Photographing Older Newborn Babies

Photographing Older Newborn Babies

Baby Christina

Normally newborn photography sessions are conducting when babies are under 3 weeks of age – with a preference for the first 2 weeks. The reason behind this is that babies are still all curled up (from being snuggled inside the womb for 9 months), are REALLY sleepy and are happy to be moved and posed.

….. But this does not mean that we cannot take GORGEOUS photos of older newborn babies! Quite the opposite actually – I can ABSOLUTELY take beautiful newborn photos of babies that are in the 4 to 12 week old bracket.

The recent health crisis of the Coronavirus COVID-19 has impacted newborn photography in many ways. Like other newborn photographers around the world, I shut down my studio during the peak of the crisis in Australia. For my clients that had their babies born during the ‘stay-at-home’ shut down period, this meant that I was unable to photograph their newborn babies during the first three weeks after birth.

Baby Christina is one of those babies. At the point that I was able to re-open my studio, little Christina was already over 5 weeks old. Her mum really wanted ‘newborn’ photos, and feared that she had missed out. We scheduled her session and I assured her that I would be able to to take beautiful, professional photos of Christina, even though she was an ‘older’ newborn baby.

Sydney Northern Beaches Newborn Photography

Like all of my newborn photography sessions, each shoot is styled to match YOUR taste. Christina’s mum wanted pretty and pink and she LOVED teddy bear hats and outfits. She had seen this pose that I had taken with a 2 week old and loved the pink soft fluffy rug. So I tweaked the set-up to include a bear theme. Thankfully, Christina still fit into my newborn baby bear outfit. All the props are included in your session. This amazingly soft hand-knitted outfit has come all the way from a lovely and VERY talented lady in Italy, here is the link to her page: Fluffy Knits

Best Sydney Newborn Photographer

How are the photos of ‘older’ newborns different to the under 3 week old session?

They are not really that different! There are some poses that your baby may not do anymore – anatomically, your older baby has started to stretch our their limbs, joints are now more ‘locked’ and they will not curl up and ‘squish’ quite as easily (you may have noticed your baby weirdly stretching and straightening out their legs while you are getting them dressed!). I work with your baby and their preferences – we do the poses that are comfortable for your baby! Easy – right.

Newborn Photography Sydney

We also start the session with your baby wrapped up, as this will help them feel the most secure and drift off to sleep. This photo below of little Christina all wrapped up in yellow, is one of my favourites from her gallery. I love how she looks like a little sunshine teddy bear. She was so happy here and it allowed her to settle into a nice deep sleep.

Sydney Newborn Photography

The ‘older’ your baby, the more awake they will be, which means I need to be clever in how I move them between set-ups to not wake them up. As a specialised newborn photographer, this is what I am good at! As I have been doing this for almost 10 years now, I have become the ‘master’ at keeping babies sleepy and comfortable.

Syndey Newborn Photography Chatswood

While mixing up the wraps (and working down to taking them off completely), we can create lots of different looks. How pretty is the delicate knit wrap in the image above!! It gives just enough coverage, while still being able to see all of baby Christina. This lovely knit wrap is made be a prop maker (who has become a dear friend) in Ohio USA – check out all of her hand-knitted props here: Ewe Baby

Newborn photographer Sydney

There is a ‘plus’ to your baby being more awake! We can take ‘awake’ shots with older newborn babies. These images allow us to capture cute and funny expressions which shows your baby’s amazing personality! Look at all of the brilliant expressions of little Christina – aren’t they just the BEST!

Newborn Photography Babies Sydney

Please do not worry that you have ‘missed’ out on newborn photos. If your baby is under 12 weeks (particularly if they are under 8 weeks), we can still take ‘newborn’ photos for you. This is such an important milestone in your child’s life and I will work my heart out to help you capture it. I would love to hear from you.

