Your Montreal in-home Newborn Session — what to expect, how to prepare and what to take in consideration

All you need to know to prepare for your in-home session with me!

Being a mom myself, I know how welcoming a new family member can be a lot. Especially as a first time parent, not really knowing what we are doing or with several kids that all have different needs at different (or same) times.

This blog post is here to guide you into what to expect, how to prepare and what to take into consideration for a newborn session with me at your home.

Booking & Preparation

When you book your session with me, I recommend booking before baby is born — like this you have another thing done on your to do list and can fully concentrate on baby arriving.

By paying a deposit of 100$+tx and signing my contract you can book your spot. We will then put a date on my calendar approximately 2 weeks after your due date. This will hold your date on my calendar and is not a final session date. As it’s unpredictable when your little one is actually pointing their nose to see this world we move around the session date as soon as baby arrived, depending if they arrive earlier or later and what fits best for you.

Well being of mom and baby are my top priority so if you feel the need to not leave bed for another week, that’s a valid reason to reschedule (or do the photo shoot in bed if you prefer)!

I will then ask you to think about in which room you’d mostly like to do the photos (it can be of course several rooms) and when the lighting is coming in this/these room/s most. Send me some photos so I can plan on what equipment to bring (no worries, you don’t need to clean for these photos, just show me how the light enters the room and what the space looks like!). Don’t have a room with a lot of light? No worries! I can bring my own studio lighting.

When baby is born, I will send you a questionnaire to fill out and plan our session together. Questions like if baby is breastfed or bottle fed, if they have any allergies and if you’d be ok using a pacifier will all help me planning your session so you don’t have to. I will also send you my style guide so you can plan some outfits for you and your partner as well as older siblings. For baby I will bring everything you need — outfits, wraps, props. Except if you want to have a personal item on your photos, you don’t need to plan anything.

Please don’t forget to send me your address so I can plan my arrival in advance.

On the day of the session

Finally! The day of your session arrived, everyone is healthy (please, if your toddler suddenly has a cough or a slight fever, contact me to reschedule!) and ready to make memories. Depending on when we scheduled your session, I will arrive a couple of minutes early to ensure finding parking and setting up (if needed).

Please make sure to feed baby right before I arrive. If you ordered my make up artist to come to you before, plan a 30 minutes buffer after hair and make up to feed baby. When I arrive, we can start with family & sibling poses (your toddler will get sick of taking photos eventually so it’s best to start with them). Once they are done they can go play or stay and watch. I will then take some photos of only parents and newborn alone.

If baby shows signs of hunger we will take a break to feed them.

This is the reason why newborn sessions are longer than other family or portrait sessions — we will probably spend quite some time making sure baby is happy. Don’t worry, it’s totally normal that sometimes they do need to feed for 45 minutes before we can start. In this time we can also discuss any moodboards you prepared (you can, but don’t have to) and any wraps or outfits you’d like on baby for the session. I will then make a quick plan for the session to go as smoothly as possible and as soon as baby is happy and no more hungry — we can start immortalizing your bundle of cuteness alone!

Depending on what outfits and wraps you chose, I usually start by swaddling them (sometimes with the outfit already under the wrap so it’s easier after and we don’t have to change them so often).

After having photographed all important aspects of your baby (features like little hands, ears, mouth etc.) and having done some swaddled and unswaddled posing we are done!

I usually keep the posed photos simple and timeless with not too many props because in my opinion, the important part is you and your family, not having thousands of props around — I want to keep it as simple and minimalist as possible.

Payment of the remaining amount of your session is due on the date of the session (either before or after, no stress!)

After your session

After your session I will immediately backup all the beautiful photos we just took. I will then get onto culling and editing the photos.

Within two weeks, you will get a watermarked gallery to choose your favourites from. You can choose the amount of photos included in your package or add more for a fee, if you wish. As soon as you sent me your choice and paid the remaining balance if you choose to buy more, I will get onto retouching.

Editing vs. Retouching

Editing: Adjusting colours, giving the photos my signature style, slightly adjusting if over or underexposed.
Retouching: Skin, any background filling, removing things in the background etc. — essentially Photoshop.

Retouches take another two weeks. If you chose to get a print or if it was included in your package, you can let me know when choosing your photos which one you’d like to have printed. Prints are delivered 4-6 weeks from the date of when you chose your photos.

When all retouching is done you will get an email with your final gallery. The gallery is up for 6 months so you can conveniently share with your family and friends and they can download the photos from there in high quality (only people with the link can see and download them). In the gallery, there is the option to order albums or wall art directly and conveniently.

All in all, being a busy mom myself, I want to take out the stress of these sessions for you to make sure you get a beautiful experience and beautiful memories, stress-free.