Sessions

Real Sessions

The portfolio shows my best photographs. This page shows a whole session, as it happened — including the parts that were nothing like the plan.

A portfolio is a photographer's best work, chosen one frame at a time. It is useful, but it answers the wrong question. What most parents actually want to know is simpler: what will we get?

So this page is the ordinary thing rather than the exceptional one: a whole session, in the order it happened. More will follow, and what they will mostly show is that no two look alike.

A first baby, wide awake

In the studio · the longer session

They were expecting their first, and they wrote to ask which session to book. With one baby and no older brothers or sisters, the shorter one would have covered it — and I said so.

They chose the longer one anyway. Two hours instead of one.

He woke up about twenty minutes in and stayed awake for most of it. On a shorter session that would have been the session: a handful of frames, and time up. With two hours we simply photographed him awake — those dark eyes going straight down the lens — and then waited, and photographed him asleep when he was ready. Both halves are on this page.

The other thing two hours buys is the ordinary parts. He needed winding partway through and went up on his mother's shoulder while we stopped. Several of the best pictures here come from exactly that: nothing arranged, nobody posed, just the four of us still in the room. +

A mother resting her face behind her swaddled newborn's head, both in profile
Close view of a newborn's ear and the fold of the wrap around them
A father leaning over the mother as she holds their sleeping newborn, in black and white
A father leaning over the mother as she holds their sleeping newborn in both arms
Both parents seated together in the studio holding their newborn, a round mirror on the wall behind
Both parents forehead to forehead, holding their sleeping newborn between them
Both parents standing by a window holding their newborn, the studio wall bare around them
Both parents nose to nose while holding their swaddled newborn, in black and white
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap, held in their mother's arms
A mother holding her swaddled newborn in both arms and looking down at them
A mother holding her swaddled newborn against her chest and looking down at them, in black and white
A mother seated in an armchair holding her swaddled newborn, looking at the camera
A father leaning down to kiss his sleeping newborn's head
A newborn asleep in a wrap, a hand supporting their head on a textured blanket, in black and white
Both parents lying down with their sleeping newborn, smiling at the camera
Both parents leaning over their swaddled newborn, the mother kissing the baby's head, in black and white
A father kissing the mother's cheek as they lie beside their sleeping newborn
Both parents lying down on either side of their sleeping newborn
A mother lying beside her sleeping newborn and smiling at the camera
A mother lying down and kissing her newborn, the studio room visible behind
A mother lying beside her swaddled newborn on a white bed, in black and white
A mother lying down with her cheek resting against her sleeping newborn
A newborn curled asleep in a white wrap on a white backdrop, in black and white
A newborn asleep in a cream wrap on a cream backdrop, feet showing
Both parents standing together in the studio, holding their swaddled newborn
A mother holding her swaddled newborn up to her face and kissing them, against a bright background
A mother kissing her newborn in low light, in black and white
A mother kissing her newborn's forehead, the baby asleep in her arms
A newborn looking upward while their parents kiss above them
A father kissing the mother's forehead as they both hold their swaddled newborn, in black and white
A father kissing the mother's forehead while she holds their newborn, backlit by a window
Both parents standing close together holding their newborn, backlit by a bright window
Both parents standing forehead to forehead, holding their swaddled newborn between them against a bright window
A father leaning nose to nose with his newborn held in his arms, in black and white
A father smiling down at his newborn held in both arms, in black and white
A father holding his newborn against his chest, his face lowered to the baby's head
Close-up of an awake newborn in a wrap looking upward, a hand supporting their head, in black and white
A newborn awake in a light wrap, a hand cradling their head on a textured blanket, in black and white
A newborn's feet held in a mother's hands against her chin, in black and white
A newborn awake in a wrap on a white backdrop, in black and white
A newborn awake in a cream wrap on a cream backdrop, looking towards the camera
Extreme close-up of a newborn's closed fist, in black and white
A newborn curled asleep in a loose wrap on a white blanket, in black and white
Very close view of a newborn's open eye and nose
Close view of a newborn's face in low light, in black and white
Very close view of an awake newborn's face beside a parent's finger
A newborn awake in a cream wrap, lying on a cream backdrop

Why the whole session, and not five frames

A portfolio picture is chosen. A session is what happened.

What you see above is one morning, in order — awake and asleep, the posed parts and the parts where we had stopped. It is the honest answer to what will we get, and it is a different answer for every family, which is the reason I do not photograph to a plan.

If there is something about yours that makes you wonder whether it will work — a toddler who will not sit still, a dog you want in the pictures, a grandparent visiting from abroad that week — tell me when you write. It is almost certainly not the first time.

Ask about a session See the portfolio