NEWBORNS
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Parents and siblings can join any of the newborn sessions, but the recommended session time is listed at the bottom of each collection.
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Access to client closet of wraps, outfits, bonnets, headbands, and props for baby and gowns for mom.
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Option at checkout to add Professional Hair & Makeup Artist (HMUA) to do your hair and makeup at the studio before your session with baby.
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Sentimental or heirloom item inclusion
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A shareable link to your beautifully edited digitals available for unlimited downloads for 30 days to your phone and computer from your online gallery one week after your session
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Option to purchase more digitals, prints and canvases from your online gallery delivered straight to your home.
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Comfortable private studio with a twin rod iron bed, gold full length mirror, gold bow chair, several backdrop colors to choose from, leather ottoman, white sheer curtains and hardwood floors.
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We have coffee, water, snacks, WIFI, TV for siblings, and wipes, diapers, burp clothes and new pacifiers for baby.
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Pre shoot planning with your photographer either in person, over facetime, or over email to nail down your favorite colors, props, poses and style for your photoshoot.
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Safe and relaxing session with expert posing and assistance throughout the shoot to guarantee beautiful portraits.
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Professionally retouching your beautiful portraits.
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30 minutes of viewing your photos on the big screen with your photographer right after your session, picking favorite shots, and discussing custom retouching and photoshop needs with your photographer as well as picking out custom engraving and colors for your products.
FEATURES
ALL SESSIONS INCLUDE
COLLECTIONS
PETITE
Includes:
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1 hour of shooting time
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Baby wrapped solo in furs and props
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Baby posed solo on posing table
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30 minutes of selecting your favorite shots and discussing custom retouching and photoshop needs with your photographer after your session
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5 beautifully edited digitals available to download with option to purchase extra digitals, prints, and canvases from your online gallery.
recommended for baby only sessions
$399 + tax
STANDARD
Includes:
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2 hours of shooting time
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Lifestyle shots of baby with parents
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Baby wrapped solo in furs and props
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Baby posed solo on posing table
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30 minutes of selecting your favorite shots and discussing custom retouching and photoshop needs with your photographer after your session
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10 beautifully edited digitals available to download with option to purchase extra digitals, prints, and canvases from your online gallery.
recommended for baby only sessions
or baby + parents sessions
$667 + tax
SIGNATURE
Includes:
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3 hours of shooting time
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Lifestyle shots of baby with siblings
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Lifestyle shots of baby with parents
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Baby wrapped solo in furs and props
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Baby posed solo on posing table
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Baby posed for pre planned digital backdrops
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30 minutes of selecting your favorite shots and discussing custom retouching and photoshop needs with your photographer after your session
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15 beautifully edited digitals available to download with option to purchase extra digitals, prints, and canvases from your online gallery.
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Custom designed and engraved keepsake box with Luxe Crystal USB drive
recommended for baby only sessions
or baby + parents sessions
or baby + parents + siblings sessions
and digital backdrops
$933+ tax
LUXE
Includes:
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4 hours of shooting time
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Lifestyle shots of baby with siblings and/or grandparents
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Lifestyle shots of baby with parents
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Baby wrapped solo in furs and props
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Baby posed solo on posing table
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Baby posed for pre planned digital backdrops
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30 minutes of selecting your favorite shots and discussing custom retouching and photoshop needs with your photographer after your session
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20 beautifully edited digitals available to download with option to purchase extra digitals, prints, and canvases from your online gallery.
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Custom designed and engraved keepsake box with Luxe Crystal USB drive
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Custom Engraved Photo Album
recommended for baby only sessions
or baby + parents sessions
or baby + parents + siblings and/or grandparents sessions
and digital backdrops
$1311+ tax
INFORMATION
WELCOME
Your newborn’s photography session is such an exciting time. Parents often find themselves worried and anxious about preparing themselves and their babies for the session. But with just a little planning, you can relax and enjoy the session, knowing your Photographer will take care of everything.
You'll be so glad you booked your newborn photo session! It truly is the investment of a lifetime to freeze frame time when they are so tiny.
Our goal is for you to show up with baby ready, hand them off to us, and relax. Follow our top tips to make sure you and your baby have a great session.
SAFETY
As a mother, you may have that innate urge to pick your child up with every grunt they make, and it can be hard to see someone else handling them so soon. This is why it’s important to find a professional newborn photographer with experience, training and positive reviews. You’ve come to the right place.
