Fact: When you have your firstborn, you’ll have at least 2,000 new photos in your phone in the first month alone. Besides all the candid photos, you’ll set aside a special time and place for monthly baby pictures. These monthly snapshots are both for you and friends who may not be able to visit just yet. Take a look at these unique photoshoot and display ideas for baby’s milestone pictures, which will certainly make the whole thing even more exciting.
How to take great monthly photoshoots
The most important factor in a good monthly photoshoot is your baby’s comfort. You want them to be relaxed so you can focus on getting the perfect shot.
Go with a theme for the whole year
If you want to keep it clean and consistent, you can stick with a single theme for the whole year. Consider dressing your newborn in a plain white tee for every shoot in the same background so you can focus on their changing features and not the props.
On another note, you can dress up your baby in a different outfit within the same theme for the whole year. For instance, you could dress them in different colors of the rainbow every month or a different bold pattern every month. This will make for a cohesive and graphic collage later when you put your year’s worth of photos together. This also makes for a social media-worthy series your followers will look forward to seeing every month.
Use the same prop every month
When you use the same prop every month for your baby’s photos, you can easily keep track of their growth. At the end of the year when you compile the photos, you’ll clearly see how much taller and wider they’ve gotten.
One idea is using the same stuffed toy next to them for scale. Another concept is taking their monthly picture in the same chair every time. It’ll amaze you and everyone around you how much they’ve grown in a year. This set design also makes the series much more sentimental.
Put yourself in the photo
Another prop you can use is you! Parents are rarely in baby shoots except for prebirth and newborn shoots. Remember, you are also changing rapidly in the first year as you care for your newborn and juggle other responsibilities. Taking a picture with your little one every month will make for some truly memorable shots that are more impactful than just your baby alone.
To make it even more fun, you can coordinate matching costumes or themes.
Use different objects for the numbers
If you’ve decided to illustrate the month somewhere in your baby’s photoshoot set, you can use different objects each month. Use unexpected props like whole fruits for eye-catching and aesthetically-pleasing effects.
Many people use flowers and other floral arrangements, and others use sheet backdrops with numbers you can circle on your photo editing app.
How to display your monthly photos
There are various ways to display your baby’s monthly photos besides a traditional print and frame. Although you might still print out copies for your own family photo albums, the following display ideas help you distribute your baby’s monthly photo shoots to friends and relatives who may live far away:
Make a short monthly video of several live photos
Even if you’re not familiar with video editing software, you can easily stitch videos together every month. There are numerous apps where you can add your own captions, background music, and effects to the best monthly photos you took.
This is great because you know you can never just choose one baby photo: Now you can make a video montage without feeling guilty.
Send out a monthly newsletter
Sure, this one is a little extra, but what do you expect from millennials whose formative years included obsessive Instagram photo sharing and Snapchat story posting? If your friends and family are inclined, you can send out a monthly newsletter via email with your baby’s best photos of the month and a little blurb about their milestones.
Send out monthly postcards
If you’re feeling old-fashioned and want something more tangible, you can send out postcards by mail to friends and family. For postcards, you can use apps to make the postcards and send them to your home. On the other hand, you can edit them yourself on a photo editing program and print the cards out at your local printer.
Just think: Your grandparents and parents will be delighted, and they’ll have another thing to look forward to every month. This ensures you stay in touch regularly and that your great monthly photos don’t go unseen. Make sure to keep a copy for your own records.
Make customized stickers
Postcards are fun to get in the mail, but you know what’s even more enjoyable? Stickers! You can choose small, quarter-size stickers, but a more practical option is a large decal size your family or friends can use for laptops, water bottles, notebooks, and more.
At the end of the year, you can make a 12-sticker bundle, or you can send out the stickers monthly inside care packages for your loved ones.
Share a digital photo album
If you have an iPhone or Apple smart device, you can directly share albums with select contacts in your phone. For Android users, you can also share Google albums through the sharing feature. This sends your recipients to a Google photo album link where they can view or download any photos you share.
This way, you can share edited photos including any adorable baby memes you made.
By now you’ll have realized you probably have a lot of unused ideas you didn’t know you had. We hope this list brought out your creative side or made you want to try an idea we mentioned here. Just remember: a great monthly photoshoot needs a clear vision and a happy baby. The rest will fall into place, and you can share the beautiful results to loved ones.
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