I arrived at the house of Scott and Sondra to meet their newest addition to the family, their newborn son Dean. Rebecca and I had our first semi-introduction to Dean when we photographed Sondra’s baby shower and we were so excited to finally meet him in person.
Upon entering the house I was greeted by the family guards, a white lab named Buddy and a black lab named Daisy. I was also introduced to Butters the cat before he decided I was no threat to his kingdom and left to lounge by the window sill.
After passing through security, I was warmly greeted by Sondra, Scott and the newborn Dean.
Dean wasn’t quite ready for the photoshoot, so while he was preparing I went into his new room to get set up and I was taken aback by his room. Sondra and Scott had put in so many small personal touches into his room that I was inspired to capture them all. Some of the signs and decorations from the baby shower had been repurposed for Dean’s room as well!
Now that he was ready, Dean, Scott, and Sondra came into Dean’s room to start his newborn photoshoot. He was a great model. While he wasn’t quite sure what to do during the photoshoot at first. He became more and more comfortable with me being in his space and soon ignored me and focused on his mom and dad. His big, bright, blue eyes would light up and dance back and forth from his mom and dad. (He also decided he was hungry and became fascinated with Sondra’s shoulder)
Dean soon became a little feisty but once he was wrapped in his dad’s arms he melted and soon started to get sleepy eyes, but he fought them! It was so cute to watch him grab his mom’s fingers and pull her close for some group family shots.
At Dean’s request, we migrated into the living room for his lunch and craft services (he’s a union model). I decided to see if we could capitalize on his lunch break and grab some lifestyle portraits of Scott, Sondra, and Dean all together as a beautiful new family. It was very heartwarming to see the beautiful son Sondra and Scott brought into this world together. He has such a sweet energy and I could already see personality traits of Scott and Sondra coming through. The connection and love they all had for each other were so special to see and I found myself completely inspired to do my absolute best to capture their connection on film.
After lunch, we moved over to their giant front window to use the wonderful light coming from it. I was really excited to be here for this newborn photoshoot, especially since we did Scott and Sondra’s baby shower photography. Back at the baby shower, we captured a few images of Scott and Sondra hands on Sondra’s belly, connecting them to Dean. Now that Dean was here, I was so excited to repeat the same shot but instead of Scott and Sondra holding her belly, they held onto Dean this time!
Scott has been a member of the United States Coast Guard for a little over 10 years and Sondra and Scott want some shots of Dean in his Dad’s uniform. I was happy to oblige and they turned out fantastic! It was an honor to be able to capture images of Scott’s newborn son inside the uniform he serves in. Scott is an awesome leader, father, man and a heroic Coast Guardsman. It was especially touching to see that as soon as Sondra placed Dean inside the uniform, Dean immediately started to get really sleepy. Scott put his hand toward Dean, Dean grabbed his thumb, and slowly started to close his eyes, but he still wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet!
We migrated over to the couch and grabbed Buddy and Daisy for some family portraits. They both were perfectly well behaved and couldn’t be happier to be included in the family portraits. (I plan on doing the exact same thing with my dog Jordan when Rebecca and I have kids.) Buddy and Daisy are already in love with Dean and jumped at the chance to get in on the portraits.
After the family portraits, Sondra wrapped up Dean in a blanket, placed him on a hand made blanket she received from her baby shower, grabbed a yardstick, a calendar, a clock and a few signs. All of these pieces told the story about Dean, he had his name, his weight at birth, the day he was born on the calendar, the time and how big he was at that moment in time.
After the last few newborn photos, Dean went into his rocker and took a break. I chatted with Sondra and Scott for a bit before saying goodbye to Dean, Buddy, Butters, Daisy, Scott and Sondra. Congratulations again to the Whitehead family, wishing you all the best and we can’t wait to see Dean grow up in such a loving home! Special thanks to Dean Whitehead who managed to stay awake for the entire photoshoot to our amazement. Sondra later called and told us that as soon as I left, he went right to sleep and has been happily napping like a champ, the rest of the day.
-Daniel from Daniel Doty Photography
