I was so excited for this sweet baby boy to be born!  Little Tate is the member of a lovely and beautiful family.  I absolutely adore his big brother, MJ, and was so blessed to be MJ’s baby photographer for his Raleigh newborn photo session, as well as for his milestone photo sessions at ages 6 months and one year.  So I’ve loved getting to know this family and their adorable babies.  I was thrilled when I found out they were expecting again, and was so happy to do another newborn photo session for them!  I couldn’t wait to see them again, and of course the sibling photos from this session were just SO sweet and beautiful.  Big brother MJ is smitten with his new baby brother!

For baby Tate’s photo session, we decided to use a lot of blues and greys, and also some cream.  The perfect colors for baby boy photo sessions, in my opinion! The photo of him in the blue bucket is one of my favorites.  And the newborn photo of him all curled up sweet on the pillow is right up there among my favorites too.  So many great shots from this session.  I can’t wait to see Tate grow up! He’ll be back to see me pretty soon for his six month photos, and I know he’ll have already changed so much!

If you’re looking for a newborn baby photographer this fall or winter, and you reside in the Raleigh, Wake Forest, Durham, Chapel Hill, Youngsville, or Rolesville areas, please reach out to me!  I have some great newborn session offerings and would love to meet you to create beautiful portraits of your new baby!  All contact links are below.

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Next up on the blog is adorable baby Asher’s newborn portraits!

I was soooo excited to see this family AGAIN! This is their second baby, and I photographed their first baby several years back.  They’ve moved all the way to Virginia, but drove back down to Raleigh with a seven-day-old baby just to get their newborn portraits done with me!  I was thrilled they came back so far just for me! I know it can be hard to travel with a baby, so Mom is my hero!  And big brother has grown sooooo much since I last saw him when he was an itty bitty newborn.  I really love seeing my babies as they get bigger.

Now onto Asher’s baby photography! Asher is such a great name choice, in my opinion.  I think it suits him!  He was so very cute and snuggly.  And big brother was so cooperative and happy to hold and cuddle his baby brother.  This newborn session couldn’t have gone better!  So many great poses, and I think my favorite shot was the “froggy” pose where Asher gave the hilarious little smirk (froggy is the name for the pose where the baby’s head is propped up in its hands). But of course it’s hard to pick just one, because they’re all adorable photos of baby Asher. Now I just have to hope this awesome family has baby number three and comes back down to my Wake Forest baby studio for another round! 🙂

If you’re expecting and would like to capture photos of your new baby upon their arrival, I would love to discuss all of my newborn photo session details and offerings!  I’m located in Wake Forest, NC – right near Raleigh, Durham, Youngsville and Rolesville. I can be reached through e-mail, or through the contact form on my website (link is below).  I look forward to speaking with you! Thank you so much!

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I have another beautiful baby girl to feature today!  But I first wanted to touch on something I get asked by parents a lot before their newborn sessions: “how should we prep the baby?”  There are a few tips I give new parents to answer this question, because the goal for each session is to have a baby who is sleepy, and whose tummy is full.  That’s really the secret to great newborn photos!

So, let’s tackle the sleepy issue.  If a baby sleeps at home all morning before the session, then it’s more likely they’ll be rested up and awake during their session.  So the trick to make sure this doesn’t happen, is simply to do what you can to keep them awake for a little while before you leave for the session!  Sometimes babies can be hard to wake up (which isn’t usually something I’d call a problem, unless you’re about to come see me for a session!).  If your baby is super sleepy and not easy to keep awake, you can try giving them a bath, or maybe even just undressing them and changing their diaper to stimulate them.  Wipe them with a wipe on their bottom and they’re usually WIDE awake!

The second thing we want to accomplish is to have baby come with a full tummy.  So this seems like a no-brainer… feed the baby right before you leave, right?  Well YES!  But it’s actually more than that.  Some newborn babies wake every hour in need of a feed.  The trick to making sure that doesn’t happen during your session is to feed them a LOT during the 24 hours before your session.  For example, I recently had someone whose baby was really hungry and wide awake for most of their session.  I wasn’t surprised when the mom told me her baby had slept through the night with no feedings the night before.  So, wake that baby up if they’re going on more than 3 hours without a feeding.  Most doctors advise to feed newborns at least every 3 hours, so make sure to follow that rule the entire day and night prior to your session.  Then they’re more likely to have a longer sleepy stretch during their newborn session.  And all of this ensures we can get as many poses and setups done during a session as possible.  And more setups = more pictures = more cuteness!!

So that’s my two cents for getting that baby ready for his or her big photo debut!

And last but not least is baby Katherine!  Such a cutie who came in for a newborn mini-session in my Wake Forest studio (more details on the mini-session available on my website!).  Loved her sweet little smiles she gave me, and her amazing hair!

If you have a newborn or are expecting one soon, and you’re located in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area and would like some beautiful art of your baby, please contact me!  I can be reached through e-mail, or through my contact form on my website (link below) to book your photo session.  Thank you so much!

Contact Melissa for a Session | View Melissa’s Portfolio | Follow Melissa on Facebook