1st Birthday Photo Session | Queens, NY

Let's Celebrate turning 1!

I had the honor of photographing this handsome fella for his newborn, sitter, and now 1st birthday milestones in my Queens Photo studio and it has been a beautiful journey. During his 1st birthday session Ian was energized, happy, and absolutely adorable. Keeping his session classic and baby focused, instead of highly focused on props and busy backdrops is my jam. As a portrait and storytelling photographer it is my speciality to photograph babies and children in their most organic state.

One year olds are hard! Many of them are starting to walk {run} and they are living their best life by their terms. That being said, it is the photographers job {my job} to capture beautiful photos of your baby during their session and this is how we do it...

1. Leave your expectations at the door. Really, I am not kidding. Do not expect kids to sit on the floor and look at the camera. You have to create the create a situation that lends the child to want to sit down and look at the camera. The way I do it is sorcery. Just kidding. We use props, buckets, pails, really anything we can put the baby in to keep them seated for an extra second so you can take step back and take the photo. And we do this over and over again until we get the shot.
2. Play music. During my consultation process I ask parents what kind of music their baby loves, and that's what we play. The. Entire. Time. Remember that during this first birthday session your goal is to capture an energized child in a happy mood, so I create an environment that makes them feel comfortable. Babies can sometimes get shy or scared of strangers, but when parents are dancing and singing to songs they know it makes them feel more comfortable so they don't have a meltdown.
3. Go fast, and shoot a ton of images! At least this is my way of going about capturing a milestone session. Babies that are moving do this so very fast, and I want sharp, emotion filled images. To do this, I need to capture many images and then select the best ones from the batch.

Ian Smash Cake Fun!

During our session we ended with a fun cake smash to watch this adorable boy taste his first bite of sweetness and celebrate his first year of life. During smash cake sessions kids are often a bit apprehensive of their first bite, but we make it as fun as possible. To get Ian excited about his cake we encouraged him with some hidden treats behind the cake to get him to touch it and then we gave him a big spoon to dig in. This offers something they can play with during the session and it makes for some adorable snap shots. The best part is, most kids don't really destroy their cake and you can take it home and eat it with the family! That's a win win in my book.