Seattle First Baby and Family Photo Session with the Saarinens

Barely two years ago on July 8, 2017 I was the photographer at Erin and Steve Saarinen’s wedding, a fantastic event held at Ray’s Boathouse.  I saw on Facebook several months ago that Erin was expecting their first baby, who was due in late April or early May.  Robert made his appearance into the world on May 7, and not long afterwards I heard from Erin asking about baby photos.  We discussed to options of newborn photos vs. baby photos, and decided that we’d wait until Robert was a bit older before we set up a session.

I traveled to Erin and Steve’s house in Fremont for our photo session on July 3, just a few days short of Robert’s 8-week birthday and also of Erin and Steve’s 2-year wedding anniversary.  I had been to their house two years earlier on the wedding day so I already had some ideas for photos.

Robert was wide-awake and ready to go when I arrived.  I’ve taken quite a few photos of babies, and the difference between a 1 week old newborn and an 8 week old baby are pretty big.  Robert was alert and fairly interactive, which makes for a very different kind of photo session than I would have with a (mostly) sleeping newborn.  I knew from my time with Steve and Erin at their wedding that they would be happy to do just about any kind of photos I might suggest, as well as be ready with ideas of their own.

We were lucky to catch Robert when he was awake and not hungry, and he proved to be a wonderful photographic subject.  And as I expected his Mom and Dad were also perfect subjects.  We hit various rooms in their home, as I looked for a combination of good backgrounds and lighting.  It was a fairly overcast day so we were able to find lots of rooms with very nice window lighting.

Erin and Steve also have several “fur babies” including two large and very friendly dogs.  I will admit to being a little nervous when we brought the dogs into the house and set them up with Robert for some photos; too easy for the dogs to inadvertently step on the baby!  But the dogs were fantastic, staying exactly where they were place and even looking right into the camera when I spoke their names.  I’m going to be sure to check in in a few months when Robert is fully mobile and crawling around the house after the dogs, those could be some fantastic photos!

Our time together just flew by and all to quickly it was time to go.  Just as well, as Robert was finally getting a little fussy and was due for a feeding and nap.  Here is a pretty small sample of the photos taken during the session, i hope that you like them!