Photographer Shannan Garza works as a Newborn photographer part time for Memorial Hermann and assures her own studio assistants go through all the same routine testing as NICU nurses, are all fully vaccinated, and trained in infant care. All health and safety precautions are taken including hand washing and frequent hand sanitizer use as well as fully sanitizing and washing all studio wraps, props, and furniture with baby safe products in between sessions and weekly studio cleanings by professionals. Newborns will keep a diaper on during the entire session unless mom or dad specifically asks for nude shots, do not worry about diaper showing it will be photoshopped out or covered. Your photographer will never keep a newborn appointment if they or anyone in their household has any symptoms of illness. Please reschedule if you, an attendee, or someone in your household is experiencing symptoms of illness as we have many other newborns and families that visit our studio. Rescheduling is always free and completely normal for newborn sessions.
background
Your Newborn Photographer has a background in nursing and respiratory care, extensive training in newborn safety, teaches newborn photography workshops, is a mother of 4, and knows how to handle newborns with the upmost care. Your newborn photographer is trained to monitor blood flow, temperature, and breathing of your newborn in each pose and will never be farther than an arms length away. You will be able to alert your photographer to any birth injuries, special needs, surgeries, or health concerns before your session. Your photographer will know exactly what positions will be comfortable for your baby, know all the tricks to get them to sleep, and know how to move them delicately. Your photographer is trained in safety and will not do any poses that they feel your newborn cannot handle for their age, strength, and temperament at the session. If at anytime you feel uncomfortable just let us know and we can tailor the session and posing to fit baby's specific needs. We completely respect your wishes as parents for your infant judgement free, and at checkout you will have an opportunity to express any special requests or health concerns or needs of your newborn.
The best thing you can do to assist your baby and photographer is give them space to work. Hovering over a photographer, interfering during shooting, or letting children run around the studio can be distracting and also can be a safety hazard for bumping into each other or tripping over equipment near the newborn. Please keep all children seated or in the waiting room outside of the studio when they are not being photographed. Never allow children to touch the photographer's equipment. For everyone’s safety it’s best for everyone to remain seated during the session and allow the photographer to move around the studio safely with the newborn. This is the time to sit back and relax and take a much needed break.
little ones
Tips for working with toddlers and baby:
Being a new big brother or sister is hard sharing the spotlight. The best way to prepare your older child for the newborn session is by practicing at home. Try having them lay on a blanket on the ground or on a bed safely cuddling baby swaddled next to them while you take a photo with your phone. Practice having them kiss baby's cheek, cuddle, smile, and close their eyes while being gentle with baby. Then reward them with a treat and make it a fun game. Often toddlers mistake the photo session as being forced to take a nap because the shoot is often on the ground or on the bed so let them know we are taking pictures and let them see the pictures. If they are old enough you can also have them practice cuddling baby in their lap sitting or in their arms depending on age with mom or dad close by to help.
Make sure your children have a full tummy just like baby and its helpful to bring clean, crumb and stain free snacks along.
Try not to stress if your tot is being fussy. Babies and toddlers can feel their mama’s tension, so if you’re calm, your kiddo may relax too. Your photographer has photographed hundreds of infants and children and is completely used to working with newborns and kids. If you have very young children taking photos with the newborn resist the urge to assist, bribe, scold, or force them to sit, smile, or pose. It will be very obvious that these faces and poses were forced in the photo and is counterproductive. Your photographer has many tricks and techniques to interact with your little ones to keep them in a good mood and interested. If you become frustrated they will too and photos will not be possible. The best thing to do is to stay silent, calm and in a cheerful mood, give your toddler space to explore while the photographer works with your toddler and baby. Basically what I mean is, do absolutely nothing. Don't force it, and allow only the photographer to interact with your child to get them posed. Be sure your spouse knows this plan as well. If you ask your toddler questions like "do you want to take photos?" or "do you want to hold baby?" or threaten punishment or threaten to take away a reward it will be a recipe for refusals and meltdowns as all toddlers most common word is no, this is why parents should allow the photographer to work with the toddlers only. Allow your photographer to show your toddler by example how to pose and make it fun for everyone and safe for baby so we get those sweet looks and smiling faces from those proud big sisters and brothers.
scheduling
It is so important to schedule your newborn photoshoot as soon as possible, as early as your second trimester, and you can adjust the date as many times as needed. Once the calendar fills it is difficult to fit a newborn in if you aren't already booked because pre-booked newborns take priority. Book your newborn session for one week after your due date. Then, as soon as baby arrives and mom and baby are both home and comfortable and ready you will email your photographer to either keep your appointment or adjust it.
