A lot of you have been asking whether we’re taking weekly baby photos of Teddy like we did for Clara during her first year. The answer is yes — and we’ve given the project a slightly different twist this time. Below are Teddy’s first two weekly shots:
Note: the number font is Sullivan and the “weeks” font is Big Mouth.
We liked how Clara’s weekly photo project turned out, so we kept the same basic formula for Teddy: baby + fabric + photoshopped age. But we made two main changes to give Teddy’s series its own personality.
- Clothing: For Clara’s project we often used a plain white onesie. This time I wanted Teddy to wear real outfits from the start, so his wardrobe will add more variety and personality every week.
- Scale: Without reference objects in Clara’s photos, it was harder to see changes in size over time. For Teddy we added a wooden plaque (picked up at JoAnn Fabrics) to act as a consistent visual reference and a place to display his age in post-processing.
Teddy already has a more varied wardrobe than John — thanks to hand-me-downs, gifts, and a little sale-rack hunting — so putting him in a different outfit each week shouldn’t be difficult. The suspenders in one of the early photos were brought back from London by my mom, and they made him look especially dapper for a two-week-old.
To keep backgrounds cohesive and not distracting from the clothing, we decided to rotate through around eight simple fabrics instead of changing the backdrop every week. Most of the fabrics are from JoAnn, and the quilt you see is one I sewed for him.
We’ve been taking Teddy’s photos in the same spot where we took many of Clara’s early pictures: on the daybed that used to be in our old sunroom, now Clara’s big-girl bed. That room gets great afternoon light, which helps make the photos look natural and soft. Clara also likes to help, coach and occasionally jump into a few frames, which adds a sweet, candid element. John’s reflector/diffuser has already helped even out shadows during some of our shots.
Since many of you also asked about documenting pregnancy, we thought this would be a good time to share the series of photos we took throughout my pregnancy. We didn’t post a lot of bump pictures during my first pregnancy, so this time we collected them and made a single grid at the end to show the progression.
John created the grid (he enjoys that kind of infographic work) and suggested taking my photo in front of the same bush in our backyard every season. That way the background subtly changes as the belly grows. The bush happened to burst into bloom about the day Teddy was born, so the final photo in the series was taken when he was six days old.
One of my favorite photos from this pregnancy was a holiday shot that—despite the blue trim and long exposure—Clara stood still for long enough to make it work. That image has a bit of holiday magic to it and is especially meaningful because she cooperated for the moment.
How do you document pregnancy or your baby’s first year? Do you take professional maternity portraits, make a plaster belly cast, or photograph the same spot over time? Do you take weekly photos of your baby or prefer monthly updates? When we started Clara’s weekly project we weren’t sure we could keep it up for an entire year, but it became something we looked forward to every week. So far Teddy’s project is shaping up to be just as fun—especially with Clara coaching him from the sidelines. We might have to record that for posterity.