Taking amazing milestone photos of your babe
Our milestone discs are designed to capture the precious moments as your baby grows each month, but it doesn’t need to be daunting taking those monthly pics! Here’s how to take the most amazing monthly milestone photos with your babe.
We loved catching those precious monthly pics with little Josie so here’s a little wrap up of what we learnt along the way:
Use as much natural light as possible; next to a window or a glass door with filtered light works well.
Take various poses or photos from different angles – you’ll be amazed at how differently those details are captured in different ways. Set your babe up on the floor and stand above them when they are still tiny and laying still. Get down low on the floor at their level and interact with them as they are starting to move around!
Take both awake and asleep pics each month – there is a beautiful innocence in a sleeping babe and these pics will capture those memories you’ll have of just watching your babe for what seems like hour on end... Adding awake pics each month will also help to capture all those unique changes and personality that emerges.
Make sure you capture those meaningful moments that show your babe’s characteristics and personality at that point in time. It could be sucking their thumb, holding their feet, poking their tongue out or a cheeky smirk – looking back on these moments will spark such precious memories.
In the early months, use a similar backdrop so you can really see the growth each month; we used our fave floor cushion and couldn’t believe the difference from one week to just 3 months old. As they start to move, get creative – or ready to snap those pics quick! You could mount the milestone plaque on a wall as the back drop, so you still have your monthly reference, but babe isn’t too side-tracked. The awake ones may get harder as she gets older, but just take it as part of the fun and let that little personality that is developing shine through.
Get some close-ups of the details – their puckered lips, tiny fingernails and skinny toes will be all the things you’ll love to look back on, so make sure you capture these as well.
Use a few props to add interest and complimenting colours to your pics. Perhaps a sentimental baby blanket, favourite swaddle, or special teddy, and use these monthly pics as an opportunity to also capture any favourite baby outfits, before they are outgrown! As your babe becomes more active allow them to hold their favourite toys, and use these toys to interact with your babe and help achieve natural expressions and reactions, letting their little personality shine through.
Don’t forget videos too – some milestones, particularly those developmental ones, just aren’t done justice with a still photo alone. The first giggles, first words and crawling are great ideas to capture in sound and motion. Just place your developmental milestone in the background – or better yet, use it as an incentive to encourage those firsts – something to crawl too, peek-a-boo for first giggles, etc. You can capture these moments with our developmental milestone sets, so don't forget to invest in a set of those too.
Use a simple photo editor to apply some enhancements, like lighting the scene or adding a little contrast. We love the Photoshop Express app on iPhone because its just so so easy to use – we prefer a light and airy style so we generally just add some exposure to lighten the pic then adjust the contrast, shadow and maybe tint and voila, it’s done. You can also apply simple effects, like blurring the background for added interest.
Get snap happy but don’t forget to short-list the camera reel EACH month. Choose your faves and delete the rest, so you don’t end up with toooo many photo.
But these biggest lesson we learnt it to just do them - looking back on both our monthly and developmental milestone photos is so precious for us. If a session isn't going well, don't stress. Just pack up and try again another day - even if you're a day or two late (or even a week), do it when it's working for you both.
At the end of the year, you can also use your milestone discs to create a photo wall (or the 'one year' disc can double as a cake topper too). Don't forget we can also personalise your milestone discs too - whether it's adding your babe's name or creating a custom event - like first holiday or first ponytail, we've can help capture those extra special memories!
Tag us @one.chew.three so we can watch your babes grow too.
