Babies photos 9-18 months Milk / Bubble Bath Sessions with Colfax photographer, Jana Johnston

Photographing newborns is so incredibly simple! Ok, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration... Newborns take a special type of photographer, an incredible amount of patience, and they aren't really easy at all.... I do those often...

But... babies from 9-18 months... those are my jam!!

Babies are amazing!!! Babies, Toddlers, small children... Wow, totally perfect!! I love this age so much! Just look at all of these perfect, adorable little faces!

To be entirely clear, these sessions aren't exactly easy. Separation anxiety emerges at about 8 to 9 months, peaking at around 14 months and your child probably likes being with familiar people. ( which can make picture taking at this age incredibly difficult for your photographer.) But if you take a little time to learn about what engages a baby, what things they totally love and how they respond... you can totally capture their interest, so much so... that they may not even realize their photo is being taken!

At this age, your child may also be:

* Shy with strangers.

* May cling to familiar adults when in strange surroundings.

* Emotions change from quite basic reactions to complex, self conscious responses.

* Learns to gauge whether something is right or wrong by the reactions of the important adults in his life.

* Anger and fear increase in frequency and intensity.

* They are happy to play on their own

* Are developing a sense of identity.

All of these things are totally normal developmentally for this age range.

I know that one of the biggest fears for moms who book photo sessions for their little ones is that their baby or child may act out, be difficult or even cry. And many times they do... at least momentarily. I have been working with babies for so many years, that is almost impossible for me to shoot a session without getting at least a few smiles. I know all tricks to get those smiles... and to be honest, often, the candid, non smiling photos become the family favorites.

For the first round of milk bath sessions we met at the Colfax Ball Park:

Lions Children’s Park

Parkhill Dr, Colfax, CA 95713

We met Avery, Oberyn, Bailey, Emerson, Carson and Reese   

Aren't these all the most adorable baby names?! Well, as you have seen so far, the babies were even cuter than their names!

Our second round of milk bath sessions were at our Grass Valley location:

Memorial Park, 350 Race St, Grass Valley, CA 95945

Where we met Magnum, Zachary, Sadie and Milah       

Both locations were perfect! Tons of shade, lots of space and beautiful lush grass!

Some of our mamas travelled from as far as Lincoln, Rocklin, and Roseville to participate in these promotional sessions!

Making the sessions fun for the babies is really what I want to do! I wanted the parents to have fun, I wanted the siblings to have fun, and I want the babies to have fun, and as you can tell, I know everyone did... It would have been so hard not to have fun. I laughed and loved these new tiny strangers more than I would have ever imagined!

Almost all of my setups for the babies were the same; Braden worked so hard to tote around hundreds of pounds of warm clean water, we added dried milk and evaporated milk to the baths to create the milky color, then added rubber duckies, bubbles, gorgeous fresh flowers, and fruit to the mix to create adorable little scenes. Hats, bowties, headbands, and pearls added to the adorableness! It absolutely amazes me how different all these little babies are and how different all of the sessions were, even though they all had the same basic elements and backgrounds!

The Boys Sessions were originally going to be just big tubs of water with lots of bubbles!

The Girls Sessions were originally going to be just milk baths. Basically big wash tubs filled with milky water, beautiful fresh flowers and lots of fruits and berries....

Once I saw how much fun the babies were having, we decided to do milk baths and bubble baths with both the boys and girls. They loved it!!

What made all of this so difficult is the unbelievable response we got to these sessions. I was looking for 3-5 babies for this shoot, and I don’t have an exact count but I believe I talked to around 60 mamas about their babies!!

That is unbelievable!

I wish I could have worked with every single one of you and your children... but that just was not possible... 

Because there was such an enormous response, I had to draw names to decide who would receive these sessions.

You will likely be hearing about this little man more in the future. Look how cute he is!! His mom will be sending me over a little more information, and once she does, I will share a little more about his story with all of you. He, along with many other children, is in need of a pediatric bone marrow transplant. He has an incredibly rare form of anemia and a transplant is the cure.

If you are interested or if you can, please consider donating marrow, please check out:

Be the Match @

https://bethematch.org/support-the-cause/donate-bone-marrow/donation-process/donating-bone-marrow/

You could save a life!

I want to thank everyone who commented, everyone who sent me pictures of their cute little babies, and everyone who message to me about our promotion. You are all amazing and have the cutest babies!! 

Since the response was so huge, and more moms are contacting me daily, we will be opening up a few more spots at the end of this month. If you were previously interested and didn't receive a session or you know someone who would be the perfect fit for one of these sessions, please let me know right away! Because of the HUGE demand, only the first few people to respond will receive sessions. Sessions are EXTREMELY limited!

Session fees are $95.

Prints/digitals start at $25

Wall art starts at $250

Packages start at $350

Sessions will take place August 25th and September 1st in Colfax, Ca.

For more information and some behind the scenes, go here: https://www.janajohnstonphotography.com/milk-bath-1