Truth be told, I don’t consider myself a “newborn” photographer per se. Sure, I photograph birth stories, but when it comes to life after the birth, I’m usually not very involved. Not because I don’t think it’s amazing to photograph, but because I never really felt quite qualified to create something so incredible. I’ve seen so many fabulous newborn photographers who know how to pose babies less than a week old and create Anne Geddes style portraits, but that has never been my talent. But because I wasn’t able to photograph the twins at all while at the hospital, I felt like my role in telling Stephanie & Dryw’s birth story wasn’t complete. So we decided to photograph the twins with Steph and Dryw once the twins were able to come home. And much to my surprise, I felt like photographing them at home, doing their normal day-to-day activities came very naturally to me. While I was editing the images of all of them together, I felt the same kind of emotional connection that I feel while editing photos from engagement sessions, weddings and day after sessions. And because these kinds of sessions really do go hand in hand with birth stories, I’ve decided to add something new to the photography services I currently offer.
I’m calling them newborn lifestyle sessions. But instead of the focus being solely on newborn portraits, because heaven only knows Anne isn’t going to be knocking at my door any time soon, the focus is on the family and their life as a whole. A few newborn individual portraits, images of the nursery (we all know how much I love details!) and portraits of the family together. That’s the kind of feel I’m aiming for. If you’re interested in scheduling a newborn lifestyle session, shoot me an email (ashley@ashleyphotographer.com) and I’ll be happy give you all the details.
As promised, here are the images from part II of Stephanie & Dryw’s birth story! If you haven’t seen part I just yet, I suggest you check it out before reading this post. It would be like reading Catching Fire before reading The Hunger Games and that’s just silly (:
The twins were able to come home from the hospital just a day shy of turning 2 weeks old and on their official 2 week birthday, I got to photograph them at home. I’d seen pictures of them up until this point, but when I finally saw them in person, I couldn’t believe how tiny they really were! I even got a little teary eyed too. I’m a crier and I come by it honestly. But enough about my crying, I am going to let these images do most of the talking from here on out. Because I know you’re dying to see these guys. Allow me to officially introduce Maverick and Gavin!
I loved seeing how they interacted with each other. It’s such a unique thing to see newborn babies in this fashion.
When it was time for a feeding, Steph and Dryw got to feed the babies with bottles at the same time. Then it was time for burping. I loved their expressions! 
Dryw knows exactly how to get the boys to smile for him!
Shortly after this, Dryw experienced getting spit up on for the very first time! And I was there to capture it (: So we decided it was time for some portraits of just Steph and the boys while Dryw got cleaned up.
My heart is full every time I see this image! So, so cute!!!
We made sure to get portraits of just Dryw with the boys as well. Steph, what are you going to do with all these boys?! (:
Steph and Dryw, it’s been an absolute honor to photograph your truly unique birth story and especially, to photograph all of you together as a family. Thank you so much for your trust in me and for allowing me to be a part of something so truly miraculous that it still brings me to tears. You two are amazing and I look forward to seeing you and the boys at more important family events in the future!
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