Newborn Sibling Session | Issaquah – Renton newborn-baby photographer

October 19, 2015

I absolutely love doing newborn sibling sessions! The connections that you can capture between a big brother or big sister and that brand new little baby that has just joined their family are amazing. It’s true, toddlers tend to be a little less cooperative and for the most part have pretty short attention spans, so any time I’m photographing a newborn sibling session I will make sure to photograph the children first. And every once in a while, big sister or big brother is perfectly content posing for the camera by themselves but has zero interest in posing with the new little one; that’s when I tend to get a little creative.

In this particular newborn sibling session, Annabelle wasn’t too interested in the camera. I was able to capture a few sweet little kisses between her and her baby brother, but not a whole lot of them facing toward the camera. I decided to pull out my little truck prop and see if she had any interest in it. Sure enough, she immediately climbed into the back! I let her explore for about 5 minutes, she continued to climb in and out. A few times, she even glanced up at me. I snapped several photos of her playing on and in the truck and after I knew I had what I needed, she was able to leave the session with her dad while mom stayed behind. At that point, we were able to photograph baby Warren in the truck. Luckily I use photoshop for editing, and as long as I photograph the right components, I’m able to fairly easily put the two photos together later to create one image. This isn’t easy to do if you aren’t intentionally photographing for it, but in this case, I was so I made sure to get it right.

Here are a few of my favorite images from this newborn sibling session, including the composite image of Annabelle and Warren.

**If you are interested in scheduling a newborn session, please email dpotterphotography@gmail.com for more information, or call 206.225.8711

Renton Family Session | Renton – Maple Valley newborn-family photographer

October 17, 2015

This family session… what can I say? These guys were an awesome little trio! Their daughter was hovering right around the 18 month mark which can be a tricky age to photograph sometimes. She started out a little on the shy side, but after some time, she warmed up and came right out of her shell! It was pretty cute watching her point to the doggies in the park and say, “doggie!” When I spoke with momma before the session, she let me know that they hadn’t had any family photos done at all yet. They’ve only been in the state for a few months and weren’t even sure where to go. I was so happy they found me and chose me to capture these special moments for them. Here are a few of my favorites from their outdoor family session.

*If you are interested in booking a family session, you can find more information here.

*Please be sure to follow my Facebook page for up-to-date sneak peeks and behind the scenes!

Newborn Beach Session with baby girl Malia | Seattle outdoor newborn-baby photographer

September 30, 2015

For a newborn photographer who loves photographing babies outdoors, photographing a newborn beach session is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Add a sweet as can be baby girl to the mix and a momma who loves surfing, and you’ve got yourself the perfect combination! Sweet little Malia was about 8 days when she came to see me. There was a little wind on the beach that evening so we kept her nice and cozy and bundled up to stay extra warm. She slept for about 20 minutes which was long enough to get ‘the shot’, and as soon as she woke, we put her in momma’s arms for a gorgeous photo of the two of them just as the sun was dipping down below the horizon. If I lived at the beach where it was 80 degrees, I would be photographing babies there all the time! Here are a couple of Malia’s photos from her newborn beach session.

*If you are interested in scheduling your newborn session with Dawn Potter Photography, please use the contact me button in the upper right hand corner to get more info.

10 Signs You Might Be a Newborn Prop Shop-A-Holic

September 23, 2015

As any newborn photographer can tell you, becoming a newborn prop shop-a-holic is pretty much inevitable. Literally every-single-store you walk into has some really cute this or that or some amazing stealing deal on some type of ‘prop’ you can see yourself putting a baby into. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline not to max out every credit card in your wallet buying up all the cute little things that you see. And if it isn’t your ability to discipline yourself from the spending, you’ve probably got a hubby who gives you a good ole guilt trip every time you walk in the door with another package full of newborn props. To us, it’s like Christmas morning! To them, it’s like burning dollars! Let’s face it, there are just some things our hubbies will probably never understand. I put together this little list and I’m calling it ’10 Signs You Might Be a Newborn Prop Shop-A-Holic’ because I think, at some point, admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery 🙂

Sign #1 – You find yourself scouring Facebook for all the RTS (Ready to Ship) sales and set your phone calendar with the date and time that the sales start. You even make sure you have a reminder alarm programed to go off 5 minutes before the event opens and again at the time of, just so you don’t miss it or show up ‘late’ and miss out on that ONE THING YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT – even if you have no idea what that ‘thing’ is.

Sign #2 – You have joined the ‘secret groups’ for all the prop shops you love, (and even some you don’t) and have the notifications for all of them turned on so you don’t miss when they post their exclusive sales.

Sign #3 – You have purchased so many backdrops that you can’t remember which ones you have and you continue to buy the same backdrop in the same color over and over again JUST because it’s on sale! <<<<This has happened to me, not once but TWICE now! And I blame it on Sign #2

Sign #4 – You find yourself strategically checking the mail at times of the day when your hubby won’t be home so he won’t know how much you spent or that you ordered more props!

Sign #5 – When packages arrive and you see the sender’s name but can’t remember what it was you ordered, even though you just bought it last week, you might be a prop shop-a-holic.

Sign #6 – You’re planning a family vacation and part of your site seeing involves antiquing for the sole purpose of finding newborn props.

Sign #7 – You no longer have a set budget for prop shopping because it’s too depressing to see that you’re spending more than your budget allows. So instead of letting your budget guide you, you find ways to rationalize why you NEED a certain prop.

Sign #8 – You have run out of space to store your props and you have asked your husband to build something magnificent to store all your goodies. It doesn’t help that you have props you haven’t used in FOREVER but can’t even fathom letting them go because someday, somehow, you are going to use it again! It’s a vicious cycle.

Sign #9 – You have to use your monthly bank ledger to try to keep track of all the prop purchases you made to make sure you got everything you ordered. Sometimes orders fall through the cracks!

Sign #10 – Your friends (who are not newborn photographers) have started prop collecting on your behalf. << One of my best friends flew to Bali and came back with stretch wraps for me!

I’m sure there are way more signs of being a newborn prop shop-a-holic than the ones I mentioned and I would love for you to comment below with some of your own! And of course, if you know someone who is a prop shop-a-holic, feel free to share this post with them 🙂

Two Month Old Outdoor Newborn session | Seattle – Maple Valley newborn-baby photographer

September 21, 2015

This two month old baby boy came to me for his outdoor newborn session a few weeks ago. 99% of the time, when photographing newborns, I really try to get them in when they’re under 2 weeks old. This is when they’re still likely to be quite sleepy and we have the most success of capturing those curly little poses. However, every once in a while that timeframe really doesn’t work for a client. Sometimes babies need to spend a little extra time in the hospital before they can head home meaning they’re a little older when they come in for their session. Well, Axel was one of those little guys. Born about a month early, he wasn’t able to come see me until he was right around 10 weeks old. He was still just a tiny little guy; still not even 10 lbs- and let me tell you, even though he didn’t sleep a wink, we still had an amazing outdoor session! I don’t think the guy made a peep the entire time we were together. I kept him swaddled up nice and tight, and he just kept staring me down with his gorgeous big eyes. He was amazing and such a joy to photograph! Sharing a few of my faves from his session.

If you are interested in scheduling a newborn session with me, please use the contact me button in the upper right hand corner to get more information.