The newborn days, gently documented

By Elena · Cup of Green Photography · Caterham, Surrey

The newborn weeks are a strange, lovely blur. You'll never be more tired, and you'll never want a stretch of days back more. That's the whole reason my newborn sessions happen at home, follow the baby's lead and photograph the days as they are: soft light, slow mornings, tiny fingers curled around yours. Here's what one really looks like, and my answers to the questions parents ask before booking.

Lifestyle, not posed: what that means

You've seen the posed style: a sleeping baby in a wrap, curled in a basket, in a studio, photographed in the first fortnight while babies are sleepy enough to allow it. It's a craft, and it isn't mine. A lifestyle session is the other tradition: no props, no wraps, no studio. Your actual home, your actual baby, your actual life: the feed by the window, the nappy-bag chaos by the door left politely out of frame, the way you look at them when you think nobody's watching. One style produces a portrait of a baby. The other produces evidence of a time. I'm firmly in the second camp.

The "two-week rule" and why it doesn't apply here

Parents often come to me anxious that they've "missed the window" because the baby is three, five, eight weeks old. Let me put that worry down gently: the 5-to-14-day window matters for posed studio work, because it relies on very sleepy, curly newborns. A lifestyle session at home has no such deadline. A six-week-old who's started really looking at you photographs wonderfully. So does a three-week-old mid-feed, and a ten-week-old asleep on your chest. The days are all worth keeping; there is no cut-off on that.

What the two hours look like

I arrive, we have a cup of tea, and I get a feel for where your light is, and usually a bedroom or living-room window does most of the work. Then the session shapes itself around the baby. If they're feeding, we photograph the quiet of that, or we wait; both are fine. If they're asleep, we do the details: the fingers, the toes, the improbable eyelashes, the crib you spent too long choosing. When they're awake and content, everyone comes together on the bed or the sofa, and yes, both parents belong in these photos, however tired you feel. In ten years nobody has ever wished for fewer pictures of themselves holding their newborn.

There's no schedule beyond that, and that's the point. Around two hours gives us room for feeds, changes, comforting and a wardrobe adjustment or two without anyone watching a clock. The baby runs the show. I just follow with a camera.

Your home is enough, I promise

The most common worry is the house, not the baby. Please don't deep-clean for me. We work in one or two rooms, chosen for light rather than tidiness, so clear the bed and one sofa corner and ignore everything else. Soft, plain clothes in light colours photograph beautifully: the usual gentle rules, applied to the most forgiving dress code there is: comfortable, and yours. Older siblings are welcome in whatever mood they arrive in; a toddler peering into the crib is often the best photo of the day. Pets too.

When to book

The ideal time is while you're pregnant, somewhere in the second or third trimester. Nothing about that is urgent; babies famously don't book dates, so we pencil things in, keep the slot loose and confirm once you're home and settled. If your baby has already arrived and you're reading this bleary-eyed at 3am wondering if it's too late: it isn't. See the section about the two-week rule, then send me a message whenever the small dictator allows.