One of the toughest photo requests I get during newborn sessions, and one that I deeply understand the motivation for, is a shot with the baby and sibling/s—especially when there’s uncertainty about being able to hold the baby safely. There are lots of different approaches for this like propping them up between pillows on a couch or bed, or laying them side-by-side on the floor. But my favorite find during this recent session is when there are older siblings who can confidently hold the baby, to let the siblings interact and not really pose them at all.

Aren’t these children adorable with their matching blonde hair?! And then their dog even sat in for a portrait! Impressive!

When you have a larger family, I feel like a lifestyle session is really the best way to go. There is so much to photograph so why not capture the whole family in a free and lighthearted way?

I love using shallow depth of field to lead viewers to the main focal point, but with just enough detail out of focus to tell the story. It’s important for me to have everyone comfortable and feel part of the shoot before we break away to focus on just baby and parents.

And this little sweetie pie, stayed awake for the whole session and was so pleasant!

The kids were so great for this session, but they were naturally getting a bit restless, and we had one more family portrait in mind. And I love the result. Dads have a knack for embracing the chaos and this shot makes me smile to see big brother upside down. We have a photo like that too, when my second son was born. Maybe that’s why I like this one so much? Even though my oldest wasn’t into begin photographed that morning, I’m so glad our photographer captured our chaos.

And this last shot is a happy conclusion to this in-home newborn session. What a sweet and blessed family!