The Joy of Capturing Baby Milestones

Milestone Sessions are a beautiful way to freeze moments in time, preserving memories of your little one as they grow. The image above perfectly encapsulates the essence of baby milestones: soft lighting, a joyful expression, and a minimalist backdrop bring focus to the child’s natural charm.

---

Why Milestone Photography Matters

Every parent knows that babies grow up in the blink of an eye. Milestone photography allows families to capture and celebrate important stages in their child’s life, such as crawling, sitting up, or their first birthday. These photographs beautifully showcases a baby’s milestone of sitting independently—a proud moment for any parent!

Elements of a Perfect Baby Portrait

1. Natural Expression: Babies have an innate ability to light up a room with their smile or curious gaze. In this photo, the baby’s playful yet calm demeanor draws the viewer in. Allowing the child to remain comfortable and interact naturally ensures authentic moments like these.
2. Neutral and Soft Backdrop: Using a clean, white or neutral background removes distractions and keeps the focus on the baby. This minimalistic approach also enhances the timelessness of the image.
3. Soft Lighting: Gentle lighting, like the kind used here, creates a warm, cozy atmosphere while avoiding harsh shadows on delicate baby skin.
4. Simple Wardrobe: The baby’s off-white romper complements the backdrop while adding a touch of elegance. Opting for neutral or pastel tones avoids clashing colors and creates a cohesive look.

---

Preserving the Precious Moments

Baby portraits like the one above are more than just pictures—they’re cherished memories frozen in time.

Welcoming a new baby into the family is one of life’s most beautiful and transformative experiences. Every little detail, from tiny fingers to to first smiles feels like a miracle worth celebrating. While no parent wants to forget these moments, the reality is that time moves fast and babies grow faster.

This is where a baby photography plan comes in. Not only does a Baby Plan help preserve these memories but it also allows families to document their baby’s journey.

Babies go through remarkable changes in their first year. From the sleepiness of newborn days to the expressions of early toddlerhood, each stage has its own unique beauty. The Baby Plan ensures that milestones are being captured. This can be maternity, newborn, sitting up, crawling and their first steps.

Most parents these days take plenty of pictures on their phones, however, there is something special about having a professional photographer document your baby’s growth.

Booking multiple photography sessions throughout a year can be a daunting task but when you book the Baby Plan, you are guaranteed to get multiple sessions booked at one time. With a Baby Plan, you are telling the story of your baby’s first year.

The Baby Plan is designed in one of two collections.

Maternity | Newborn | 6 Months | One Year Portraits + Cake Smash

or

Newborn | 6 Months | One Year Portraits + Cake Smash

The Baby Plan offers multiple perks to you throughout your baby’s first year and beyond. Some of the perks are:

DISCOUNTED SESSIONS- BUNDLED 

GALLERY UPGRADE FROM 399 T0 199

20% OFF PRINTS AND PRODUCTS 

MINIS DISCOUNTED TO 20% OFF (MOTHERHOOD, CHRISTMAS)

ONCE SESSIONS ARE COMPLETE- ENTER INTO VIP PROGRAM- CONTINUOUS DISCOUNTED MINI SESSIONS

PERSONALIZED STYLING AND USE OF CLIENT WARDROBE 

PROFESSIONAL EDITING 

DESIGN + ORDERING APPOINTMENT TO CHOOSE FINAL ARTWORK 

FIRST ACCESS TO MINI SESSION BOOKING

Prints and products are the kind of keepsakes that you will cherish forever. They make stunning gifts for grandparents, and close family. You can get a variety of wall art made such as framed prints, canvases, metal art, and more. It doesn’t end there though because we love a good album, brag book, memory box and linen boxes filled with beautiful prints.

Hey mama! Are you considering a Fresh 48 session while still in the hospital? Let’s chat about it.

Fresh 48 photo sessions are held within the first 48 hours of giving birth to your new baby. Fresh 48s are a beautiful way to capture the raw, emotive, and unfiltered moments with your newborn.

