Baby Penelope | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I have such a precious baby girl to share with you all today. This is little Penelope, who was such a gorgeous newborn! We did her session at 18 days old, and she did just amazing! I swear I get the best babies in my studio. And the cutest, too! Penelope has an awesome big brother who came in for a few shots too. He was so fun to work with, and really got into snuggling and kissing his baby sister for the camera. We pulled out lots of pinks and creams for Penelope’s photo session, and I must say that the pink really suited her! We got such a great variety of shots — and at 18 days old!!! I never understand when I see other newborn photographers say they absolutely won’t take a baby older than 10 days, or 14 days. I think if you know how to work with newborns and are experienced in posing and soothing, then a 1-weeker is really the same as a 2 or 3-weeker. There’s not much difference from my experience… they’re still bendy and sleepy! Sometimes the 3-weekers are the best sleepers of all of them!

I had too many favorites from Penelope’s newborn session, so I just had to share a big chunk of them! Here she is, the absolutely precious baby Penelope! 🙂

If you want photos like this of your baby, please contact me! I’m taking bookings for maternity, newborn and Baby’s First Year sessions in the Raleigh Durham Cary Wake Forest, North Carolina area. Be sure to contact me early to reserve your space! I’m currently booking for July 2015 and later.

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Baby Emily | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I tell ya, I’m having quite the string of baby girls in the studio in 2015 and I’m really excited about it. Last year was definitely the year of the boys! It’s been so nice to change up the colors and props I’ve been using. Only another newborn photographer can understand the feeling of having a cute new girl hat, headband or various other prop that arrives in the mail and then just sits there unused for several sessions. It’s excruciating! 🙂 So with all these girls I’m finally getting to use lots of cute new props. So satisfying!

Baby Emily was my New Year’s baby and was the first newborn I photographed this year. She has got to be one of the most beautiful baby girls ever. Her hair is just to die for – a newborn photographer’s dream! And she had the perfect amount of squishiness. She was perfect and sleepy at 12 days new.

I get asked a TON what the perfect age is to photograph a newborn. Often my clients think they should get in for their session during baby’s first week. But actually I find them to be sleepier and more peaceful during their second week of life. If you pay attention to baby’s ages on my blog here, you’ll see I photograph most of them somewhere between 10 and 14 days old. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest one is that by this age, babies have had a chance to get into a good feeding routine (they’ve learned to take the bottle, and/or Mom’s milk has come in by then), so they’re typically less fussy and more sleepy. After having photographed newborns regularly for the past five years, plus having had three of my own, I can say this with confidence! My sessions go smoothly 100% of the time, and my galleries are filled with 100+ photos in a wide variety of poses for Mom and Dad to enjoy.

Enough jibber jabber. Here’s a peek at baby Emily’s session!! 🙂

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Clarkson at 8 Months | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

For those who follow along on my blog here, you know that I’ve been sharing the monthly photos I’ve been taking of my own baby, little Clarkson. He turned 8 months old in March, and I (of course) took a couple of pictures of him in my newborn studio. I’ve had fun collecting sweet little outfits that fit the 6-12 month age that the studio is now stocked with. All of the ones you see on my blog are part of my prop collection and available for Baby’s First Year sessions (the one below and the one in his 7 month baby post here are examples, as well as others for girls).

This month Clarkson has started crawling and getting into everything. We had to baby-proof everything – install baby gates and put away all the Legos and the millions of little toys and things that were all over our house. What a task that was! It’s been a few years since we’ve been in baby mode at our house, and I’d forgotten how much they can get into! Clarkson seems so much bigger now, and it makes me so sad that his first year is flying by so fast!

I know I’m a little biased, but how cute is my main man here?!

If you want photos like this of your baby, please contact me! I’m taking bookings for Baby’s First Year packages, and also still offer both maternity and newborn sessions in the Raleigh Durham Cary Wake Forest, North Carolina area. Be sure to contact me early to reserve your space!

