Prepare For Your First Birthday Session

Its time to capture and celebrate bub turning 1.  

This session is all about capturing bub at their first birthday, your connection as a family and your joy for a major milestone.

This session can include the very popular cake smash or a fruit bath. 

It is designed to showcase your little one’s personality and includes a few simple props to enhance the scene and provide whimsy. It includes a family portrait component, where we capture bub with mum, dad and siblings. 

The true magic of this session happens when we put bub in a bath at the end of the session. What baby isn’t happy splashing about and popping bubbles!! 

These sessions are held in the studio when and we can also venture to outdoors into the parkland surrounding the studio during the warmer months. 

Most importantly, this session captures stunning images to print in a wall cluster and create a superb album that tells the story of bub turning 1. 

WHEN SHOULD YOU BOOK YOUR SESSION FOR?

Please allow 8-10 weeks before bub turns one if you’d like the images to be ready for their birthday. We recommend booking in advance to ensure we can meet your deadline.  

Talk to us about your bub’s sleep schedule. Its best to schedule this session after bub’s first nap in the morning, or later in the day in the last hours before sunset if we’re holding the session outdoors.

 

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE SESSION? 

We provide all outfits for bub, and styling elements needed for portraits of bub, the cake smash or fruit bath and a bath with lots of bubbles at the end. 

In the studio, the backdrop will be very simple and minimal, to allow bub to shine. 

Outdoors, bub will be centre stage in a natural background, with awesome natural light providing a pop to your images. 

Please note that if you have booked a cake smash and are concerned about baby’s intake of sugar, we recommend a fruit bath instead.

 

WHAT TYPE OF IMAGES WILL BE CAPTURED AT YOUR SESSION?

An important component of the session is bub’s relationship with their family. Images with mum, dad and siblings form a standard part of your gallery. If you’d like to include grandparents, please bring them along. We’ll also capture beautiful individual portraits of bub, a cake smash or a fruit bath (if you would like to include) and a bath at the end of the session.

 

STYLING 

We provide all the styling elements needed for your session, including outfits, headbands and bonnets, along with the cake or fruit. We include in season flowers and foliage to enhance the styling as well. 

The cake will be a white, soft iced sponge cake. This provides a very timeless style, along with allowing the cake to be nice and soft for your baby to break apart. It also minimises the choking hazards that fondant icing can introduce.  If you’d like a different look to your baby’s cake, we do ask that you provide this yourself.

We do not include balloons in sessions, as we have a staff member who is allergic to latex.

We take time to style your session beforehand, and every styling element have been carefully selected to match colours and tones. 

This is a process that needs preparation beforehand, so if you’d like a particular setup from our work, please send us a screenshot before your session so we can make sure to include it. If there is an example of our work that you are particularly fond of, or if you have special ideas for your own session, please let us know with at least 24 hrs notice. Due to the nature of detailed preparation required for your session, we cannot accommodate out of the ordinary requests without prior notice.

Please feel free to include one or two items that have special meaning to you and your family such as family heirlooms, toys, monogrammed blankets, hats, etc. 

 

WHAT TO WEAR 

When choosing what to wear, keep in mind what your dream family photos look like?  Are they are soft and elegant?  Chose neutral colours with soft, flowing fabrics…. think creams, very soft pastels, cream, light browns, tans, grays, and slate blues.  Want to showcase the fun and spunky side of your family?  Choose coordinating colours (but not matchy, matchy) with bold accent colours, such as hues of gray with yellow or bright red accents.  Adding fun accessories like scarves, headbands, hats, etc. can add a twist and flair to your images. We also recommend that clothing choices do not feature any licensed items (ie Disney, peppa pig ect) visible logos or writing, as this will distract from the subject’s faces.

Watches these days are amazing. They’re smart, and they keep track of your life. The trend these days are large watches, with large faces. These can become very distracting in a timeless portrait. Please leave these at home, as they can’t be edited out after the fact.

Please leave your phones in the car. Phone Photography is not permitted during your session, as it can be very distracting for everyone involved, particularly if we’re trying to photograph your family, and they’re distracted by the person using the phone to photograph at the same time.