In a perfect dream world all newborns would be between 4-14 days old for their session, but this is not always realistic. Things pop up in the birthing process including early arrivals. That is why booking your newborn session during pregnancy is so important to having a good worry-free newborn photography experience. After baby arrives it can be more difficult to schedule their session or find availability. Most photographers will not photograph newborns over 14 days however we have accommodated up to six weeks although this is not recommended due to how many more breaks older newborns need can be costly with studio time. The younger your baby is the less photoshop and feeding breaks they will need and the sleepier they will be for their session. It is a fact that the more the baby sleeps, the more shots we will get. Never schedule your baby's shoot right after a doctors visit when they get shots or blood drawn. If your baby is older than 6 weeks we will begin to discuss booking one of our 6 month old sitter sessions in the future instead of a newborn session. For a smoother session, avoid scheduling baby's session in the afternoon or evening unless you absolutely need to, this tends to be "witching hour" for babies. However, do not let age, colic, baby acne, tiredness, fussiness, or any other reason stop you from being excited for your newborn shoot.
inspiration
All newborn sessions can have parents, siblings and grandparents in the shots as time allows, but it will take time away from solo shots. You can also purchase more time during your session if you need to. We take frequent breaks for feeding and changing baby and it is highly recommended newborn sessions be at least 2 hours long.
I know right after having a baby sometimes the very last thing we want to do is get in front of a camera however, these portraits are often taken chest-up close up shots with free airbrushing and photoshop included so trust that these portraits will be beautiful ones you will treasure forever. Do not worry about baby's acne or flaky skin that will be edited as well. Be sure to wear classic neutral solid colors and take off in heavy jewelry or watches before your shoot.
Our recommendation will always be... book the photos! You will be so glad you did.
Feel free to send us your newborn photo inspirations from this website's gallery page, Instagram and Pinterest ahead of your session so that your photographer can get a good sense of the styles and colors you love. If you see a prop or wrap in our studio or on our website that you love and want to include let us know! Your photographer will have several different sets already staged and ready before the session starts. Most clients prefer the Photographer to take the wheel creatively and just surprise them and that is totally okay too!
the big day
Most newborn sessions can take two to four hours. Since newborns eat every 2-4 hours it is ideal to try to shoot for planning a session during a known nap time in between feeding times but this is not always realistic and we often take as many breaks as baby needs during the session. Make sure to not schedule any appointments right after your session or be in a hurry. Be prepared to wait and make sure anyone who accompanies the shoot is happy to wait as well or have arrangements to leave and return later. The newborn session will be one of the first times your baby leaves their home environment so it is important to try to keep them on their normal schedule as much as possible. Don't try to keep them awake or hungry to make them sleepier. Newborns can become "overtired" and "over hungry" and will scream and fight sleep in frustration from lack of sleep or hunger from lack of milk.
THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP: after keeping them on their normal schedule all day, within 20 minutes before your session, no more than 20 minutes before, in this order, change baby into a clean diaper, feed them to a full tummy, burp them and dress them in just a blanket and diaper for them to start to drift back to sleep in the carseat with a pacifier on the way to the studio. Your photographer will require the use of a pacifier during your newborn's session, you may provide one or the photographer will have a brand new one to provide for the session.
location location
Our studio is located at 1414 S. Friendswood Dr, building A suite #124. When you walk inside turn to the right and you will walk straight to the studio room. It is best to walk into the studio keeping baby in their carseat carrier, often they fall asleep during the drive to the studio and the photographer may be able to keep them asleep. Having baby in just their diaper in the carseat is helpful in keeping them asleep. You will hand the photographer a burp cloth and pacifier to keep by her side during the entire session. The blankets and props are very warm and cozy with the use of a space heater and heated blankets so when baby cries the photographer will keep them posed on the table while soothing them back to sleep. Your baby will cry during the session. Sometimes babies even cry just being moved from one comfy pose to another because they don't want to be woken up, this is totally normal. Try to avoid the urge to pick them up which would disturb them completely awake and instead allow the photographer to soothe, rock or feed the baby and get them back to sleep quickly while remaining on set. The session moves quicker if you allow the photographer to do all the work while you sit back and relax. The photographer will let you know if baby needs you for soothing, a quick diaper change or a feeding.
a home run
There is no need to buy or bring outfits but you are welcome to if you'd like. Make sure the outfits are in newborn size and easy to get on and off quickly. The photographer has all the wraps, props and headbands needed for the session. If there is something in particular that is sentimental or a family heirloom you want to include in your shoot feel free to bring that. Some items we have used have been baseball gloves, military uniforms, dog tags, embroidered baby blankets, shirts, hats, quilts, deer skin, jerseys, and many more items that really added a special touch to the session. You can browse digital backdrops by searching newborn digital backdrops on etsy for your photographer to use. These are done by taking a photo of baby in studio and then photoshopping the baby and the backdrop together in editing.