Rebecca Connolly Photography is an award-winning photographer specialising in newborn baby and family photography. Rebecca Connolly Photography was a Finalist in the 2019 Local Business Awards – and we thank all of our amazing clients for voting for us. With over 10 years of experience photographing newborns and babies we are so happy to have been a part of capturing memories for so many families in the greater Sydney area. To enquire about booking a Sydney photography session with Rebecca Connolly – click HERE

Sydney Newborn Photographers Network

Sydney Newborn Photographers Network

Community over Competition

Sydney Newborn Photographers

To continue my role in providing education and support for newborn photographers, I founded the Sydney Newborn Photographers Network.

I have been a newborn photographer for over 10 years. During this time, I have watched my industry grow and blossom. What started out as a boutique number of photographers offering newborn photos to their existing clients, has grown into recognised and respect specialised area of photography.

As I have worked to develop, refine and excel my craft, I have been fortunate to have been selected to be an industry leader – to teach, mentor and educate new photographers starting out their journey in newborn photography. I have embraced this role, and have taught workshops and spoken at conferences all over the world. I have proudly watched my fellow ‘mentees’ find their creative path and build their newborn photography businesses.

However, newborn photography can be a lonely profession. Working on your own, there is no ‘staff’ or team mates to bounce ideas off. Your local photographers, are often viewed as your ‘competition’.

To continue my role in providing education and support for newborn photographers, I founded the Sydney Newborn Photographers Network earlier this year. In just a few short months, over 100 Sydney newborn photographers have joined the Network group. The purpose of this group is for Sydney Newborn Photographers to meet new people, support each other and to build a community. Our First Networking Event

First Networking Event

We had the first Sydney Newborn Photographers Network event on Sunday 1 March 2020. The event was held at my brand new studio in Castle Cove (on the Sydney North Shore). It was fabulous to see existing friends and to meet a bunch of new photographers as well. We enjoyed an afternoon of chatting and making new friends, learning some tips to help our business … and all over afternoon tea and coffee. Little did we know at the time, that this would be the last social ‘group’ event for everyone, with the Coronavirus COVID-19 social isolation lock-down provisions commencing only a few weeks later.

Sydney Newborn Photography

With a focus on education, our meet-up functions have a guest speaker that presents on a topic that is relevant to newborn photography. We were lucky enough to have the amazing Stephanie Gabrio from SG Digital Marketing attend our Network event as a guest speaker, to discuss SEO, Google Adwords and digital marketing for Sydney newborn photographers. Stephanie’s presentation was fabulous – with simple tips targeting specifically for newborn photographers and coupled with encouragement for each of to work on our digital marketing.

Want to Join?

I would love for your to join the Sydney Newborn Photography Network group. We have created a Facebook Group – and it is totally free to join! It is a great way to connect with other like-minded newborn photographers, create support networks and make new friends. Once you have joined the FB group, you will have access to all our information posts, including any upcoming networking events. Click the link below, which will take you to the Facebook Group, and then ‘request’ to join …. super simple!

SYDNEY NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHERS NETWORK GROUP (click here)

With the Coronavirus restriction on social gatherings being lifted in Australia, we hope to be able to have another networking event soon. We will be discussing ideas for the topics for our next guest speaker soon. Let me know if you have any thoughts on topics you would like to covered.

I hope to see you in the Sydney Newborn Photographers Network Group … and to meet you at one of our future events!

Rebecca Connolly Photography is an award-winning photographer specialising in newborn baby and family photography. Rebecca Connolly Photography was a Finalist in the 2019 Local Business Awards – and we thank all of our amazing clients for voting for us. With over 10 years of experience photographing newborns and babies we are so happy to have been a part of capturing memories for so many families in the greater Sydney area. To enquire about booking a Sydney photography session with Rebecca Connolly – click HERE

Sydney Newborn Photography Chatswood

Seaglass Jewellery by Kriket Broadhurst

Unique Seaglass Jewellery Inspired by the Ocean

Guest Blog Article by

Lindsay Hunter | Kriket Broadhurst Jewellery

 I was a fan & customer of Kriket’s jewellery long before I was invited to join her business. Previously I had only seen seaglass jewellery designed in a very obvious way – huge jagged chunks of glass wrapped clumsily in wire, perhaps sitting next to a silver sea turtle or fish, nothing too unusual or creative. 

