Symbolic Newborn Photos

It’s very common that during a maternity session with a couple, we discuss their thoughts on their newborn photo session. Meeting Bless and Ace, and discovering that their baby, Jacob Ace, is a rainbow baby, I knew that we could create beautiful symbolism during his newborn session.

If you’re not familiar, a rainbow baby is the baby that is born after the passing of a previous baby, for example from a miscarriage. With personal experience of my youngest being a rainbow baby, I connected immediately to Bless and Ace’s story, and knew that we could represent this beautifully in their photos. Many families want to celebrate their baby while acknowledging the one that is not with them. Newborn photos are a beautiful way to commemorate both of your babies.

For Jacob Ace’s photos, we worked on two different themes: rainbow baby and Star Wars. I loved that we could do photos that were beautiful and meaningful, as well as ones that were lighthearted while still being personal to the family.

Bless and Ace are HUGE Star Wars fans. Jacob Ace's nursery is filled with Star Wars themed items and their baby shower was the same theme so it made sense to continue this into the newborn photo session. I love when we can take a theme or idea that the family loves and tie it into the photos. 

While you can easily go over the top with themes, we chose to keep it more subtle yet meaningful and used items from his nursery in the photos.When Bless shared with me that they had lost their first baby and that Jacob Ace is their rainbow baby I knew we HAD to include that in their session. Though there are many ways I’ve seen this represented, we had Jacob Ace on a cloud with the rainbow behind along with posed on her tummy cast with the rainbow colors. Not only does this capture the beauty of her pregnancy and the love they have for Jacob Ace, it also represents their first pregnancy; for many families who have a rainbow baby, it’s important to acknowledge all pregnancies and babies and including representation of the lost baby in photos can help with healing. 

We also captured beautiful photos of Jacob Ace representing his birth stats and with the jersey that Bless and Ace used to announce their pregnancy. Although the jersey is still too large for him, I love that we were able to include it and I hope that if we have another photo session, we use it to show just how much he has grown.