t has been a privilege to have worked with this Chicago family for the last three years. This time I got to visit their house for an in-home newborn session.

I am thrilled to introduce my boy B who joined our family in early May. He has already transformed our lives in the best possible way and we could not be more in love. He is perfect in every way, and as a mom photographer I am obsessively recording the first days of his life with my camera.

Last year I met a talented photographer who had just moved to the Chicago market, and was soon to take it up by storm. We started interacting and came up with an idea of taking photos for each other’s family that summer. 

Images are worth a thousand words, so there is not much for me to say other than that love shines through in these images from a recent Newborn In Home Session.

Newborn Photography Sessions can have some challenges: babies can be fuzzy, parents can be exhausted, house pets may be running around, diaper changes, feedings, and so on. One other thing that may impact an indoor photoshoot, even though you probably wouldn’t think about it, is the weather.

We have this idea in our heads that the perfect image is that in which we are all posing and smiling, but I find that it is actually the wild moments, when kids are being themselves, running around and being silly, that turn out the most precious photos - those that resemble real life in all of its messy splendor.

Lifestyle photography sessions are a great way to showcase life as it is – imperfect, but beautiful – and to document the little moments in an authentic way. When I talk about lifestyle sessions, I always try to emphasize that they cannot be prescriptive. This means every session that I do is envisioned and executed differently to reflect the family that I am with. Ultimately, it is about their personalities and this particular time in their lives. Here’s how I plan and conduct a lifestyle photography session at home.

I get approached by many pregnant women who want to get maternity photos, but when they scroll through Instagram or the internet for inspiration or to find a photographer, they keep seeing these images of done up women with long curly hair, flowy maternity dresses, and endless green fields – do you know what kind I am talking about?