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Spencer and Barrett | RALEIGH NEWBORN TWINS PHOTOGRAPHER

My oh my aren’t these newborn twins just the cutest?! These tiny guys are Spencer and Barrett, born back in November of last year. They visited me in my Wake Forest studio for their portraits at about 4 weeks old. They surprised their mommy and daddy and made quite an unexpected early entrance into the world. I’m sure it’s just the first of many surprises these boys will have for their parents over the years! And that’s coming from a mother of boys who has some experience under her belt! Little boys like to keep us on our toes! 🙂 I really love photographing twin newborns. Double the sweetness for sure!

If you want photos like this of your baby, please contact me! I’ve opened up bookings again for Baby’s First Year packages, and also still offer both maternity and newborn sessions in the Raleigh Durham Cary Wake Forest, North Carolina area. Be sure to contact me early to reserve your space!

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Baby Lliam | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Another sweet baby boy to share today! Newborn Lliam was born back in November, and he came into my studio in Wake Forest at an itty bitty ten days old. As you’ll see, he has a gorgeous older sister who is so good with him. I really enjoyed having this family come see me for their baby portraits. And I love the photos we got of sweet Lliam!

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International Contest in Newborn Photography

Wow, I am so very thrilled and honored to share some great news!! A photo of one of my teeny tiny clients, baby Max, was selected in the 2014 Annual International Contest in Newborn Photography as an Honorable Mention! There were so many amazing newborn photos from all around the world entered into this contest held by Child Photo Competition, so it’s very exciting that my photo of sweet baby Max grabbed their attention. This is such an honor for me, and I’m so thankful to the judges!

Here is that photo of precious little Max with his wink and a smile! 🙂

And to view all of the other winners of the International Contest in Newborn Photography, please visit the Child Photo Competition site! There are some beautiful photos there!

Baby Will | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I have another baby boy to share with you all today! I can’t believe the string of baby boys I had in 2014. I had to go back and count up my sessions to see if it was all in my head. But sure enough, it wasn’t. I photographed more than double the number of baby boys in 2014 than girls. I loooove boys (for obvious reasons — since I have 3!), but I sure missed getting to use all my girly hats and headbands, and all my pinks and purples! Thankfully so far 2015 is turning out to be the year of the girls, with my last three newborn sessions all being girls. Just wait ’till those make it to the blog! 🙂

This little guy is baby Will, and he rocked out his session like a little angel. He had the perfect mix of time being awake for the eyes-open shots that I adore (and parents always do too), and plenty of time asleep with cute little poses. Here are a few photos from his Raleigh newborn session!

Melissa is currently booking for Raleigh Durham maternity photography sessions and Raleigh newborn photography sessions in the Raleigh Durham Cary Wake Forest, North Carolina area. Be sure to contact me early to reserve your space!

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Baby Boy Fletcher | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I’m excited to share this sweet little guy with you today. After a really nice maternity break for me, I went back to work in September and baby Fletcher was my first session back. I actually returned from leave just a tad bit early to do his session because his Mommy really wanted me to do it. I did newborn photos for their first child a few years ago, so I always love getting repeat clients and seeing these sweet families again! Fletcher was such a cutie too, I was glad I got to take his session and snuggle with him! Here’s a few of my favorites from his newborn session.

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Baby Rory | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

This little fella was my last newborn session before I went on my maternity leave in July. He left us all in suspense by being born eleven days late. I was starting to get a little worried that *I* was going to go into labor before I could do his session! Thankfully the timing all worked out great, phew! We held his session when I was 39 weeks pregnant… let’s just say I was doing some waddling, and was probably a tad slow. 🙂 Baby Rory was the biggest baby I’ve ever photographed at 11 pounds, 1 ounce. I loved it! He was so squishy and sleepy, and just flat out adorable and perfect. And that reddish hair is just to die for too. Here he is, sweet little Rory!

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Baby Sam | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I hope you’re all surviving the cold temps we’re having here in Raleigh this week. It seems as though winter has finally decided to arrive! It almost makes me wish I were working today so I could have the heat in the studio blasting!

I’m still working to catch up on blogging all of these sweet newborns I photographed before my maternity leave started back in July. This next one is baby Sam, who I met at just 7 days old. I just love the set-ups we did with him. And here are several of my favorites from his session!