Kriket’s style is much more subtle and elegant, small perfectly frosted pieces of glass hung on delicate earring hooks or chain or sculpturally set within a gold or silver bezel on a ring. She has always believed authentic seaglass is beautiful enough to take centre stage without too many unnecessary embellishments. I now work alongside Kriket, bringing my design background to good use. Over the past year we have been growing the business and developing some new gorgeous designs. 

Much of our seaglass has been collected by Kriket’s own hand from Seaham Beach in England where, until 1921, the largest glass-bottle works in Britain was located. Londonderry Bottleworks produced up to 20,000 hand-blown bottles. At the end of the day, any discarded and waste glass was dumped into the North Sea. After many years of ‘surf tumbling’ the glass is washed up on Seaham beaches with every tide. Some of the glass is more than a hundred years old, polished smooth by Mother Nature. Some of our most incredible pieces of glass have come from Seaham, including some “multi’s” (see photo). For the rarer colours such as teal, aqua and cobalt blue, we have excellent glass collectors we know and trust in Iceland, Japan & America.

Kriket is an absolute perfectionist when it comes to the authenticity of our seaglass, the origins and quality of our metal, and the care we take in the making process. Over the years she has owned her own jewellery shop in Wales, exhibited in galleries, and sold at numerous markets both in the UK and Australia. Upon returning to Australia 4 years ago, and after much market research, Kriket concluded that the Manly Market is the best point of sale for our jewellery. Our typical customer has a relaxed, elegant sense of style coupled with a love of nature, and an appreciation of hand-crafted pieces.  Manly is definitely home to many of our customers but it also attracts tourists both national and International who are in pursuit of quality, crafted goods that are hard to find. 

We have a stall in Many on most weekends,  just opposite Ground Zero cafe, where new and returning customers come to see us. Many of them started with one pair of seaglass earrings, and have since come back for a custom-made ring, a necklace for their sister, a bangle for their mother. They respect the care we take in selecting the glass, the uncompromising quality of our craftsmanship and materials, our genuine and and helpful customer service as well as the desire to own or give unique, bespoke jewellery.

We had big plans for the further growth of our business for 2020. We were planning on returning several times to Handmade Canberra Market, a wonderful event full of high calibre band-crafted produce. We wanted to host more invitation-only shopping events, and even workshops. However, as it has been for most people Worldwide, the Coronavirus has thrown a rather large spanner in the works. For the time being, we are holed up in our individual homes trying to entertain and home school our young children and stay healthy and sane. We are both still managing to work on aspects of the business even during this hard time.

Thankfully, just before the virus really took a hold of Sydney, we managed to build up our online catalogue so the large majority of our products are available there, and on Etsy, with more to come in following weeks. This makes it easy for some isolation couch shopping, while eating your way through your emergency supply of snacks.

We are taking part in the ‘Mother’s Day Virtual Market this Sunday 26 April 2020 at 9am Visit www.handmadecanberra.com.au.For any customers that shop with Kriket Broadhurst Jewellery on that day, we will be offering a 15% discount plus free shipping within Australia. Simply use the code HANDMADEVIRTUAL15% at checkout.

💚

Lindsay Hunter

Rebecca Connolly Photography is an award-winning photographer specialising in newborn baby and family photography. Rebecca Connolly Photography was a Finalist in the 2019 Local Business Awards – and we thank all of our amazing clients for voting for us. With over 10 years of experience photographing newborns and babies we are so happy to have been a part of capturing memories for so many families in the greater Sydney area. To enquire about booking a Sydney photography session with Rebecca Connolly – click HERE

NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHY SYDNEY

SYDNEY BABY AND FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY

FINDING YOUR CONFIDENCE AGAIN DURING THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES

Finding Your Confidence Again During These Uncertain Times

Guest Blog Article by

Mimi Fong | NLP Life Coaching

Our world has changed dramatically in a short space of time.

Whether you’re stuck at home with the kids or out there doing what you need to keep a roof over your family’s head, we’re all doing it tough right now.

