Zarin Newborn & Family Portrait Session
One of the best parts of being family photographers is that we constantly get the opportunity to meet new and interesting people. We love getting to know our clients, it's one of the reasons we wanted to open a portrait studio.
A Family Portrait
Enter the Zarin family. They scheduled a newborn session for their 2nd child, a baby girl. During the consultation and the time leading up to the shoot we really got to know this wonderful family. (Find out how to prepare for a newborn portrait session)
Mom and Dad were high school sweethearts who have been together for 20 years! Not bad for such a young family. They were married in California and like to spend as much time visiting Santa Monica, California as possible. As you may know, we lived in the Santa Monica area for many years. Lots of reminiscing about our time in California during our shoot!
Newborn Photography Session
When planning for a newborn session we typically stay in touch with the family to follow how mom and baby are doing. This time we learned that baby was a little anxious to join her family and came early. As is the case with most preemies she stayed in NICU to get round-the-clock care.
Since she was a preemie we had to postpone her session until she was out of NICU (we normally photograph newborns between 7-10 days). Because we photographed her a little later than the ideal time she was more alert and didn't want to sleep with all the excitement going on. However, because we were patient we were still able to get some wonderful photos.
Big Brother
Big brother was so great during the shoot, possibly the most patient young man we've ever met. He and Dad played quietly as we got started and rocked baby sister to sleep. Of course, we had our secret weapon, Netflix, when the time came but if you know toddlers TV can only hold their attention for so long. Even still he remained quiet while waiting for his turn to hold baby sister for pictures.
While we were doting on him for being such a well behaved young man dad mentioned he was a pretty good drummer too. Mom had told us in the consultation he was a bit of a musician but we thought he was like any other toddler that likes to bang on things. But after watching a few videos on Dad's phone we quickly realized that he truly has a gift. Jacob studied film scoring and composition at Berklee and knew he definitely has natural talent. When most people first sit down at a drum set they can barely keep a beat but not this young man. Completely self-taught, he will listen to a song and mimic the drums from that song. What?! Since Jacob had gone to music school Dad was looking for little guidance on how to support his talent and interests, which he gladly offered.
He isn't just a naturally gifted drummer, he enjoyed talking to us about how he loves dinosaurs and about his recent trip to the Houston Natural History Museum, where he's going to have his 4th birthday party!
The Zarin Family
It was such a pleasure photographing this family and capturing such a wonderful time in their life. Mom and Dad were like veteran parents, handling all the stress that comes with having a newborn baby while making sure that brother has enough attention - none of which is ever easy. Truly remarkable.
We had so much fun at the portrait session and again at their design and ordering appointment. Visiting with them was like catching up with old friends and we can not wait to photograph baby again at her 6-month session with her amazing and inspiring family!
