Newborn & Family Photographer in Connecticut

WHY I DO THIS

I photograph the things mothers tell me they miss the most.

The sleepy cuddles. The way they scrunch up when they’re brand new. The little sounds they only make for a few weeks. The way a toddler looks at his baby sister when he thinks no one is watching.

Almost every mom I talk to says the same thing: “I was in survival mode. I barely remember it. I’d give anything to go back and slow down.”

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you stopped being in any of the pictures.

I can’t give those days back. But I can make sure you keep them, and I can put you back in the frame with them.

Newborn on a blanket with a parent's hands cradling their head

Mother and father holding their newborn together, warm tones

Mother and father holding their newborn at a window with greenery outside

Family silhouetted behind a backlit sheet, dark intimate frame

Wide view of mother and daughter playing with a doll house in a sunlit bedroom

Three children in black and white posed in a Connecticut studio

Mother with her three children, studio portrait on a soft backdrop

Family of five in dark clothing, studio group portrait

Family outdoors in summer light, child on his father's shoulders

Family of four in cream outside a white clapboard house

Toddler kissing mother's pregnant belly in golden evening light on grass

Expecting couple outdoors holding their toddler, bare bump, green field

Mother and toddler face to face outdoors in soft green light

Parents and children playing under a billowing sheet in a bright bedroom

Kids lying together on a bed, photographed from above

Mother with her two children kissing her cheeks, warm home light

Father laughing with his family on a bed

Parents and children together on white bedding, seen from above

Two children playing in a sunlit room by tall windows

Two children building with blocks on the floor at home

Sun hugging his father on the living room floor

WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT

A family portrait is not only parents and small children.

It can be three generations in one frame. Brothers and sisters who are grown. A grandfather with the grandchildren. A woman and her own mother, which is the one almost nobody thinks to make until it is too late.

And there is a film, if you want one.

Before I ever picked up a camera I spent years working as a professional video editor. So alongside your photographs I can make you a short film with the real sound in it. Their voices. The giggles. The noise of your actual life.

A photograph helps you remember how it looked. A film lets you relive how it felt.

And you leave with something you can hold.

Prints you can take out and look at. A keepsake box from Italy. Something framed on a wall where your children will see themselves every day. Not a folder of files that lives on a phone and never gets opened again.

Newborn & Family Photographer in Connecticut · Deschain Photography

THE FAMILY SESSION

For whoever counts as your family. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, several generations together.

Two hours, in the studio, at your home, or outdoors. Dressed and posed, loose and real, or both in the same session. We decide together beforehand.

Included:

Pre-session planning and a moodboard built around your family
Wardrobe styling: we choose outfits together in advance, from your own closets or mine, so everything works as a group and nothing is decided in a panic that morning
Full direction the whole time, for the grown-ups who do not know what to do and the children who will not sit still
An appointment about ten days later, where we look at your photographs together and you choose what you want to keep

The full process, step by step →

Mother in a brown knit cardigan nursing her baby, dark backdrop

Mother nursing her baby, quiet dark frame

Baby in a white onesie held against a dark background

Mother in white lace with her baby, foreheads touching

Mother holding her baby close, bare shoulders, warm light

Mother kissing the back of her baby's shoulder

Close detail of a baby's hands and skin in soft light

Close frame of a baby nursing against white fabric

Woman in black and sunglasses holding her baby, studio portrait

Seated woman in black holding her baby against a dark backdrop

Family on a bed in their own bedroom, macramé on the wall

Mother in a white shirt holding her baby at a window

Mother nursing her baby in soft window light at home

Toddler in a tan knit sweater held by their mother, dark background

Woman behind a sheer curtain holding her child, soft diffused light

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE

I come to your home and find the room with the best light, usually the bedroom or the corner by the big window. Then we just spend time together. You feed the baby when the baby is hungry. We stop when someone needs a break. I move quietly around you, catching the light on a small hand, a kiss on a forehead, the moment everyone ends up in a pile on the bed.

THE NEWBORN SESSION

Those first weeks disappear faster than anyone warns you.

Two hours at your home, with all the breaks you need for feeding and settling.

Completely unposed. No beanbags, no props, no manipulating your baby into shapes. Newborns belong in their parents' arms, and that is where I photograph them.

Whole family and pets welcome. Big siblings especially.

If your baby is already a few months old, we are not too late. We are simply keeping a different chapter, and it is just as worth having.

ADD A FILM

Sixty to ninety seconds with the real sound in it. The voices, the laughing, the noise of your actual life.

If there are grandparents in your session, it is the voices that matter most. A photograph cannot hold a voice.

Films are chosen before your session, because they add a little filming time to the day. $800.

Framed portrait of a mother and baby leaning in a sunlit room

Do I get the digital files?

Yes. Every collection comes with digital files: the smallest has ten images, five of them printed in a keepsake box from Italy. You choose them at the appointment, after you’ve seen everything.

My kids will never cooperate.

They don’t have to. I don’t need them to sit still and smile, I need them to be themselves. That’s where the good frames live.

My husband hates having his photo taken.

Most do. He’s usually only needed for a few minutes, and I direct every second of it so nobody has to think.

Our house isn’t magazine-worthy.

It doesn’t need to be. I use one room and the light in it, and your home is the whole point: it’s where this chapter actually happened.

Is my baby too old for a newborn session?

Never too old for a session. The first three weeks have their own softness, but a three month old smiling at you is just as worth keeping.

Family and newborn photography and film