Clarkson at 7 Months! | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Well, my little guy has hit the big 7 months! He’s sitting up so well, and juuuuust on the verge of crawling. He wants to do it so badly, but the coordination is not quite there yet. 🙂 I’m betting it’s soon, which means I have a lot of work to do to baby-proof the house. There are legos, game pieces, and ALL sorts of little toys everywhere that will have to be stored away. So, I’m happy with him sitting nice and still for now!

I’ve been excited to share with everyone the new floors that I special-ordered for my studio. I special-ordered them straight from my handy husband, hehe. And he brought them to life. I really love them, and they’re exactly the “look” I want for my brand. I was happy to let Clarkson break them in for me.

Without further adieu, here is my happy little Clarkson!

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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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!

Oh that little smile!! 🙂

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Baby Lliam | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I’m excited to share this handsome newborn boy, Lliam, with you all today. I’m always ecstatic when I get these baby boys who have such great, thick hair and long eyelashes, like Lliam. He is the cutest!!!!!! He came in for his newborn session with his Mommy and Grandmother. It was one of those sessions where I bonded so well with the Mom. So often first time Moms come in and have a million questions about this or that… “is this normal for a baby?” or “what do I do when this happens?” I get it. I was in their shoes at one time too! And I’m glad I’ve been around the block — three kids of my own, and TONS of newborns photographed — so I can help, and I’m happy to. 🙂 Lliam rocked his session. He was awake here and there for some of those fabulous eyes-open photos that I love (and the parents always do too), but I have lots of tricks for getting babies back to sleep, so we got more than enough sleepy shots too. I love how they turned out. Here’s Lliam!

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Baby Konrad | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Sweet little newborn boy Konrad was in my Wake Forest studio for his newborn session way back in June (yes, still getting caught up on posting all these cute baby’s pictures!). He was 13 days old on the day of his session. His adorable parents are Marissa and Brendan, whose maternity photos were so fun, and a few can be found here. Baby Konrad, whose name I just love, was such a great little model and he was just as cute as can be! Here are some of my favorite photos from his newborn photo session!

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Merry Christmas 2014 | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Merry Christmas everyone! I had to hop on the blog today to share my family’s annual Christmas tree photo. So many of you ask me about it each year, so I wanted to make sure I got it posted for you all. This is year number four that I’ve done this portrait, and this year is oh so special, as you can imagine! With the addition of baby Clarkson to our family, we have a new person in the photo. 🙂 He has just begun to sit up unassisted for a few seconds here and there. My husband was slightly out of the frame stabilizing Clarkson every time he started to wobble. I love how it turned out. Just perfect – our family of THREE little boys.

And of course I wanted to share each of the past year’s photos. It’s fun to see how much each of my “big” boys have grown over the years!

I hope you all have enjoyed your Christmas, and I wish you each a fabulous 2015!

xoxo,

Melissa

Clarkson at 5 Months | RALEIGH NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I just had to come on and share a sweet photo of my own baby boy, Clarkson. He just turned five months old yesterday. I’m not sure where these months are going…. he’s gotten to be so big. I’ve been taking a nice monthly photo of him so I can make a first year album for him after he’s turned one. This month, since we’re all in the Christmas spirit at my house, I figured I’d do a fun holiday set-up. And OMG, is he the cutest thing ever, or what?!? I’m just sooo in love with this photo and had to share it with all of you! 🙂 I love this sweet baby! So happy he’s mine!

Melissa is currently booking for Raleigh Durham newborn photography sessions in the Raleigh Durham Cary Wake Forest, North Carolina area for January 2015 and later. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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