Palo Alto Newborn Photography at Gamble Gardens

This sweet girl came into the world in the middle of a global pandemic and historic California wildfires— but through that craziness, these moments shared with this beautiful couple remind me of the goodness and sweetness and tenderness still in the world.

Ever since the Pandemic, I now have a policy of wearing a mask to my photoshoots, and this is especially important when photographing newborns! Newborn photos done outdoors are a great safe alternative to indoor lifestyle photos shot at home. It’s a great way to take an extra level of socially-distanced safety precautions with a new baby.

This photoshoot was especially easy because I also photographed their maternity photos! They are one of the families featured in this blog post. It is so so so helpful to both me as a photographer, but also for the new parents, to have already built a relationship of trust and familiarity with me by the time we get to the newborn photos. When newborn photos happen, parents are understandably tired. The advantage of having met them before for maternity photos is that they’re already comfortable with me & my process, and they know what to expect. This level of familiarity makes the newborn process even easier during a time when parents are already tired and busy learning a million new things. Expecting parents— I HIGHLY recommend scheduling maternity and newborn photos together with the same photographer!

Gamble Garden Newborn Photography

We photographed this outdoor newborn lifestyle session at Gamble Gardens due to it’s convenient location. I really like this garden for a few reasons: easy parking, easy physical accessibility (this is important with mothers recovering from birth and navigating the world with a newborn), it’s big enough that we have space to move around; wide variety of flowers; and most especially, no photography fee! Gamble Gardens is truly a gem and I’m so thankful to the fleet of volunteers who come together every Wednesday and Thursday morning to maintain these flowers so we can celebrate new life.

Quick Photography Tip:

Let’s talk about kissing on camera! This sweet couple was SO cute and so natural in front of the camera, they did such a great job connecting and showing genuine emotion in their photos. So here’s a quick tip so your gallery can turn out just as well!

I know it can feel weird to share a kiss when you have an audience. Personally, I’m pretty sure my wonderful husband would rather die than kiss me in public. So I totally get it.
But if you kiss too quickly, it’s very likely the photographer is going to miss the shot. I’ve seen plenty of posts from wedding togs freaking out that they missed the classic “kiss your bride” photo because the couple only kissed for 0.2 seconds and it’s hard to catch.

When my husband and I got married, I sat him down and explained to him that he had to kiss me at the altar for AT LEAST three full Mississippis. And fortunately we got a great photo in the end!

So, today’s photography tip is— hold that kiss, so your photographer has time to work their magic and catch the moment.

Shooting Info:

This session was shot on a 5D Mark IV. I used my Canon 50mm and my Sigma 35mm lenses. All photos were edited first in Lightroom with additional touchups done in Photoshop afterwards.