Whenever I schedule a photo session, my clients and I try to plan the start time close to when they anticipate their baby waking up from a nap. Young babies, who are still napping two to three times a day, usually don’t last more than two to three hours between naps so I like to ensure we have the longest window of time to take photos while the baby is still fresh and happy, during “quiet alert” time. Any parent reading this will probably scoff (including me) at the notion that one could anticipate a baby’s sleep schedule. If a client lives close by, I may even wait to leave my house till I get a phone call from mom alerting me that nap time has ended before I head over to start the photo session. And if an older sibling is involved, all that coordinating will probably get thrown out the window, as the timing may have to depend on two kids on two very different schedules, as it went with little Tommy and his big brother Charlie.

Tommy’s session was planned as his own special solo show, just as Charlie had when he was a still a little baby, so we started while Charlie was off having fun out of the house. The upside of the timing, even though we missed Tommy’s “quiet alert” time was that I had the opportunity to capture sweet sleeping baby photos while Tommy took a little catnap in the middle of our time together. So even when things don’t go as planned (and with babies they never do!), there are still great moments that make great images.