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AIBU?

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Original poster

To find baby photo shoots a bit weird ?

130 replies

Notagoodtime · 16/01/2022 21:29

Just seen on fb a friend took her newborn to a photo shoot. Baby was dressed in all sorts of costumes including a bumble bee and was contorted into all sorts of positions for photos. To me a newborn baby is so beautiful without all of these weird costumes and settings. Aibu?

OP posts:
AlwaysLatte · 17/01/2022 00:15

I particularly hate when they are posed with their hands under their chin. Newborns don't do that!

Pedalpushers · 17/01/2022 00:21

An old friend on FB put up photos of her baby where the baby is swaddled into such weird angles I'm astonished they didn't break anything. Hate them.

elliejjtiny · 17/01/2022 00:29

Whatever floats your boat but I'm personally not keen. I've got a lovely photo of me, dh and our eldest 2 dc. I'm holding dc2 who is wearing a sleepsuit and knitted cardigan. Dh is holding dc1 who is wearing one of my favourite of his outfits, a hoodie with a picture of a monkey on and jeans. We are all gazing at the baby, looking smitten.

HappyDays40 · 17/01/2022 00:31

Nah not for me. Also HATE cake smash photo shoots.

Rubyupbeat · 17/01/2022 00:41

Anne Geddes started it with her photos of newborns.
Each to their own, I'm not keen one bit, but then I cannot bare the obligatory cake smashes either.

Flickflak · 17/01/2022 00:47

This reply has been withdrawn

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HiJenny35 · 17/01/2022 01:20

Not weird no, it's a kid in an outfit, not really a big deal is it. Doesn't really matter what you think, she likes them, it's her kid, it doesn't hurt the child or effect you in anyway. Turn off facebook, walk away, realise that it doesn't effect your life in anyway at all and that she probably looks at your photos and thinks they are boring and naff but probably hasn't made a post about it.

FakingMemories · 17/01/2022 01:56

Hate them. And cake smash photos. And the biggest offenders of all are those blank and white soles of the feet photos with the baby’s feet resting on a fluffy towel. In my youth I had a weekend job in a photo developing place and if I saw one of those soles of the feet photos I saw a million. This was just as digital cameras were becoming affordable and people would bring in a memory card with 500 attempts at an arty feet photo and ask me to select the best one. It still makes me heave just thinking about it,

MrsToothyBitch · 17/01/2022 01:57

Not for me. I've never been enraptured by babies anyway and I find the posed in flower pots/cutesy costume etc pics a much. The babies always look too perfectly asleep in them- I find them a bit unnerving, think it's the contrived serenity.

Fair enough if people like them though!

MrsDrSpencerReid · 17/01/2022 02:01

SIL had these photo done of DN. There’s one of her squashed into a clear vase with an oversized gaudy flower garland around her head. All her baby chub is pressed flat against the vase Grin
We all refer to it as “the photo” and SIL posts it every year on DN’s birthday so we can all have a laugh Grin (including DN who is an adult now!)

I love the natural style ones where it’s just the sleepy naked newborn curled up on a soft blanket.

kittykat33 · 17/01/2022 02:23

Yes I hate them. I have always found them completely bizarre. But I'm so much in the minority that people actually questioned why I hadn't done professional shoot with DS & did I want to be gifted ones 'before it was too late'. I go into peoples houses now and look at them and think they're dreadful.

Obviously I've got 100s of photos of DS doing all sorts of baby stuff but the staged ones really freak me out.

MimiDaisy11 · 17/01/2022 02:31

I wasn’t sure how to vote as your title just says baby shoots and I don’t find them alone weird as it’s nice to have some quality photos, however some of the description you give does sound weird like dressing them up as bees etc. Most shoots I’ve seen are of older children often with siblings and they are in normal clothes.

