Griffin Photography Chesapeake Virginia Newborn Photographer

There’s so much excitement surrounding the milestone of becoming a big brother or big sister! As a Virginia Beach and Chesapeake Virginia newborn photographer, we’ve photographed hundreds of sibling sets together over the years. (And even some cousins!)

Some of these big brothers and sisters have been adults or teenagers and some of them have been school aged children. Most of the time, these siblings are amazing! They are such good helpers and ecstatic about the arrival of a new baby in the family!  They follow directions perfectly and can hold the baby with such confidence.

The toughest age (and most common for us to capture) is those little toddlers, 14 months to 3 years. They really do run the show! 😆 How do we ensure that we almost always capture at least one adorable sibling portrait? We have been capturing siblings and family portraits for more than 15 years so we have lots of tricks up our sleeves.

First and foremost, we consider the time of day when your oldest is the happiest. If she usually naps at noon, we’re not going to schedule the session for 11. We have found that 9:30am tends to be a great start time for newborns and their big brother/sister.

At this age, we start the session off with family and sibling portraits. This way they are typically happy and curious. We give them just enough time to get comfortable with us, but not so much time that they’re bored and antsy.

As soon as you arrive, we ask big brother/sister who they brought with them and let them introduce us to their new baby. We show them our camera and lights and let them help us pick out a swaddle and/or headband for their baby sibling. If they’re still hesitant, we’ll even ask that they help us take a picture of their new baby. They LOVE to press the button and make the lights flash.

If none of our fun tricks work, we can take a break, focus on baby and then try again. And this would also be the point where we tell you not to hesitate breaking out the bribes! No judgement here, haha! Whatever it takes – fruit snacks, the promise of ice cream, a visit to the park, the ipad or all of the above!

If all goes as planned, the family and sibling portraits are complete in the first 30 minutes and Dad and big brother or sister are free to go on a special one on one outing to the park or out for lunch while we focus on the new baby. Of course, they’re welcome to stay and watch the entire session, if they’d like!

Artsy Newborn portrait of baby being held in his mom and dad's hands on a black backdrop. Baby's eyes are open and looking the camera. Collage of a toddler sister with her newborn baby brother. They are both wearing pale blue pajamas and snuggled together on a cream fur rug. Newborn baby on a tan background with an Indian shawl draped over his back. Newborn baby in a hand knit bear onesie outfit and hat. He's curled up on his back, sleeping in a brown basket with a dark brown fur. One week old baby boy on a blue background with a blue blanket pulled up around him with his fingers holding the fabric. Newborn baby with brown hair, sleeping, posed in a basket on a cream background. Newborn baby boy in a pale blue outfit and hat, curled up and sleeping on a cream colored fur rug. Capture by Griffin Photography, a Virginia Beach and Chesapeake Virginia Newborn Photographer.A collage of a mother, father, two year old sister and newborn baby brother. Mom is holding baby, while Dad is holding brother. They are standing in front of a grey background. Big sister holding her week old baby brother. She is wearing a blue bow in her dark brown hair and a blue dress with brown boots. She is holding her baby brother, swaddled in a blue wrap and hat, in between her legs.

Ready to start planning a session with us?

Newborn Gallery

by adminPosted in Family, Newborn
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Virginia Beach Maternity – Sandbridge Pregnancy Photos

We spend a majority of our summer evenings at the beach for photography sessions – maternity sessions, families visiting Sandbridge Beach from out of town and high school senior portrait sessions. We’re not complaining because we LOVE the beach. There’s just something magical about ending the day with a beautiful sunset at the oceanfront.

We spend much fewer evenings at the beach in the winter months, but it’s certainly not unheard of. If you’re set on maternity portraits, but you’re due in winter, we can usually make it work if your schedule is flexible. We’ll set a tentative date. Then we watch as the weather gets closer and adjust, if needed. Virginia Beach typically has some random warm days throughout winter, but either way, if you’re willing to brave the cold, so are we! Honestly, my favorite beach sessions are in late fall and early winter. The skies are almost always gorgeous and the lack of humidity is so welcomed.

If for whatever reason a beach session doesn’t work out, we always have the option for classic studio maternity portraits. You can view more maternity sessions at this link. 

 

by adminPosted in Maternity
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Virginia Beach Newborn Baby Photographer

At the start of every new year, we reflect on our photography business – where we started, our clients (maternity, newborn, seniors and family portrait sessions), how we can improve our business and art. We spend a good bit of every winter investing in our business, studying education and training courses, ensuring our product offerings are only the best available. We’ve been in business over 15 years now. While I think we’ve perfected many aspects along the way, I believe we’ll always want to learn and grow.

It’s amazing to think that we’ve photographed more than 500 newborn babies throughout the past 15 years. Still, every single one of them feels just as special as the first. It truly touches our hearts that parents choose and trust us to capture this short moment of time of their baby’s life. It’s an incredible honor.

We’ve had many of our newborns come back with their new baby brothers/sisters. We’ve even had one of our newborn’s older sister come back with her own baby! We’ve captured twins, preemies, 8 week olds whose parents were told they were too old by other photographers, newborns with special needs, adopted newborns that were only in town a week so they could include biological mom in the session, newborns with step siblings, newborns with cousins, newborns with their furry siblings, newborns with family heirlooms and the list goes on. Many of our tiniest clients have moved from the Virginia, but it’s always a joy when they come back to visit. One huge bonus of living in a military and tourist town – many will come back for summer beach vacations and we get to capture their family portraits again! We’re just about at the point where we’ll be photographing some of our very first newborns’ senior class portraits soon! How cool will that be?! We’re looking forward to another amazing year of creating treasured art for the best clients in Virginia!

This sweet girl arrived nice and sleepy, thanks to her car ride from Suffolk. (While most of our maternity and newborn clients live in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, we have clients from all over Hampton Roads, including Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg and even Richmond, Elizabeth City and Moyock!) We worked quickly and captured some cozy sleepy baby portraits, just in time for her to wake up, show us her personality and let us capture some portraits with her eyes open.

Want to see more of our newborn baby portraits? You can visit our gallery here.

newborn baby girl with black curly hair. She's wearing a knit light blue sleeper, sleeping curled up on a wood bowl with blue winter decor/flowers on a light blue background. Newborn baby girl wearing a pink flower headband in a brown basket with tan blankets on a tan background. She's sleeping with her head resting on her folded arms.Baby swaddled in knit cream wrap in a white blanket with Christmas greenery and red berries around her.

Newborn baby with black curly hair swaddled in a purple knit wrap on a dark purple background. Her dark eyes are wide open, while she's yawning. Newborn baby girl with her eyes wide open, holding her mom and dad's hands on a soft white background.

by adminPosted in Newborn, Studio
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