Baby shoot – Batman at 8 weeks

Little baby Batman (also known as Toby) has been a long time in the making for me. I photographed his parents’ wedding invites, their wedding (here), their maternity portraits (here), and I photographed Toby himself when he was less than 48 hours old and still in hospital (here). So to say I was chuffed to photograph him as an unfurled baby is an understatement!

He was eight weeks old at the time of our session, and seriously, I just can’t get enough of his strawberry hair and serious blue eyes. Just a gorgeous boy. Shot in the North Sydney home of his grandparents, his lovely mum Emily wanted a lot of images of the two of them together, doing what they do all day – cuddling, feeding, settling, sleeping. Managed to sneak in a few with his doting grandparents, too, which I’m sure he will love to see when he is older. They love him so much and I think it’s wonderful that Emily chose to include them in photographs of this special time.

I’d just like to say – there’s a lot of chatter amongst baby photographers and clients that you HAVE to capture babies within their first two weeks of life, or you then HAVE to wait until they can sit up, months later, in order to get “perfect” photos. To this, I say – phooey! Firstly, there’s no such thing as “perfect” photos. Secondly, you can get fantastic portraits taken at ANY age. Sure, if you want those “baby in a basket” type shots that are ubiquitous, then your time frame for catatonic newborn that you can contort in to any tiny space or container is pretty small, and it only really looks good when they’re itty bitty. But truly – there can be more to portraits than your baby asleep, alone! Don’t be afraid to book a photographic session at whatever period in time works for YOU and your family, not necessarily what works for your photographer’s perfect requirements. Don’t be afraid to photograph your babies at any age – know that you are capturing them at an amazing time, even if they’re going through a Wonder Week, or cluster feeding constantly, or has cradle cap, or will only be in your arms all day long. That’s who they are, that’s what they look like – don’t be afraid to immortalise their imperfections. Those imperfections are what make them unique, and beautiful, and not the same as the other babies wrapped up in wool and photoshopped to perfection.

Don’t wait for months and months until you hit a “perfect” photography age. Fresh newborn is fantastic. Eight weeks old is fantastic. Four months old is fantastic! Any portraits, at any age, are keepsakes for yourself and for them, that will last forever.

Baby Batman, I can’t wait to photograph you and your beautiful face in coming years.