Is it too late for newborn baby photos?

The short answer is no. If you have missed out on newborn photos in the first few weeks, please do not be disheartened.

It’s never too late for baby photos, however, depending on the age of your baby at the time of the photo session the outcome of the photos will vary. As babies get older they stay awake for longer periods and may push themselves out of the classic newborn poses where babies are curled up and sleeping.

My aim as a newborn photographer is always to provide parents with the best photos achievable at the time of a photo session. When newborn sessions don’t take place in the first 1-5 weeks, I always set expectations as to the kind of photos which are possible at the time of the photo session. It’s also worth saying that all newborn sessions vary regardless of age as every baby is an individual and will have different sleep and feed patterns. If you are asking yourself, “is it too late for newborn photos?” please take a look at the photos below taken at various stages.

5 month Old baby boy

If your baby is older but you would still like me to try and capture some sleepy photos, I’m more than happy to allocate the same amount of time for your photo session as I do for a newborn session which is 3 hours. If your baby usually has a feed and nap, we can arrange the session time so it works around this with a view to capturing some sleepy photos too. As you you will see from the photos below, I was able to capture a mixture of awake photos, tummy time photos as well as some naturally posed sleeping photos. This gorgeous baby fell to sleep again for a brief moment when he was dressed and, remarkably, I was able to pose him in a newborn position laying on his tummy with his hands under his chin which is quite unusual for a baby of 5 months old.

4 month old baby girl

In the selection below, I’ve shared a few photos of a baby girl at 4 months old baby photos.

3 month Old Baby Boy

If you would like photos with your baby, older babies are stronger and can hold their head up for longer periods so can often be easier to hold for parents having photographs with their baby. Also, parents often start to have a routine developing with feeding and sleeping and therefore feel a little bit more “with it” in comparison to the first few weeks of having no sleep thus they’re more likely to feel comfortable having their photo taken.

6 week Old Baby Boy

As I advise on my newborn page, I take the same approach photographing newborn babies up to 5 weeks old. However, I don’t believe there is a cut-off date as all babies are different and have different sleeping patterns. This beautiful baby boy, was a few days under 6 weeks old at the time of his photo session and I was able to photograph him in all of the newborn poses.

Lifestyle baby photography

The other option to consider when having photos taken of your baby is a natural lifestyle baby photo session.

I’ve put together a short video of photos of photos which were all taken at various stages from 7 days to 3-4 months old. For a natural lifestyle baby session there’s no real deadline when the photos need to be taken because there is less emphasis on getting sleeping posed photos.

I always find the best outfits for lifestyle sessions are baby-gro’s or body-vests which look adorable.

With lifestyle newborn photography, I think it’s a lovely opportunity to have photos of you with your baby in their nursery. Parents put so much love and attention into creating the perfect environment for their baby, it’s a beautiful memory to have especially when your nursery changes so quickly as your baby grows.

So, is it too late for newborn baby photos?

As you will see from the photos above, beautiful photos are still achievable with older babies too. However old your baby is at the time of a photo session, you will love your photos. Please take a few minutes to explore more of my baby photoshoots at home showing images of babies from 5 days old to see how the photo sessions compare.

For all enquiries and bookings, please contact Alison.