A big brother and his little sister sit on a bed together and smile by Nicole Hawkins Photography. sibling portrait big brother overalls on baby sister #NicoleHawkinsPhotography #NicoleHawkinsfamilies #AtHomePortraits #EastCoastFamilyPhotographer #Ne

This family was overjoyed to have family portraits taken in their South Orange home. Their three-year-old son was born right at the beginning of COVID, so they weren’t able to have newborn portraits taken of him. Life continued to get busy, and before they knew it, they were welcoming a new baby girl and moving into a gorgeous new home. They reached out to me to document this time in their lives and create beautiful portraits to decorate their walls.

The clients knew right away that they wanted the session to take place at their home. They had only been in the home for one year and absolutely adored it. They had a pristine yard full of flowers that really shone in the springtime. Lucky for us, South Orange is right next door to Maplewood, NJ, where my studio is located. The parents were able to pop over to the studio before our session to discuss the family, session goals, and potential artwork spaces in their home. There was a large space in their entryway where the previous owners hung a large piece of artwork with a light above the space to highlight the piece. We knew that we wanted to create something for this area.

Our session itself was a lot of fun. I had my preferred hair and makeup artist come to the house beforehand to get mom ready for the session, and I brought clothes from the studio wardrobe for three-year-old Charlie. Charlie and Madelin are at such wonderful ages. Madelin is just learning to sit up, so I created classic baby portraits of her on her parents’ master bed using a combination of natural and studio light in their home. Charlie had the sweetest smile and loved to giggle and play with his parents. Mom wanted images created both inside and outside of the home, so we utilized several locations around the property.

After editing the images from our session, I presented Mom and Dad with four different wall options. They ended up selecting my favorite option: a gallery design of six frames, all in black and white. I cannot wait to share the final product once we’ve installed it.