Do you know when to photograph your baby? The first year of a child’s life passes faster than parents expect. The newborn becomes a sitter becomes a crawler becomes a toddler in a sequence that feels measured at the time, but looking back from the other side it was over before you got your breath back. The photographs from those months become the record of a year that does not repeat, and the value of having them tends to be greater in retrospect than it felt in the moment of taking them.
This is a brief guide to the natural photographic milestones across a baby’s first twelve months. Not all families do all of them, and that is fine. But a small amount of planning at the start of the year makes the difference between ending up with a proper record of how the baby changed and looking back wishing you had taken more.
Maternity, around 28 to 34 weeks
The story starts before the baby arrives. A maternity sitting in the late second or early third trimester is the only photograph you will ever have of the baby as a part of you rather than a separate person. It is also a window many mothers underestimate the value of until afterwards.
You can read more about timing and the practical side on our maternity photography page.
Newborn, the first two weeks
The newborn window is the narrowest of the year. For roughly a fortnight after birth, babies sleep deeply enough to allow the curled, peaceful poses that newborn photography is known for. After two weeks, they are more alert, their looks change, and the early newborn photographs become impossible to take.
This is the foundation photograph of the year. It is the one most parents come back to, and the one against which every later sitting tends to be compared. More on our newborn photography page.
Around three months
Three months marks a real shift in how a baby photographs. The eyes focus properly now, smiles are genuine rather than reflexive, and the personality has started to show through. The baby is still not particularly mobile at this stage, which makes them straightforward to photograph in the way a six-week-old is not.
A three-month sitting is often the first one where parents see the version of their baby that is going to become recognisable. It is also a useful corrective for anyone who came out of the newborn session thinking their baby looked nothing like them.
The six-month sitter session
Six months is what photographers call the sitter session, for the obvious reason that the baby can now sit up unsupported. The head is steady, the smile is on demand most of the time, and the baby is interested enough in the camera and the people in the room to engage with what is happening.
This is often the easiest sitting of the year. The baby is too young to be self-conscious, old enough to interact, and the result is usually a set of photographs that feel like portraits rather than documents. For many families, the six-month sitting is the one they end up framing.
The nine-month stage
By nine months, everything is mobile. The baby is crawling, pulling up to stand, and exploring whatever is in reach. They are also fully themselves by this point, with the personality that the rest of their childhood will run on now visible in the face.
Nine months is harder to photograph than six months, simply because the baby is faster and less inclined to sit still. But the photographs that come from a nine-month sitting are different in kind from the ones that came before, and they capture a stage that ends quickly once walking takes over.
The first birthday
The first birthday is the bookend of the year. A photograph at twelve months is the natural counterpart to the newborn photograph from twelve months earlier, and the two together tell a story that no single photograph can.
Some families mark this with a cake smash sitting, which is exactly what it sounds like: the baby in front of a small cake, allowed to make a mess of it, photographed in the process. Others prefer a formal portrait of the toddler now standing on their own. Both work. The choice is yours.
A family portrait somewhere in the mix
Baby photography in the first year is mostly about the baby, which is right. But it is worth taking at least one family portrait somewhere during the twelve months, with the parents, the baby, and any older siblings. Parents change too, particularly in the first year, and the photograph of a tired but happy young family is often the one that means the most years later.
More on our family photography page.
How many of these do families actually do
Most families do not do all of them, and there is no rule that says they should. The minimum that gives you a meaningful record of the year is a newborn portrait and a first birthday portrait. The two side by side tell most of the story.
A step up from that is to add a six-month sitter session, which is the one most worth doing in the middle. Newborn, six months, first birthday gives you three clear chapters of the year for a modest commitment of time.
The full year, with maternity, newborn, three months, six months, nine months and the first birthday, plus a family portrait at some point, is what some families do and never regret. The right choice depends on what matters to your family and what fits with your year.
Planning the year in advance
A short conversation at the start of the year is the easiest way to do this. We can talk through which sittings make sense for you, pencil in approximate dates around your due date and the natural milestones, and hold availability across the year so you are not chasing slots when you need them.
To book a sitting, or to talk through planning the year, call us on 087 099 3990 or get in touch through our contact page.