MimiDaisy11 · 17/01/2022 02:36

Also I’ve never heard of “cake smashing photos” but I’m intrigued so going to look up to see if I get annoyed 😂

BDavis · 17/01/2022 02:37

We had a newborn shoot done when DS was 2 weeks old and I’m so glad we did tbh! I specifically booked a super natural photographer. There was no awkward poses and no outfits. I didn’t want baby done up in all pink or blue either.
She just made us feel so at ease and it was a really lovely experience. Was the first time we’d been out anywhere apart from walks since he was born so I was pretty nervous about BFing etc but it was amazing. She captured the most beautiful natural shots of DS lying sleeping after his feed - just him in some beautiful soft cream coloured shawls etc. She managed to capture his little windy smiles, his big sleepy yawn, a couple of him just gazing at the camera looking SO alert, his wee petted lip - just all his little newborn details ❤️ She also took photos of me with DS, DH with DS and us all as a family. I really wasn’t feeling my best and wasn’t all that up for getting infront of the camera but she persuaded me and I’m so thankful that she did! The family ones are some of the only pictures I have of me, DH and DS all together! We don’t have much family but even those that did come and visit DS as a newborn, we never really thought to ask any of them to get pictures of then 3 of us together so most home photos from that time are just one of us with DS.

The posed ones with outfits and props are NOT for me 😬 I babysat for a couple when I was a teen and they had a huuuuge picture of their son at a few months old in their livingroom. It was an image of him wearing wings, sitting on top of a CGI toadstool surrounded by bubbles 🤣😅 so so weird IMO!

1forAll74 · 17/01/2022 02:43

Yes quite a strange thing to do, and suppose they are expensive too. It's much nicer to take your baby photo's at home, in a normal house setting.

Halfabag · 17/01/2022 03:37

Ach they’re a bit tacky but harmless. Done properly in a studio with someone professional baby is kept warm and fed and sleepy, and they’re usually done under a certain age so they are mouldable. It doesn’t hurt although the frog pose ones are shit in two and then comped together. It’s not my thing but nothing against folk who want them done.

Eumy · 17/01/2022 06:30

I’m going to go against the grain here and say I love them! Yes, some can be a little tacky with cgi glitter and wings, but I guess my taste is a bit tacky 😅!

I’ve got a shoot booked for our baby when they arrive, and plan to book a 6 month and 1 year shoot too. This is likely to be our only child and I’d rather regret taking them than regret not taking them!

AllThePogs · 17/01/2022 09:24

There are ongoing fashion trends with photography that have been going on for many decades. One minute all-natural, next posed, next natural, and so on.
Who cares as long as those paying are happy.

AllThePogs · 17/01/2022 09:25

@1forAll74

Yes quite a strange thing to do, and suppose they are expensive too. It's much nicer to take your baby photo's at home, in a normal house setting.
Do you think the Royal Families posed photos are also wrong then?
ParadiseLaundry · 17/01/2022 09:33

Your op made me think of this Grin

I don't really get them myself but each to their own.

AllThePogs · 17/01/2022 09:36

That is a bit cruel. All babies look beautiful to their parents.

Poundlick · 17/01/2022 09:40

@AllThePogs

That is a bit cruel. All babies look beautiful to their parents.
They do. So why contort them into weird positions in costumes sticking out of flowerpots or sitting on mushrooms?

Though my lovely SIL and BIL have a series of giant framed photos of their three now-adult children on the living room wall, depicting them all as babies lying naked and discreetly draped on the same furry rug in the same pose -- lying on front, pushing up and looking to the side (where a parent was presumably dangling a toy).

Their children refer to them as the Sicko Boudoirs for Babies gallery. Grin

Daenerys77 · 17/01/2022 09:55

It all sounds a bit weird. Don't most newborns look like potatoes anyway?

mugoftea456 · 17/01/2022 09:56

its the odd, unnatural positions they force the baby into! head resting on hand ect. I cant see how its a safe position for tiny newborns

DappledThings · 17/01/2022 09:57

@mugoftea456

its the odd, unnatural positions they force the baby into! head resting on hand ect. I cant see how its a safe position for tiny newborns
They don't. They are composite pictures. Fakes basically. Which makes it all the weirder!