The first birthday is such a special milestone. Your baby has grown so much over the past twelve months and you want to document this special moment. I love photographing babies at this age. They have such big personalities and are so much fun to photograph. While I offer several options for first birthday portrait sessions, the most popular session is the studio birthday photo session.

Your baby is about to turn one and you are considering a birthday portrait session for your little one. Cake smash sessions are a fun and joyful way to commemorate the milestone of your baby’s first birthday. These birthday sessions are amongst my favorite to photograph. I wanted to take a moment to go over a few tips I have accumulated over the past ten years as a first birthday photographer.

A first birthday is a special milestone for every family. Your baby has grown and developed tremendously over the past twelve months and now your little one’s personality is shining through. It is a good idea to take this opportunity to schedule a photo session for your child. If you There are many types of sessions you can book to commemorate this special occasion. If you are unsure about what type of photo session you want, I will go over each of the options below.

A first birthday is a very special milestone for any family. It is one of the most popular requests I get for photos and rightfully so. Babies are so adorable at this age. They have so much personality and it is a great stage to finally capture those photos of your child to preserve this special moment.

One of the greatest aspects of my job is having the opportunity to watch my clients’ families grow. I first photographed this family four years ago when their first daughter was born. Since that time, I have seen them for milestones, holiday photos, and their second child’s newborn session. I was so excited to work with them again for their daughter’s first birthday session on the beach. They usually do studio sessions, so the fact that we were doing an outdoor family session on the beach was exciting.

A first birthday is the perfect opportunity to update your family photos. Instead of scheduling a first birthday session in the studio, you can schedule an outdoor photo session and include the whole family. Whenever weather permits, I encourage families to go this route. I always leave a little time at the end of the session for either a cake smash or first birthday themed portraits. This recent family took my advice and scheduled their son’s first birthday session on the beach at sunset. They wanted a few photos of a cake smash and the rest of the session to focus on them interacting as a family.

Many of my clients have been opting to do family sessions in place of the traditional first birthday sessions. I love this idea for so many reasons. Opting for this type of session allows you to update your family portraits and get birthday portraits of your little one as well. It allows me to capture all of those fun and cozy moments with baby and with the full family session, we still have time to do a cake smash.

One of the best parts of my job is being able to watch my clients’ families grow. This is especially true when I capture newborn photos for a family and then have the opportunity to capture the first birthday milestone session for them as well. It is such a pleasure to be able to see how baby has grown over that past year and I also love getting the opportunity to work with the family again. The rapport that I develop with my repeat clients allows me to capture natural images of their family for them.

I had the pleasure of working with the Q family again last week. I photographed their son for his first birthday session a few years ago. I also had the honor of photographing their daughter, Miss H, last year when they came to my studio for a family newborn session. When mom contacted me in April to set up an appointment for birthday portraits, I could not believe that a year had already gone by. I was thrilled to be able to work with this awesome family again .

I absolutely love when I get the opportunity to photograph my previous newborn clients for first birthday sessions. It truly is such an honor to be able to document these milestone moments for my families and I feel blessed to also be able to watch their children grow. When my client contacted me about first birthday photos for her little one, I was shocked. I really could not believe that a year had already gone by since I photographed Miss S and her family for newborn photos in the studio. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time goes by.

I had a wonderful Fall season photographing families and children for their holiday photos. Although I loved every second of this time, I had very little time to keep up with blogging. Now that the dust has settled, I am finally catching up on blogging some of the newborns and birthdays that I photographed recently.

I love photographing first birthdays, especially when they involve cake smashes. My studio birthday portrait packages include two sets. Because a lot of what I do involves lifestyle photography, I usually encourage clients to utilize one of the more natural set ups that my studio provides, such as my bed or teal velvet couch. I find that these set ups allow for more natural images, as opposed to children being posed on a rigid backdrop. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the clean and classic look that my backdrops provide, but I find that you will be more likely to hang an image in your home of your child on a bed or seated on a couch.

I have been in the process of renovating my studio here in Long Beach, NY and I am excited to reveal some of the changes. I want all of my studio sessions to have a very clean, modern, and polished look, so I have made some changes to the layout of the studio which will provide me the opportunity to do so.

My most recent addition to the studio is a gorgeous teal mid century velvet couch with which I am obsessed. It makes the perfect addition to the studio and will be a staple in my studio newborn sessions, as well as children’s portraiture. The couch will allow me the opportunity to get cozy and connected family images, as well as timeless images of babies celebrating their birthdays.

I recently photographed this little cutie, who happens to share the same birthday as me.  I have photographed both her and her siblings before. Baby’s mom is super creative, so I love working with the family.  

Mom contacted me and wasn't sure if she wanted to schedule her daughter's first birthday session in the studio or outdoors. During the warmer months, I always encourage my clients to schedule their child's cake smash session outdoors. An outdoor session allows for more natural and organic images and no backdrop is more beautiful than that which Mother Nature can provide. Because mom had a boho themed session in mind, it made even more sense to choose an outdoor location for her daughter's first birthday photos.  

When my client said she wanted a session for her daughter's first birthday that was natural, I knew she had come to the right place. Don't get me wrong, I love studio birthday sessions, but if the weather permits, I always encourage my clients to choose an outdoor location of their choice. 

Outdoor locations allow you to get more "mileage" out of your photos. Not only are you getting photos of your child commemorating her first birthday, but you are also getting images that capture the natural essence of your baby.  These are timeless images that you can use not only for thank you cards, but to hang on your walls year round.

I love my new studio here in Long Beach and I have been getting lots of use out of it over the past year.  I have been making changes to the studio and will be adding more as the year goes on so that. can give my clients diversity in their gallery of images and also make them as comfortable as possible during their photo session with me. 

I absolutely love when I have the honor to photograph my former newborn clients for their first birthday portrait session. It is so wonderful to see how much the baby has grown over the course of the year and I just love to see how each she has developed a unique personality.  

I love when my former clients return for milestone sessions.  It is such a pleasure to watch the children grow and it is an honor to be able to document that growth for their parents.  I photographed this little beauty in June for her six month sitter session and when I saw her again the other day, I was amazed at how much she had grown in these last six months.  It truly was such a delight to be able to photograph her again.  

I spent a gorgeous September afternoon at the park with mom, her twin sister, and the absolutely gorgeous birthday girl, Miss V.    Mom had selected the most adorable outfits for Miss V, including a gorgeous bohemian style pineapple print dress.  She also brought along a beautiful birthday banner that coordinated with the dress.  The birthday girl was a pleasure to photograph and never cried...not even after two full outfit changes!  My favorite part of the session was when we took her cake smash photos.  Miss V loved the cake and had so much fun with it.  

If you aren't smiling already, this baby is sure to bring a smile to your face.  I photographed this blue eyed beauty for her first birthday photos this past week in my brand new studio space in Long Beach, NY.  Mom brought along the cutest elephant themed accessories, all of which were made by her very talented mother.  Miss H is one of the happiest babies I know and I had so much fun photographing her.