By Guest Blogger Betsy Finn
It’s amazing how quickly kids grow, how soon babies lose that “newborn” look. All the more reason to go overboard with baby photos, right? Well, that may be true in concept, but the fact is that life happens. It doesn’t make sense to spend so much time behind the camera that you forget to interact with your children and enjoy making actual memories.
So, with the goal of finding balance, let me share some tips to help you get those must have baby photos. As a photographer and mother of two boys, I figure this list should be a pretty good start!
1. Take pictures in the hospital – For both of our boys, we’ve made sure to take plenty of newborn photos in the hospital. Things in the hospital you’ll want to photograph include:
- Birth “announcement” card on the bassinet
- Baby sleeping in bassinet
- Baby’s first bath (if you do it at the hospital)
- Hospital ID bands on baby’s arm and leg
I loved looking back at our older son’s newborn hospital photos and seeing the pictures of him being held by various family members, so for our younger son, I made sure we did the same. We also made sure to get a family snapshot of the four of us while there, as well as pictures of baby with each of us individually. Those are some of my favorite baby photos.
2. Remember those tiny toes and hands – Having photos of the tiny baby toes, feet, hands, etc are great for remembering how small your child actually was. As soon as we welcomed my younger son into this world, my older son seemed a LOT bigger to me. They really do grow quickly. So make sure to take pictures of baby’s hands in yours to give a sense of scale.
3. Capture baby’s expressions – As your baby grows, they will start to smile, stick their tongue out, and practice a variety of expressions. I love the photos of my older son as a baby, smiling. Sleeping baby pictures are adorable too, get those while you can — the older they get, the less they are willing to sleep!
4. Document developmental milestones – There are so many milestones to document, but some of my favorite ones for the first year are:
- Learning to grasp/handle toys
- Lifting up head (looking over mom or dad’s shoulder)
- Learning to push up (on tummy)
- Sitting up unassisted (on a soft floor if they’re still tippy!
- Crawling (have them crawl towards you!
- Furniture surfing (the walking stage where they hold onto everything
- Standing/Walking unassisted
It can be tough to capture baby milestones on camera but the results are totally worth it. Just remember, you have months to watch your child practice these new skills, and years down the road, it won’t really matter that you chose to watch your child’s first time walking rather than running to grab the camera. The second or third time walking will be just as good to document with photos.
5. Choose a camera you’ll actually use – It does no good to have a camera that you don’t have with you. While many tout the benefits of DSLRs for great quality images, the fact of the matter is DSLRs take up a lot of room. Even though I’m a photographer, I don’t carry a DSLR around with me. When I’m on mom duty, I have a smaller “point-and-shoot” camera for taking snapshots. It does HD videos, takes really high quality images, and all that jazz… and unlike a DSLR, it can fit in a pocket of my diaper bag, or even a small purse. The best camera to use for getting must have baby photos is the one you’ll be sure to have handy.
6. Display Them! – This last tip isn’t really a “must have” photo, but it’s still important. what’s the use of getting all these must have baby photos if you don’t put any on display? You can display baby photos in your home as wall art, or you can choose to create a baby’s first year album to display more milestones than will really fit on your walls.
So, there you have it. Hopefully these tips will help you feel more confident about being able to capture all those must have baby photos you don’t want to miss. But remember, it’s important to let capturing the photos fall into place behind experiencing the joys and moments of parenting your little one!
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Betsy Finn lives in Michigan with her husband, two boys, and two cats (Betsy’s story). You can read more of her thoughts on life and creative musings at BPhotoArt.com. There, Betsy blogs about a hodgepodge of topics including fine art and portrait photography, parenting, capturing memories, and finding contentment in the journey of life. You can also find Betsy on Facebook,Twitter,Google+,Pinterest,and Instagram.
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