If your baby is asleep when you arrive we will begin the session. Allow the photographer to lift them out of the carseat slowly so to not trigger their startle reflex and place them on the heated blanket on the photographer's table to keep them asleep. You will be able to sit back and relax for the rest of the session.
If your baby is wide awake and/or crying when you arrive you will check to see if they need a new diaper, change them on the studio changing table, breast or bottle feed them until full, burp them, and then hand baby to the photographer and we will start the session. Do not worry about trying to get them to sleep, the photographer has many techniques to get them to sleep and it is better if they fall asleep while the photographer is posing them on the table rather than in moms arms and woken up again when they are moved and posed.
Please allow your photographer to do all the work, lifting, standing, kneeling, rocking, and soothing with the baby during the session especially if you have had recent surgery. Do not feel any need to help out or stress, your job is to just relax and admire the baby cuteness overload.
the plan
studio rules
Try to keep the volume down to maintain a calm environment. When you get overwhelmed, you and your baby can both feel it. Staying relaxed, seated and quiet will ensure a calm atmosphere. Siblings are welcome to come to the studio, if they are fussy please take them outside to walk around, or out to the waiting room. Do not worry about leaving baby with your photographer during the session, it’s her job. If you booked family photos with the newborn, the best time to do so is at the start of the session. Consider having one adult leave with the young children as soon as their photos are done, maybe have dad or a grandparent take them to go the park or to get a treat until the session is over so your baby is not woken up through the session.
Phones and tablets should be on silent or earphones used. If you have an important phone call please take it out to the waiting room as well.
No food or drinks allowed in the studio other than for baby and clean, crumb and stain free snacks for toddlers. Food and drinks must stay in the waiting room away from the studio props and equipment.
p's and q's
Absolutely no picture taking using cell phones or cameras inside of the studio during the session time is allowed by anyone other than the photographer. Your newborn is precious and the set is adorable so we know it is tempting but please keep in mind the props, the accessories, the outfits, the studio, the backgrounds, and even the lighting is all property of the photographer and the photography rights belong to the photographer. Photographers spend lots of time and money on their studio equipment, training how to pose your baby, styling your photoshoot, and editing software. Please be respectful of the photographers time and property while in the studio. Anyone who takes photos inside the studio is taking the photographer’s property without permission and the session will be ended.
Only three adults maximum to accompany the newborn inside the studio. The studio is a small space and smaller with a carseat and diaper bags and purses and equipment. Never allow children to touch equipment unless the photographer says it is okay. Children who are siblings of a newborn must stay seated during the newborn's solo photos or will need to wait in the waiting room. If grandparents or additional adults or children need to come to the session they can, we just ask that they stay seated. We understand your Newborn Session is a very exciting time and family members want to attend but it turns counterproductive if we are unable to get as many good shots. We also know decreasing the amount of people in studio decreases risk of spreading germs in studio. Loud noises, coughs, phone calls, video games, loud conversations or laughter can startle and wake the baby more frequently making the session take much longer and wasting your session time and that means less shots of your beautiful baby. We also can not have small children walking around the studio when the newborn is in a prop, basket or bowl on the floor it poses a safety risk to the infant. We ask that any of these noises be taken to the waiting room during the session. If parents would like to have a break and relax in the waiting room during the studio session that is perfectly fine as well. There are bathrooms down the hall to the right and the kitchen has a coffee bar. Extended family members and grandparents can join baby in shots as time allows. You can add up to an additional hour to your session and pay over email after the session.
finally
Congratulations on becoming a mama! Whether it is your first time or fifth time it is a joyous time. These are moments you will cherish forever. It can be tough for new moms to relinquish their caregiver role, even for a few hours as newborn photos are being taken. However, take advantage of this time. It’s a much-needed mini-break for you. You just accomplished one of the most amazing things delivering a new life into this world so now it is time to rest and bask in that new parent love.
Feel free to kick back and relax, take a nap, grab a cup of coffee, take a walk outside, read a book, scroll on social media, anything to just steal some much needed me-time during your session. I once had a couple show up, hand me their baby, and go right to sleep on the studio couch in matching eye masks and it was the greatest thing I've ever seen to this day. My one rule is, relax and enjoy, Mama!
My favorite part of my job is when my newborns come back and visit me for their first birthday cake smash sessions (I may even tear up a little because I'm so happy to see them again) Be sure to use discount code VIP at check out for a discount when you book their first birthday session!
Years from now, when your son towers over you, or your daughter raids your closet, your keepsake photos will remind you of those precious days when they were still little enough for you to carry in your arms. I am so happy to be part of capturing the first moments of your little miracle's life and telling their story.
