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People ask me all the time what the best age is to have family photos done. As a Boston baby photographer who has photographed hundreds of newborns, older infants, toddlers and school-aged kiddos at this point, I can say with confidence that each age comes with its perks and challenges, but let’s talk specifically about photographing babies up to a year old.
BRAND NEW NEWBORNS (I’m talking 1-2 days old), are the easiest to photograph, in my opinion. This doesn’t happen for me very often as I usually do in-home newborn sessions between 1 and 6 weeks old, but I occasionally photograph babies at the hospital, too. The advantage of this, aside from capturing the brand “newness,” is that babies are still sleeping a ton and it’s almost hard to wake them up. Coupled with brand new baby skin which usually isn’t peeling yet, I say this age is a WIN. The obvious disadvantage is that it’s hard to schedule hospital sessions, and even harder to predict how mom will be feeling!
Newborns between the ages of 1-6 weeks are much more commonly photographed. At this age, their features are a little more defined than they are right at birth, so you can start to see who they look like (mom? dad? mix of both? Great Uncle Bob?). You might also be in a little bit of a groove at this point, and feeling up for photography. The challenge is that babies at this age require a lot of feeding, changing, and soothing breaks, and their skin can sometimes start peeling.
Past 6 weeks though, I recommend waiting until babies are 6-10 months old. If I *had* to pick a favorite age (of ALLLLLL the ages), this might be it. It’s really that sweet spot when little personalities start shining, but babies aren’t yet old enough to crawl or run away from me. This little guy was about 8 months old at his shoot this past spring, and he was justttt perfection! <3