Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.
I cannot believe he is still letting me pose him like this at four weeks - I am so incredibly lucky. He’s my curly little munchkin! Although he’s definitely been a one shot wonder for a while now, all of the hours of effort for just one pose is worth it if he still lets me play.
I love the way his little hand is wrapped around his wrist in that first image – kills me!
Anyone who is familiar with my newborn photography work knows that I love detail!
I’m a bit obsessed actually with photographing beautiful baby bits – the lips, the eyelashes, the belly button, the fingers, the fuzz, the flakes, the milk spots… and most importantly, the piggies. As soon as I took this image of Charlie’s piggy toes, it instantly reminded me of a string of pearls – piggy pearls!
Look at those little flakes of skin as well and those teeny tiny little toenails that have yet to sprout – it’s these beautiful imperfections that make his toes so perfect to me. It’s also things like this that I want each and every one of my newborn clients to cherish about their images as well – embrace the ‘imperfections’ and the newness, as it’s what makes your baby unique.
I think I’ve mentioned before how much Mia adores her little brother. Seriously, adores…
Even if she is in the most grumpy of moods, as soon as she sees him her little eyes sparkle with glee and she runs over to give him a kiss or a cuddle. Of course, it also means that when she is near him her face is no more than an inch from his most of the time as she then proceeds to kiss every inch of him and poke his face, and no matter how many times we tell her not to get so close as he won’t be able to see her properly, she gets far too excited to remember things like that. It really is so special to watch them together too – Mia always gets the big smiles from him as well, something that sends her giggling through the roof as well.
I know the time will soon come when he will just be the annoying little brother, the one in her way, the one copying everything she does… but for now, right now, I think she adores him more than us!
And that I will treasure.
My Charlie boy is getting super hard to photograph now (these were done yesterday) - I’m just fortunate in that if it takes me all day just to get one shot, then I have the whole day to do so. I’m sure the poor boy won’t know what hit him when I let him sleep fully clothed for the whole day, as I have to admit, he does like having his nappy off… (and who wouldn’t?!)
Thanks also go out to Tracy Raver for this gorgeous little hat she made for Charlie which Kelley Ryden brought with her on her visit! Thank you!
… and oh, how I love him!
My little Charlie boy has now hit the 4kg mark and has grown a whole 3cm in 3 weeks – somebody slow time please. Before I know it I’ll be chasing those girls off down the street just to keep them away from him! Yep, I can just see it now – no one will ever be good enough for him!!
Yep, it’s a brand new look! The Kristen Cook brand is growing up! (well, not completely… I’m still a child at heart!)
In honour of new beginnings with this little baby, I’ve now gone through a rebranding process for the business as well with my beautiful new kc logo to start things off. Things are a bit busy behind the scenes for obvious reasons, so I thought now might be a nice time to introduce you to the change so it can sink in while I have a break 
My signature green and pink will still be playing a big part, and I’m having a bit of fun with the new concept, so be prepared to see it splashed around a lot. For all of you who played the guessing game over the last few weeks as to what the change was that was coming (and honestly, I was in stitches over some of your responses and emails!!), hope you’re not too disappointed! A change is as good as a holiday, right?? (and don’t I need one right about now…)
I am also excited to announce that I also have a dedicated weddings website up and running now as well (there you go Bronnie… finally!). To learn more about my approach to photographing weddings, you can visit the dedicated Kristen Cook | Weddings website here.
My beautiful friend Danielle Stahl (a brilliant Darwin-based photographer) handmade the gorgeous wrap you see here just for Charlie, and so this first image is totally inspired by her – it is so soft and delicious it makes me want to get one that’s adult sized just so I can slip into it (move over makers of the Snuggie…!)
The images that I take on black for newborn clients always end up being some of my favourites from the session, so I knew I couldn’t go past having some of my own shots for Charlie boy like this too. It’s a great chance to play with light and shadows for me, I adore the depth it gives – simple and pure baby.
I obsess over itty bitty details with newborns, seriously – I do. It’s all pure baby.
These are only a few of the many detail shots I have of Charlie since his birth, and two of my favourites. One of the first things I looked at after he was born was how much ‘peach fuzz’ he had on him and much to my delight his ears were gorgeously fuzzy. I captured that iamge not long after we got home and it still makes me smile every time I look at it. It’s a constant reminder of just how new and fresh these little creatures are, and how quickly the little things like fuzz on the ears just disappear before you realise. It’s a reminder for me so when one day, I look down at his ears and they are fuzz free, I don’t forget how ‘him’ it was when he was little. I want to remember these small details, the details that seem so insignificant at the time, yet so missed when they are gone.
His fishy lips are a Charlie trademark and I adore them. I was so lucky to capture them close up today, again as a reminder of one of the beautiful quirks he was born with.
These beautiful, special, remarkable and innocent little finer details…
There are so many things that I love about this image – the fact that both of my boys are in it, the little piggy toes, the little hand holding onto daddy’s finger, how beautifully soft and curly Charlie is…
Newborn piggy toes… they get me every time. Totally loving that peaches and cream skin on brown combo for my Charlie boy too… yummy yummy!!
I am far too lucky to have such a gorgeous little man to photograph whenever I like… he is seriously so good to me!
Can you believe that he hit two weeks old today…. two weeks! Where have the last two weeks gone? I’m not sure how much more I will be able to get out of him at this point (he’s already started to only give me very short bursts of sleep for me to play around with him) so I will milk it for as long as he allows me to.
Mia is still so adoring of her little brother. When I am feeding him she wants to be sitting 10cm away from his face so that she can watch him. When he finishes, he is met with a chorus of Hello from her (‘heeyyyyy-yooooooo’) trying to get his attention. We think we’ve seen the start of some gorgeous smiles as well from him that aren’t wind related, so here’s hoping they continue as well – they melt my heart!
I have just spent the most wonderful weekend with some beautiful fellow photographers participating in Kelley Ryden’s workshop.
Kelley flew all the way from Omaha, Nebraska to join us in Melbourne for a whirlwind Australian newborn workshop tour and I adored every minute of it. My gorgeous Charlie boy was fortunate enough to be one of the models that we got to photograph, and we had so much fun playing with him and all of the other beautiful newborn babes who joined us as well. Lots of fun, fun, fun!! Best part now is that I can play with some more fun poses with Charlie (well, fortunate for me… poor Charlie will have to deal with me photographing him for a good while yet…!)
The first image is one of my favourites of him from the workshop, purely because of his lips…. SO adorable!!
And one that I took today of my handsome little guy:
Serious Charlie overload… you’ll just have to bear with me while I bombard you with images over this short while! (and these are only a tiny handful of what I’ve taken too… but when you combine my love for photographing newborns with the fact I get to photograph my own newborn – well, can you blame me?!)
He’s just far too perfect… apart from the fact he’s changing way too quickly right before my eyes.
My pudgy little Charlie boy…
