The tiniest newborn toes captured by Nicole Hawkins photography in her Maplewood, New Jersey studio. Timeless pictures that parents will love. #instudionewbornsession #NicoleHawkinsphotography #newbornportraits #NewJerseynewbornphotographer #NewJerse

Baby Alina's parents absolutely adore her. I loved documenting this special chapter in their family’s story. Mom had been searching online for newborn photographers for a long time before finding my portfolio of newborn portraits. She loved the simplicity and neutrality of my newborn portraits compared to others that she had seen. Because they live only thirty minutes away in Passaic County, they were excited to make the trip into my Maplewood, NJ, studio.

Mom came in for a pre-session planning appointment to select dress options and look at album samples. She loved the fact that our portrait memberships include album credits because she was very interested in creating an heirloom album of her favorite images from our sessions in baby Alina’s first year. We decided to plan on holding sessions for all of the first-year milestones. These are when baby is a newborn, 3- 4 months (when baby is laying on their belly with their head up, playing with their toes, and giving us real smiles), 6-7 months (when baby is sitting up unassisted, starting to fill out, giving us big smiles, and playing with toys), and baby’s first birthday, where they are crawling and maybe even taking first steps. As I deliver portraits from each session, we will go through them together and choose our favorite images to include in their custom heirloom album.

Mom ended up choosing a gorgeous floral dress from our studio wardrobe ahead of time, so I had it prepped and steamed on the morning of their session. I coordinated with my preferred hair and makeup artist to prepare Mom for the session in the studio. While mom was getting ready, I photographed dad with baby as well as baby Alina’s solo portraits. My clients love how smoothly sessions flow and how relaxing it is for mom to simply show up and be pampered while everything else is taken care of.

I truly enjoyed working with this Passaic County family, and I am so excited to see how much their little girl has grown and changed before our next portrait session together.