Newborn portraits of 10-day-old Aria

“Hey, let’s take a selfie,” Joe asked each of his friends in turn when he had a chance to meet up with them.

Joe and his partner Hannah would squish up next to the friend or couple and everyone prepared their smiles.

Joe would hold the camera up high and switch on the forward-facing camera, but to video mode.

With everyone looking up and waiting, Joe would let slip some big news: “Hannah and I are having a baby,” he’d say, or “We’re pregnant.”

Joe merged all the clips into a short video montage, and the result is hilarious. For a second, you can see the confusion on their face. They are preparing to have a picture taken, and are not expecting to hear big news.

Each time you watch realisation slowly dawn, laugh at the shocked reactions and then get swept along with the tears, the hugs and the smiles that follow.

Hannah’s parents were on a three-month cruise, and it wasn’t quite so easy to get the news to them this way. The internet on board the ship was too slow for video streaming, so Hannah requested they go to an Internet cafe at their next port of call.

“But it’s raining!” her dad protested.

“Dad, it’s important!” Hannah said.

So her mum and dad finally got online, taking turns to put earbuds in so they could hear audio from the cafe computer. Hannah’s mum went first. Rather than say anything, Hannah simply held up the baby scan photos to the camera.

Her mum gasps, her hands flying to her mouth. Watching her process the news is emotional. This is her first grandchild, and though she’d been hopeful of having one soon, she’d no idea when that news might come. She starts crying, and Hannah’s dad then gets alarmed, asking what’s going on because he can’t hear the conversation. When he hears the news, he comes on-screen with a huge grin and the words ‘congratulations’.

Now that Aria is here, her maternal grandad has found the perfect way to make up for his initial reluctance to get to that Internet cafe: he gifted Joe and Hannah a newborn photoshoot to capture Aria’s precious first few weeks of life.

She’s not been here long (just ten days!) but her mum and dad have already noticed her growing and changing. Hannah is loving the needy, dependent newborn stage, whereas dad Joe can’t wait to have long, senseless conversations with her when she starts babbling. Both of them are looking forward to taking her to their favourite festival – Glastonbury – when’s she’s old enough to enjoy all the music and atmosphere.

But for now, they’re totally content to keep on falling in love with every detail of her: her expressions, her elegant fingers, her perfect toes and that adorable little smile she does every time she gets wind!

“Sarah was great with our little one, the pictures were fantastic and we could hardly choose. A special memory for a special time that will last forever. Highly recommend.”

Joe, Newborn Photography Client from Bicester, Oxfordshire

If you’re interested in newborn portraits or family photography in and around Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact:

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire. She is the Master Photographers Association Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).