This is your time to be present with your family. It’s your time to take a step back from the whole world and to be present with your family.

Guys, this one is for you in particular. Phones in pockets, particularly in front pockets, can look like other things!!! Unfortunately, isn’t easy to edit these choices out after the fact.

 

HOW TO PREPARE FOR YOUR SESSION 

There are some things that we ask that you do to help ensure a successful session: 

  • Try and book the session time for right after bub’s nap. 
  • Before leaving home, dress bub in clothing that does not have to be taken off over their head. 
  • Try and ensure baby is fed before their session. Also, bring a snack or two. 
  • Please make sure to arrive ready to be photographed! It can disrupt the flow of our engagement with the baby and eat into your session time if you’re not ready to go.
  • Introduce your baby to touching squishy, soft, sticky things to help them get used to the texture of icing on the cake.

 

DURING YOUR SESSION

These are active sessions. Bub’s need for mum, dad, and familiar things, is high during their first year, and they may not be happy if you’re not close by. Be prepared to sit on the edge of the set to be close to bub and provide comfort. 

If we’re in the studio, the studio will be warm. Really, really warm. The temperature will be set to keep bub comfortable in nappy/naked for the bath.  

Typical sessions run for 30-40 minutes. We work very quickly to capture what we need, as there is usually a 30-minute window in which a baby of this age is happy to do what we need them to do.

It is important to note that not all bubs like the cake smash or fruit bath. Be prepared for this.

If you’ve booked a cake smash, introduce your baby to touching squishy, soft, sticky things to help them get used to the texture of icing on the cake. 80% of our babies are not familiar with these textures, and it’s a very rare occasion where the baby is happy to “smash” their cake.

However, bubs typically love the bath portion, and this usually captures amazing, happy images.

We will take your bub’s lead and allow him/her to be the focus of the shoot. We will not force the baby to do anything they don’t wish to do. It could be that your session consists of family photos only, as this age is around about when stranger danger sets in. 

Please do not schedule other commitments after your session, as we cannot guarantee that we will have captured what we need to for a full gallery if you need to leave early. 

 

WHAT HAPPENS IF WE’RE UNWELL? 

Babies have little immunity during their first year. We take their health and safety very seriously, and your session will not take place if we’re unwell. If this is the case, we will let you know at the soonest opportunity, and will reschedule your session when we are better. Your baby’s safety is our first priority. Particularly important is that our whooping cough, COVID and flu vaccinations are up to date. 

 

WHEN WILL I GET TO PURCHASE THE IMAGES FROM MY SESSION?
We’ll schedule your ordering session at the end of your session. It is usually within 4 weeks of your session that we’ll be able to get you in the diary, depending on your availability aligning with ours. 

Please note that ordering sessions are held during the week, as weekends are held for photography sessions

Your ordering session is where you will view amazing images we’ve captured for you for the first time. These will have been narrowed down to show you the best of the best from your session.

We will help you shortlist your favourite images, discuss your requirements and use visualisation software to show you how your images will look best on your walls. 

You’ll choose a variety of heirloom quality products including albums, folio boxes and wall pieces. We’ll expertly guide you through the best products for your lifestyle. Your ordering session is where you will choose your printed products and digital images; and make payment for your purchases. 

This is not a hard process! Time and time again, clients have told us how easy we’ve made this process for them. The only hard part will be choosing your favourite images.

We realise that it can be difficult visualising the size of your products in relation to where you’d like to display them in your home. We use software that makes this a breeze, simply take a photo of an A4 size piece of paper against the wall you’d like to use, and send a photo to us. The software will do the rest for us!

 

 

Hi, I’m Janet

Mother of two fierce, highly rambunctious, primary school girls and Moments photographer. After years of photographing my own little ones in their early years, using photography as a creative outlet grew into a passion that grew into a business.

I am a fully accredited, award-winning photographer. From the moment your family is growing, I’m passionate about capturing snippets of the journey to display in your home forever.