1. Capturing the early moments.
   • Newborns change rapidly especially within the very first few days. A Fresh 48 session lets you capture all of the details that might soon fade as your baby gets out of the newborn stage. Tiny fingers, the newborn scrunch and the wrinkles all change so quick.
2. Natural and unposed.
   • Fresh 48 sessions are more often relaxed and natural. This helps to focus on the genuine interactions and emotions that you share as a family with your new baby. This truly gives a look into what your life was like when a new chapter started.
3. Preserve those memories beyond a cell phone.
   • I truly do appreciate the cameras that so many phone now have. However, having a photographer come into the hospital to capture these beautiful moments allows your entire family to just be in the moment and not needing to worry about their phones or not even being able to be in the photos. Don’t miss out on these moments as a family.
4. Special keepsakes for your baby.
   • Imagine years from now showing your kid what they were like as a newborn. These images are a unique keepsake that shows them just how loved they were from the very beginning.
5. A milestone you will never get back.
   • Life with a newborn moves quickly. The first few days are a sleepless blur of emotions and adjustments. These memories can honestly be difficult to recall as time passes by.

I love getting to spend mornings with families at the hospital. So how does it work?

Fill out the inquiry form on the website. I cannot wait to learn about your growing family and what your vision is. Please note that I only take on a certain amount of due dates per month.

Once you are booked, I go on call starting at 38 weeks through 42 weeks. This essentially means that I know you have a baby due and I won’t be going out of town and I am ready to head to the hospital shortly after baby makes their arrival.

I always recommend that families reach out when mom goes into labor, this gives me the adequate time to make sure that I will have daycare covered, rearrange plans and so on.

Fresh 48 sessions typically take place starting at about 10am in the hospital. This is usually after testing has been done, rounds have been made and mama has had time to shower and eat some breakfast.

Fresh 48 sessions take less than an hour in time and are completely relaxed. While I give some guidance on posing, I really just want to document your family during this special time.

Who can attend the Fresh 48? I usually just recommend it to be the immediate family but that doesn’t mean that grandmas and grandpas haven’t gotten in on a photo or two with the new baby while they are picking up or dropping off a sibling.

What do I bring with me for the Fresh 48? I honestly don’t bring much with me other than my camera. I love when parents use the swaddles and onesies from the hospital, it really gives the authenticiy of the hospital stay but many parents bring items with.

Here are some things families bring with to the hospital.

• Swaddle (sometimes matches mama’s robe)
• Special blanket or swaddle (some choose to use this for the bassinet mattress cover, others choose to swaddle baby)
• Name plaque
• Bows or hats

What do you wear for a Fresh 48?

• I always recommend that families dress in non bright clothing to avoid color casting.
• Many mamas wear a robe and comfy pants while others dress up a bit more. There is no right or wrong to this.
• Dads typically wear jeans or lounge pants.

How far do I drive for Fresh 48s? Columbus, Portage, Madison, Beaver Dam, Watertown, Sauk City and other surrounding cities.

There is something truly magical about celebrating a baby’s first birthday. It is a joyful milestone for not just the little one but for their entire family. I have been lucky enough to watch this sweet boy grow since he was in his mama’s belly. One of the most greatest traditions is a One Year Cake Smash Portrait Session. It is messy, fun-filled and a great way for babies to experience cake.

Recently, I had the pleasure of photographing Mav’s cake smash session and let me tell you, he was all smiles.

For Mav’s session, mama and I worked together to decide what outfits to go with (mama had some ideas and they were absolutely perfect). When we knew the colors of the outfit that mama wanted him in for the cake smash portion, I sent the photo off to my local baker that I use for every cake smash.

Cake Smashes always take place in the Rio, WI Studio and are minimalistic and clean setup. The focus is entirely on baby and it honestly makes for the most classic and beautiful portraits. I love that Mav’s parents also chose to do the Parent Add-On where they can jump in front of the camera as well to get some beautiful family portraits to really add to the excitement of their baby turning one. The fact that mom and dad stood in my studio one year ago with a brand new baby and then again one year later was so exciting.

The cake itself was perfect as always, Nikki- my baker had made the cake absolutely perfect and matches Mav’s outfit wonderfully.

Cake Smashes are truly a unique way to mark your baby’s first year. They are a blend of celebration, exploration, and joy. I not only tell parents that we are celebrating their baby’s first birthday but them. They made it through their first year with their baby and that is worth celebrating too!

• instagram.com/finchmaestudio