya'll, they are gorgeous. They come in a variety of leathers and linens and are available with these gorgeous cutouts to display one (or 3!) of your favorite images from your session. My press printed albums are flush mounted on ultra thick pages so your images can span across the spread without being split at the spine. They are so pretty! I love having digital files to share with family and friends but in years to come, you probably aren't going to pull out your computer and go through all those files. However, you will pull an album off the shelf and cuddle up with the ones you love and flip through it remembering how little your newborn was or how funny your children were when they were toddlers or how you felt during your labor and delivery and the first time you held your baby. I think these are the perfect way to have a beautiful heirloom of your session to share with your family for years to come. I am completely in love with them. Can you tell? ha! So, have a look for yourself.
Since today is the last day of 2014 I wanted to do a post compiling some of my favorites from client sessions this past year. What an amazing year this has been! I am so thankful to have had 80 sessions this year with 51 individual families. I had originally intended to do a post of each type of session I do but ran out of time so none of my maternity clients are featured here but you can see them here in a post I did on Monday. Thank you all so much for allowing me to come into your homes, get to know you a bit, and capture these beautiful memories for each of you to treasure for a lifetime. I love my job and it's because of you all that I am able to do it. I almost get emotional looking at all these photos because I know that each and every one is a real story of love and family. Thank you again for trusting me with your memories! I know this is LONG but I just couldn't pick a few favorites! Enjoy!
And here's one more for good measure with one from each and every session I did this year! Thanks so much for being a part of it and I can't wait to see you in the new year!
I love to photograph newborns. I especially love to photograph newborns and their families in their own environment at home. It's just so beautiful. I love getting to catch little adoring moments between father and son, mother and daughter, mother and father. I love hearing dad give sweet comforting words to his new little one while he changes their diaper and getting to sneak down the hallway to catch that little moment. I love talking to new mamas about this new life they've entered into and all the joys and struggles that accompany it already. When I think of my newborn photography, THIS session is exactly the way I always envision it. But enough about me....
Meet Townes and Etta. Born a month ago today. Brought into this world at 39 weeks by their incredibly strong mama, DRUG FREE! That is a feat with one baby, but two!? I was in awe of her. It is truly something to be proud of. I had the best time spending an afternoon with this precious new family at their session. These babies were so much fun to work with and their family made my job super easy with their good looks and incredible style. Enjoy these precious photographs of this beautiful family. Congrats Nolls!
More to come from this sweet session!
I love photographing newborns and their families. Although I always get sweet individual portraits of the new babe (or babes in this case:) ) my style of newborn photography is really focused on the whole family and capturing connections and details of this special time in life. With that being said, I had the opportunity to meet a family last week who just welcomed twin boys into their home! This was my first time photographing twins and I was so excited! They were perfect little angels and big brother was such a ham! Congratulations Cavender family! Enjoy this BUSY and wonderful time in the life of your family!
If you more of my recent newborn sessions you can see that here. And if you are interested in booking a session, you can contact me here. Looking forward to hearing from you!
