What is Lifestyle Newborn Photography? | Rockville Maryland Lifestyle Newborn Session
Newborn photography is a beautiful way to document a family as they welcome a new baby into the world. It’s a time when families want to document the emotions, memories and details of life with a newborn baby. When deciding how to document these moments, a phrase you may run into is lifestyle newborn photography, but what does that even mean? First let’s talk about lifestyle photography in general.
What is lifestyle photography?
According to Wikipedia “Lifestyle Photography is a kind of photography that mainly aims to capture portraits of people in situations, real-life events or milestones in an artistic manner and the art of everyday. The primary goal is to tell stories about people’s lives or to inspire people in different times. Lifestyle photography is “posed” in a way that the photographer gives some direction and then documents the natural response after. Lifestyle photography is about telling a story through the lens. It’s about the legacy that is left behind because of it.”
In other words, lifestyle photography aims to document moments in a natural and authentic way, as opposed to a more posed approach. Lifestyle photography is all about documenting moments in a family’s story that are meaningful to them. The most important part is to document the emotion and connection between the family, while helping them preserve a special moment in their family journey.
What is lifestyle newborn photography?
With lifestyle newborn photography, the baby is photographed in his or her natural surroundings, at home with their family. The baby is also photographed in poses that they move into mostly unaided. One of the reasons families love this type of photography is because the baby and family is documented how they are, where they are most comfortable…at home. The other reason families love this type of photography is that the age of the baby is less of an issue. There is more flexibility with timing for a lifestyle newborn session because the baby doesn’t have to be asleep during the session and they don’t have to be as flexible to get them into poses, which are more easily done when a baby is younger. Some families find that images from a lifestyle session are more meaningful because they tell the family’s unique story. Parents and families are also more relaxed because the session is taking place at home.
What type of photographs will we document during a lifestyle newborn session?
The beauty of a lifestyle newborn session is that it’s a more relaxed approach to a newborn session. During the session, we’ll document whatever is happening in the home at the time of the session. If the baby is asleep, we’ll document the baby sleeping. If the baby is awake, we’ll document an alert baby. The baby determines the flow of the session and then we go from there.
During each session, we’ll be sure to document the baby with each parent. Your lifestyle newborn session is a great way to document the bond you have with your baby. We also document the small details you’ll want to remember, like how small they were as you cradled them in your arms or how it took their entire hand to wrap around your little finger. We’ll also document the star of the show, your baby of course. Most importantly, we’ll document all of you as a family together. Your family just grew and it’s important to document what your family looks like with a new family member.
When should I schedule a lifestyle newborn session?
With lifestyle newborn photography, there is a bit more flexibility with timing your session. This is because the baby doesn’t have to be asleep to get them into poses that you might see in traditional posed photography. With that kind of flexibility, you can have a lifestyle newborn session from a few days old all the way until your baby is several months old. That being said, I always recommend that a lifestyle newborn session be scheduled before eight weeks, to capture a baby when they are at their smallest. However, if you miss that window, you can still have a newborn-style lifestyle session with your baby.
How do I prepare my house for a lifestyle newborn session?
A lot of parents may be worried with the thought of having photographs taken in the sometimes chaotic world of life with a newborn. Please, please, please do not feel the need to clean the entire house before the session. Life with a newborn is hectic enough that you don't need to add an additional and unnecessary chore to the list. The session will take place in one or two rooms of your house. In those rooms, you can tuck away anything you don’t want in your photographs. Also, I won’t be taking any pictures of the inside of your closets, so please feel free to put any extra items that you don’t want in the photos in there.
Ultimately, lifestyle newborn sessions are a natural and relaxed way of documenting life with your new baby. The goal is for families to have photographs that in the future will make them laugh, cry or both. If you are interested in booking a lifestyle newborn session, please click on the button below to contact me!
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