Most of us are facing an uncertain future as we are forced to adapt to changing goal posts …

… triggering our anxieties big time …

… affecting our confidence levels massively …

When we became mums, our lives also changed as we devoted all our energy and efforts to raising our children.

They became our priority as we put ourselves last.

And over time, we started to lose our sense of self, who we are, and what we are capable of … as our confidence also started to fall.

So … throw self-isolation into the mix, job loss or working from home full-time, greater financial uncertainty, and home-schooling … and it’s a recipe for a complete Confidence Crisis!

As a Master NLP Practitioner and Life Coach, I’ve seen this pattern with all my clients who are parents.

That loss of identity and confidence is almost like a rite of passage to parenthood.

But it doesn’t have to be …

No matter your circumstances and what is happening around you, you can find your Confidence again.

So here are 2 simple things you can do …

Step 1

Confidence is based on your beliefs about yourself.

How capable and worthy you believe you are …

Let me ask you a question …

When was the last time you did something for yourself … that was just for you?

Or the last time that you spent money on yourself? That was purely just for you and no one else …?

I’m betting your answer will be … ‘I can’t remember’, ‘never’ or ‘not in a long time’ … am I right?!

At the risk of coming across as sexist … as women, we always tend to put other people first.

We want to be everything to everyone.

Because biologically, we’re wired to nurture and support.

We are the creators of life.

It’s what we were put on this earth to do … biologically …

And that’s also our downfall.

Because as much as it’s wonderful being a nurturer and mother to a little person, it’s also a curse …

Because we almost always inevitably end up putting ourselves last!

And when we do that, our self-confidence is negatively impacted.

Because we’re telling ourselves that we’re not worth it … every single time.

If we were on a plane that was about to crash in the ocean, we would ignore the flight attendant’s instructions to put our oxygen mask on first … as we would instinctively reach for our child’s mask …

That decision might save our child … but it could also doom us!

Sacrificing ourselves for another might seem the right thing to do … but what happens after that?

Our children might survive … but they wouldn’t have a mother …

As a mum myself, if my daughter’s life was being threatened, I wouldn’t hesitate to give mine to save hers.

I get that.

But what if you had a way to save you both?

What if I told you that you didn’t have to sacrifice yourself to save your child?

Wouldn’t you want to take that option?

If there was a way for me to be there for my child, be there for all her milestones, and be the best I could be for her, I’d take it in a heartbeat

So what is this way?

It’s simple and also counter-intuitive

Tell yourself you’re worth it.

Put yourself first.

Then crucially [and please listen to this] … back it up with action.

Do something to show yourself that you mean it.

Because until you do, those words and intentions don’t mean anything.

Nothing changes.

But isn’t that being selfish, I hear you say?

And being selfish is a bad thing, isn’t it??

Yes it is … if you do it so that it harms others …

So I’m going to teach you a new way of being selfish

… where you put yourself first and it helps others …!

Put on your oxygen mask first.

By doing that, you’re telling your child that you’re worth saving … which means they are too.

And by action, I don’t just mean reading hundreds of self-help books and blogs and doing nothing with them.

Find out what you need to do to save yourself, and then GO DO IT!

Invest in yourself … emotionally and mentally if you can’t do it financially …

Put yourself first.

Show yourself you are worth it.

Start small if you need to … eg. 10 minutes of ME time every day.

And build from there.

Because if you don’t do it, how can you expect your child to? …

Step 2

Practice self-compassion.

Notice the negative or critical voice in your head.

Take a pause and reframe it.

Say to yourself ‘It’s ok. I’m doing the best that I can.’

Shift the focus to what you can do … and do it.

Because self-criticism is the enemy of confidence.

It sabotages your ability to do.

It sabotages your self-worth.

So there you go. Two super simple strategies you can apply right now to find your confidence again.

