I Can See the Head
I can see the head.
Five words that mean you are minutes away from meeting your baby for the very first time.
When your baby's head is crowning it is the first glimpse anyone gets of this brand new person. And unless someone is very handy with a mirror in that moment, you probably will not even see it yourself. Your midwife will see it. Your partner will see it. But you, the person who has been waiting longer than anyone, will most likely be working far too hard to notice.
Does your baby have hair? What colour is it? How much of it is there?
These are questions that get answered in those first extraordinary seconds and then immediately forgotten in the chaos and joy of everything that follows.
This is why I always photograph the crown of your baby's head.
Not because it is the most obvious portrait. Not because it will be the first one you choose at your Reveal Session. But because one day, years from now, you will look at it and remember something you had completely forgotten. The exact colour of their hair in those first days. The little whorl at the top. The way it stuck up in every direction or lay flat against their head or came in with the most extraordinary curls you had ever seen on a newborn.
These are the details that vanish first from memory. These are the details that a photograph keeps forever. If you love a baby with a truly extraordinary head of hair you’ll love reading about one of my favourite ever arrivals.
And who doesn’t love a perfectly smooth bald head. The shape of it. The softness of it. The way the light falls across it. Beautiful in its own completely different way.
Every tiny head has been through quite an incredible journey to arrive safely in your arms.
Don’t forget what the crown of your baby’s head looked like.
I did and I’d give anything to have that memory now
Two of those tiny heads are twice the wonder. Double the hair discoveries, double the perfect little whorls, double everything. I have never once managed to keep my composure when twins arrive at the studio. I am not sure I ever want to.
Memories fade. Photographs last for generations.
That tiny head that fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. Those first wisps of hair that you could not stop stroking. The smell of them, you will always remember the smell, but the details of how they looked in those very first days have a way of blurring with time no matter how hard you try to hold onto them.
A photograph holds them for you
So when I pop that woolly hat off at the start of a session and whatever is underneath is revealed, that moment gets photographed. Always.
Whether it is a full head of dark curls, a soft blonde fuzz, a glorious mohawk that nobody saw coming or the smoothest most perfect bald head you have ever seen. All of it is beautiful. All of it is worth remembering. All of it is yours.
If you would love calm, timeless photographs of your baby including all the details that are so easy to forget, I would love to hear from you.