“When is the best time to have my child photographed?” As a photographer, I get this question often. I’ll go over a few important milestones so that you will never miss a minute of your child’s all too fast childhood.

Newborn

Ahhh! The newborn stage. So precious, wondrous and truly fleeting. Best done within the first 14 days of life, photography can capture beautiful memories of your newborn and all her sleepy, precious, fast growing baby parts. Even those awkward cross eyed expressions will be treasured in years to come. You can read why the first 14 days are most optimal for scheduling here. Another plus to having photographs taken during this time are having a photographer capture the interaction of you as a new family with your baby or including older siblings in the portraits.

6-9 Months Old

This stage is also what photographers will refer to as sitting up, but not yet crawling. A perfect time to photograph! Your baby is inquisitive, curious, smiling depending on his personality. But whatever disposition your little guy happens to be, this age is all about giving natural looks for the camera. As a photographer and a mom, I find that this age is what I always remember when thinking of “my” baby. Roly poly, happy and drooling. You definitely want to photograph this!

1 Year

Another time to photograph is when your child is one year old. Often she has begun to toddle or even walk, but is definitely on the move and busy. Sessions at this age are often very photojournalistic because your little one can’t sit still for very long and a custom photographer will be very in-tune to this. Balloons, playing bubbles or just wandering around your backyard are all big adventures to photograph. This is a fun stage to capture because she is still your baby, but you are beginning to see glimpses of a toddler. Also, at this point, you will surely notice how quickly time is flying. Being able to look back at your child from birth to one year is just priceless.

Anytime

I am going to discuss now my favorite time of all for capturing your child with custom photography….now! There is no need to wait for the “right” time. Because honestly, with children timing is always perfect. Photography is a powerful way to pause and check in from our busy lives for a moment. To stop and notice all the change that has been going on right in front of our eyes. Now is perfect because next month he may have moved on from his long time Thomas the Train obsession, she may stop wearing that skirt she insists on wearing every day, his teeth may come in or fall out, and it is not holiday card time. To me it’s the every days that make up our lives and what we remember most. Photography done “anytime” can capture this and leave you with meaningful artwork sure to be a family heirloom.