Baby Smith - Newborn Session

Okay, this is my last post about the Oliver family and then I’ll shut up I promise.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Smith surprised us all and arrived a week early on August 2nd, 2019. Between my own personal audition for The Fast and the Furious XVII getting to the hospital and the excitement of meeting newborn baby Smith and getting to watch Cooper meet his new brother – it was all a bit of an adrenaline rush.

So, on Smith’s originally scheduled C-section date of August 9th, I visited the Oliver family for a newborn session. I will say, I haven't done a lot of newborn sessions. I'm thinking that will all change since I've unlocked the Pandora's Box that is births (aka, I'm obsessed with filming and photographing them now!). I've seen a lot of newborn photos -- you know the ones where the baby is wrapped in a stretchy, appropriately colored muslin wrap and they look like a little baby burrito or they just look like a sleeping doll that has been positioned in some very unnatural position for a baby to be in? I'm not hatin'. Some of my favorite photos of my nieces are their cute little baby burrito photos. It's just not my style.

I'm way less into the poses and way more into just capturing what is really going on, and in this case, it was Sarah and Ben, Sarah's lovely mum Leslie, big brother Cooper, baby Smith, four-legged brother Charlie, and first feline baby, Ella. All I did was spend an hour with this amazing group of people (and fur-people), taking photos of them spending this precious time together. No baby burritos on this day.

There isn’t much more to this post apart from the ridiculously cute photos below, but I just have to say that I am so grateful to the Oliver’s for trusting me to be such a part of their journey to have Smith. I stand by the fact that birth is a hugely sacred and intimate thing, and they let me – a total stranger – document their journey. Of course, we aren’t strangers any longer, but the Oliver’s will forever hold a place in my heart for being the first couple I was able to document in my Hello Baby! series.

I am hard at work on their mini-documentary, but below are some of my favorites from Smith’s newborn session, as well as their Hello Baby! highlight video.