Sometimes it is just super difficult to get to the studio for a Newborn Session.
It is probably your first trip out with Baby since leaving hospital. And sometimes the very thought just fills you with utter dread.
And this is never more so than when said Newborn is a second baby (or third, or fourth) and you’ve also got very lively toddlers on the scene too!
It’s all fine when you live quite close to me and somebody else in the family can bring Big Brothers or Big Sisters along towards the end of the session to join us. But what if you live 70 miles away and you’ve just had a Caesarean and you’ve got a tiny baby and a super active two-year-old to get suited and booted and ready for a three hour newborn session in a very hot studio? With the best will in the world, this is never going to happen!!
And this is why we sometimes do Newborn Sessions at home.
But this is not the only reason. There is a huge difference between Studio Portraits and the images that you will receive after a lifestyle session. ‘Lifestyle Sessions’ – or what here at Annie Bee we call the “Story of Us” sessions – are far more natural and intimate. There are no props and no backdrops and very often we just use whatever light is available in your home. These are the sessions that tell your story, unposed and naturally. Little moments of loveliness in amongst the chaos that you think you will always remember.
But will you?
One day – when you are old, and when you have Little People with their OWN Little People – will you remember how you sat on that grey sofa together with a new baby and a new big brother? Will you remember how you chatted to one whilst winding the other?
Will you remember those tiny toes and tiny hands and the tiny snacks that you had to have in constant supply to try and extract a moment of peace?
Will you remember the cards that were on the mantelpiece and the daffodils that someone bought you because it was March?
Will you remember the elephant in the corner of the cot? Will you remember the changing mat with the bumblebees? Or that strategically placed teddy that Daddy hoped would have some kind of subliminal influence whilst his new son slept?!!
Will you remember the game that your sister found on the Internet, the one with the sticky tape and pom-poms and feathers that gave you a few moments of quiet feed time whilst Daddy was in charge of logistics.
Will you remember how tricky feed times were with a two year old? How Daddy stood in the kitchen feeding one whilst you did battle with the other?
Will you remember how your little dog – already 10 – patiently waited at every meal time secure in the knowledge that it would all go wrong at some point?!
Little tiny things. Little tiny moments from today that become tomorrows memories.
And even if you DO remember all of these little things 50 years from now, will they?
I sometimes think we are guilty of believing that we are booking a portrait session for US…… some expensive, luxurious and indulgent pressie to ourselves.
We are not.
We are recording the Stories of Us as a gift to them one day in their future.
Annie xx
PS All the best stories come in a book. This session comes with 20 pages worth of memories, beautifully printed and bound in Italy, as standard.