ISLA MARIE

OAK PARK LIFESTYLE NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER: MELISSA MARIE PHOTOGRAPHY: ISLA MARIE

Back in the day, I had a giant suitcase of baby session stuff. Ribbons, blankets, baskets, backdrops, you name it. Now...I bring 2 things: My camera(s) and my portable sound machine. (Which if you littles, and don't have one, it's so great; especially on car rides.) Forever I'd stress out if the baby was going to sleep while I was there. If I'd get "the shot" that I thought parents really wanted. But that all changed when I had kids of my own. I'd sit on my couch, with my "emergency tray" of things like a ginormous thing of water, the t.v remote, burp cloths, and just swoon over the fact that this was now my life. Trying to hold in every new miraculously mundanely perfect memory. I tried to get the perfect little sleeping newborn pics of my kids. Didn't happen. They freaked out. (: But it wasn't until the season passed that I realized what I really wanted to hold onto was that time in life. That changed every bit of how I capture newborns. Perfect isn't in the shot, it's in the moment(s). Countless little fleeting coos and baby smells, kisses, and wonderings of how in the world did we ever not be this way?

Perfect may not be in the shot, but you're pretty perfect little miss Isla Marie.