And if you want to learn more confidence finding strategies or have any questions, you can either email me directly at mimi@mimifong.com.au or JOIN MY VIP WAIT LIST to be one of the first to find out about a super special offer I’ll be announcing in the next month where I’ll be giving away free access to my Confidence Creation Course …

Mimi

Rebecca Connolly Photography is an award-winning photographer specialising in newborn baby and family photography. Rebecca Connolly Photography was a Finalist in the 2019 Local Business Awards – and we thank all of our amazing clients for voting for us. With over 10 years of experience photographing newborns and babies we are so happy to have been a part of capturing memories for so many families in the greater Sydney area. To enquire about booking a Sydney photography session with Rebecca Connolly – click HERE

Process Art’ for Kids – encouraging creativity and critical thinking through artwork

Process Art’ for Kids – encouraging creativity and critical thinking through artwork

Guest Blog Article by

Victoria Maslennikova

Hello, I am Victoria and I run a children’s art studio in Killara – WonderLab Art Studio. I opened this business just recently and was doing pretty well before COVID-19. There is a lack of creative activities in the area and I think I have found my niche market.

Newborn Photography Sydney art studio for kids

Let me tell you a little bit about my studio, why I decided to open it and what I do.

I used to be an early childhood teacher in the past and I worked at a day care centre for a couple of years. This is where I developed my love and passion for young children’s art. I started researching this area and found out there is an art industry that is really booming at the moment in the US – ‘process art‘ children’s art studios. I decided to give it a go and rented a space in Killara in October last year.

To understand how my approach to art teaching is different to other approaches, I must say that I am NOT a professional artist and I don’t teach children formal art. What I teach is called ‘process art‘.

In process art children are given materials and simple guidelines or techniques for working with materials, and what they create with these materials and techniques is completely up to them. During the class I will be mentoring them on fine motor tips, on the effective ways of using art media, but I will never criticise their artistic choices, the way they combine materials or ask them to follow step-by-step instructions of how to create something. At the end of the process art project, all the art works look different and unique.

Have a look at this example – the children were given a series of strategies on acrylic painting and then they were asked to paint a turtle using the painting strategies they had learnt. Everyone was approaching this task at her own skill level and all the art works look unique!

Newborn Photography art studio kids Sydney

Why is this approach to art education effective?

First of all, when children create their own art instead of following teacher’s instructions they are practicing their creative thinking skills, problem-solving and imagination. There are no step-by-step rules of how to make things and children have to use their creativity to finish the project. This really makes them think and create – qualities that are highly important not only for becoming an artist in the future but in all other spheres.

Newborn Photography art studio kids

Secondly, our school education is not very good with instilling creativity in children. If you look at the type of tasks schools assign to children – they are mostly literacy and numeracy tasks where children have to drill and memorise facts and information. It is good for training memory but not very good for developing creativity. Even art and craft tasks that children are asked to perform at school are usually very simple colour-in or step-by-step drawing tasks that do not develop creativity. That is why process art studios offer unique and important experiences for children – experiences that develop creative thinking skills and imagination.

Newborn Photography Sydney art studio kids

I hope the COVID-19 situation will finish soon and I will be able to continue developing my business in the studio, but in the meantime, I am busy developing my online program. I am planning to start running Zoom art classes in Term 2. There is a lot to learn for me at the moment –things like technical issues (light, web cameras and tripods), but I think this might be a new business opportunity for me.

I would love to hear from you!

Victoria

Newborn Photography Sydney art studio kids
Newborn Photography Sydney art studio kids
Newborn Photography Sydney art studio kids

Rebecca Connolly Photography is an award-winning photographer specialising in newborn baby and family photography. Rebecca Connolly Photography was a Finalist in the 2019 Local Business Awards – and we thank all of our amazing clients for voting for us. With over 10 years of experience photographing newborns and babies we are so happy to have been a part of capturing memories for so many families in the greater Sydney area. To enquire about booking a Sydney photography session with Rebecca Connolly – click HERE

Newborn Photography Sydney

Welcome

A specialist newborn photographer, Rebecca is the most sought after baby photographer based in Sydney's North Shore, Australia. Her stunning newborn portraits capture your first memories of your little baby in images that will last forever. Rebecca holds sessions in her studio in Castle Cove, providing a comfortable space for parents and babies from all over Sydney.

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located in Sydney, Australia