Newborn Photos With Older Brothers and Sisters

You're 2 weeks in, running on not much sleep, and there's a 3 year old orbiting the lounge room asking for a snack.

A newborn family photoshoot with an older brother or sister in it is one of my favourite mornings to photograph, and I'd like to take the pressure off it well before I arrive.

It's louder than you're imagining. It moves more. It's also over faster than you'd think, and almost all of the good frames come out of the mess of it.

Most of my newborn photography in Sydney happens in your own home, in whichever room holds the best light that morning, with everyone in soft clothes and bare feet.

What a newborn family photoshoot with a toddler actually looks like

Roughly 20 minutes of real cooperation from your older child, then a long, lovely tail of them doing their own thing while I keep photographing.

That 20 minutes is plenty. I plan the whole session around it.

Your toddler will want to hold the baby, then want nothing to do with the baby, then want to hold the baby again. All 3 of those are usable.

I take the sibling frames first

The first pictures I make are the ones with your older child in them, while their attention is fresh and the morning is still interesting to them.

Big sister cross legged on the bed with the baby in her lap. A small hand resting on a tiny foot. All 4 of you piled together on the mattress in a heap.

Then I let them go.

Once those frames are safe, everything after them is a bonus, and the quiet ones of your newborn alone are the easiest part of the day. Those can happen while your toddler builds something loud in the next room.

Give your older child a job

A child with a job is a child who's on your side.

The jobs that work best are small and specific. Holding the baby's hand. Counting the toes out loud. Choosing which wrap I use. Being the person who tells me the moment the baby yawns.

Kisses are the best job of all, because a kiss gives a child somewhere to put their face and a reason to lean in. I ask for one and get a real kiss about half the time. The rest of the time I get a head bump, a giggle, and a photo I like more.

Older children, 7 or 8, can carry more than that, and some of the family photoshoot ideas I use on regular family sessions work just as well with a newborn in the room.

Let your older child move

I'd rather follow a toddler than pose one.

Jumping on the bed beside the baby. Running out of frame and back into it. Climbing into your lap without being asked.

This is most of why I shoot lifestyle newborn sessions in your home rather than building a studio setup in your lounge room. Movement is allowed, so nobody has to be managed.

A child who's free to move settles sooner. They come back to the bed on their own, usually just as the baby stretches.

The frame you'll love is probably the blurry one

There's nearly always a picture where your older one has thrown their head back laughing and their hands are a soft smear across the bottom of it.

That's the one you'll print.

I'll give you plenty of clean, still, sharp frames as well. The picture that sounds like your house is usually the one with movement in it.

In 10 years you'll look at that photo and hear the room.

Timing it around your toddler, not the clock

Mid morning suits most families. After the first nap, before lunch gets urgent.

Feed the baby just before I arrive if the timing works, and let your older child have a proper snack while I'm setting up.

I allow 2 to 3 hours, and about half of that goes on feeding, settling, a nappy change and a short negotiation about pants.

Being a Hills District photographer means I'm often 20 minutes from your door, so I can arrive gently and let the morning find its own pace.

What to have ready

Clean sheets on your bed in white or something close to it, because your bed is where most of this happens.

Clothes everyone can move in, in colours that sit near each other. Cream, oatmeal, dusty blue, soft grey.

Your older child's favourite book, because reading to the baby is the single easiest thing in the world to photograph.

Curtains open and lamps off. Daylight does everything I need.

What your older child takes away from it

Older siblings tend to treat the camera like proof.

They want to be seen holding the baby, and they want you to see them do it. Being photographed as the big brother is part of how a child starts believing he is one.

So when your 3 year old announces he's finished and goes off to find the dog, that's fine by me. I've already got the frames that matter, and I'll photograph the dog too.