10 Reasons To Love Storytelling In-Home Newborn And Baby Sessions

After I switched to taking newborn and baby pictures in hospitals as well homes, I got immensely more inspired about baby photography. I started thinking about why that is, and came up with ten reasons for you to get as excited about in-home photo sessions as I am.

1 . THE SAFETY OF YOUR BABY COMES FIRST

You don’t need to worry about anyone else handling your brand new baby if you don’t want them to. Did you know that some of the popular newborn poses can be harmful to the baby if the photographer doesn’t know what they’re doing?

"The best part about the session was that we didn't have to do anything other than love our son." - Matt

2. MOST OF YOUR FAMILY’S MEMORIES HAPPEN IN YOUR HOME

Your home is the place where you spend the biggest chunk of your family time, yet the cameras don’t often come out until you’re heading out the door for a day trip or vacation. It's only natural that a chunk of your pictures should be made in your own space. This is a momentous time in your life, and you're going to want to remember it as it is.

"We weren’t sure if we wanted a photographer present during such intimate family moments, but we are so grateful to have such incredible photographs of our first steps together as a family." - Naomi

3. EVERYONE IS COMFORTABLE AT HOME

You will be at ease in familiar surroundings; that’s just how we humans work. There is no pressure or bribery involved to get older siblings to do something specific for photographs; they are just happy to get to play and spend time with their family.  You get to enjoy and cuddle your family through the whole session.

"She has an amazing ability to blend into the background and capture the true essence of the family that she is photographing." - Kathryn

4. YOUR PICTURES WILL BE UNIQUE TO YOU

Nobody else has a home, life or dynamic like yours, and this is so important to celebrate! Forget Pinterest Perfect and all these standards of flawless parenthood we're subjected to from everyone's curated Instagram feeds – your real life is so much more interesting.

5. YOU’LL HAVE EVERYTHING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Clothes can get stained and diapers have to be changed. Whatever happens, you are in your own home and you’ll have everything you need right where you are.

6. YOU DON’T GET THE HASSLE OF A TRADITIONAL NEWBORN  PORTRAIT SESSION

A newborn session at a studio may take several hours depending on how "cooperative" your baby is. Doing an in-home session eliminates the frustration of carving out time to go to a studio, and it usually makes a session much more attractive for the rest of the family as well."We are actually highly unlikely to ever have family photos taken and find it so awkward to pose in a studio setting. So never did we think we'd ever hire a photographer for anything. However I saw Jenna's work through my doula and was so charmed by her journalistic story telling style. I was immediately sold and had our "one day in our lives" photo session with our newborn.These early days with a newborn are truly stressful and emotional but Jenna's photos captures the joyful, fleeting moments they are. I'm reminded how beautiful motherhood is just by looking at the pics everyday." - Lauren

7. YOUR PETS ARE A NATURAL PART OF THE SHOOT

Pets are just as important as everyone else to include in family photos. I find dogs in particular are very curious about new life – I know my Nova is!

"Everyone in our family felt amazingly comfortable with her (hubby and I, newborn, and our 2 huge pitbulls) and she captured beauty in the small, mundane day to day things (breast feeding, changing diapers, etc)." - Michelle

8. YOU MIGHT MOVE SOMEDAY

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it seems everyone is in a state of flux, and the first home may be a temporary one. Your kiddos may not be able to remember everything about their first home, but the photographs will fill in their story. My family never moved, but I think it's so fascinating looking at pictures of my childhood home from when I was little – so many things have moved around, been thrown out or stood the test of time.

9. THE PHOTOS WILL BE A PEEK INTO YOUR WORLD

The photographs will capture what your life looks like when "no one is looking”; the photos will be a priceless gift to give your kids when they get older.

10. THE PICTURES WILL REMIND YOU OF HOW YOU FELT

Even though posed pictures have their place in a frame or in an album, I think images that truly capture what you were going through will be such an important addition to your photo collection.

"I love that we have photos from the day after my son was born; Jenna was really able to capture how excited, in love, and exhausted we were." - Kathryn

Storytelling in-home sessions can be summed up in two words really: easy and comfortable.