What are some things I should do before baby arrives?

My clients ask me this question all the time. I guess it’s because I have four kids of my own. Or maybe it’s because I am a newborn photographer here in Dallas. Either way, I’ve heard so many suggestions over the years and tried a few things out myself while waiting for baby. It is such a joyous time waiting for your little one to arrive. And everyone is full of advice for you, both positive and negative. Well since this question of what to do before baby comes up more often than not, I decided to make a little list to refer to.

1. Go on a date with your spouse / significant other

No matter what you think might happen, you are likely to not get a chance to go out alone together for quite a while. And you likely won’t want to! But it’s so important to spend time together. Don’t forget each other in the whirlwind of nesting and getting your house ready. I still remember that 12 years ago on the weekend before our son and first child was born my husband and I went to see a movie and had dinner together. Not that exciting, right? Wrong. We still remember the movie we saw and talk about it fondly from time to time. And we have always been grateful that we took the time to acknowledge our relationship before starting this exciting journey as parents together.

2. Get your hair done and a mani pedi

This is pretty self-explanatory and I don’t mean to go negative but… You won’t have as much time for self-care after the baby arrives. It will be some time before you have the opportunity to go out. That’s why taking care of yourself is one of the most important things to do before baby arrives. Getting a mani pedi hand in hand with getting your hair done. See what I did there? 😉 You will feel so good with your hands and feet taken care of. Special bonus? They say that foot massages can induce labor so if you’re really wanting that baby to arrive it could be a great 39 or 40 week treat.

3. Get an acupuncture treatment

Acupuncture can assist in digestion and easing discomfort during pregnancy. It also can reduce stress and anxiety. Sounds like a great thing to do when you’re expecting, right?

My friend Emily Guevara of The Acupuncture Juncture here in Dallas, is an amazing acupuncturist. She is well known around Dallas as providing excellent care. You can read more about her here: Fertility Acupuncture in Dallas.

4. Fill your freezer

I hated nothing more than cooking after my babies arrived. And life is a bit more hectic than you would suppose. Having access to good healthy food at all times is a big plus. Cooking in advance and stockpiling a freezer stash of foods was a big sanity saver for me.

5. Hang out with friends

Make sure you and your spouse both take time to spend with friends. This is important for both of you. It falls in the column of self-care to make sure you have time to connect with your friends without the worry of leaving baby at home.

6. Get Adjusted

You read that right. You might want to consider chiropractic care during your pregnancy. It can help address issues that cause discomfort and it could prove to assist you in having an easier labor. My friend Erin Calaway over at Apex Wellness is a Webster Certified chiropractor. She provides amazing care to all of her patients. Read more about her here – Chiropractic Care in Pregnancy.

7. Sleep

Pretty self-explanatory as well. It is difficult to sleep in the last trimester. I had horrible insomnia and reflux with all of my pregnancies. That made it really hard to sleep especially near the end. But I tried my best to get in extra sleep where I could because I knew how much I would miss it once the baby came. Like all seasons in life the sleep deprivation eventually passes. But it is one of the less fun things about having a sweet baby around. If you have troubles sleeping after baby arrives call my friend Mary Cantwell of Rest To Your Nest. She is featured on my blog here – her service is amazing and will help you get some z’s.

8. Babymoon

Having a babymoon goes right along with taking time for a date night. But it goes one step further. Why not take a short vacation with your spouse. Could be you won’t go away alone together for a long time. Even a romantic weekend at a bed and breakfast would be a nice idea.

9. Read a good book

I don’t know about you but I love to read! However, this passion has taken a significant back seat to my kids. I definitely remember the last few books I read before my kiddos arrived. It’s hard to feed baby and read a book in the other. Although, you might try Audible as a great alternative to reading an actual book after baby arrives.

10. Go out to the movies

I love going out to the movies. So I definitely recommend doing this ahead of baby’s arrival. You won’t have as many opportunities to go to a movie theater afterward.

11. Have a phenomenal maternity photography session

What kind of maternity and newborn photographer would I be if I didn’t recommend scheduling a custom maternity photography session? When you schedule a portrait session with a photographer like me it is an incredible experience. You get hair and makeup, you get to select gowns from my studio wardrobe to wear, and you also get to help design your custom portrait session. Afterward, you get to keep your portraits in the form of beautiful keepsake artwork. You get to feel like a queen for the day and you will never forget the experience because you get to enjoy your artwork forever.

12. Schedule newborn pictures

While scheduling maternity portraits it’s a great time to schedule newborn portraits as well. Newborn photography is best done when baby is 7-14 days old – for a variety of reasons. This is why it’s important to schedule it ahead of time. What’s more, if you’re working with me you get to choose from packages that take you from maternity through newborn and tell the whole story of baby’s arrival.

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for reading about what to do before baby arrives. I hope you’ll comment below and tell me what you did or suggest to do before baby arrives!

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2019 Could be a banner year for Wildflowers in Texas

Experts are saying that due to rainfall in October and the average temperature this year, we could be looking at an amazing year for wildflowers. What does that mean for me and for my photography clients? You guessed it. Amazingly beautiful pictures in the wildflowers! This is hands down my favorite time to get outside for sessions. The weather is beautiful and the scenery is unmatched. It’s definitely time to start thinking about booking your wildflower pictures and bluebonnet pictures.

In parts of North Texas, Dallas and Richardson in particular, we have wildflower planting programs. Of course, there is the ever-present bluebonnet. But we also have incredible waist-high wildflowers in certain areas of town.

When should you take wildflower pictures?

Wildflower pictures should be scheduled well in advance to take advantage of their short growing season. Clients have already contacted me to schedule their family, maternity, and individual portraits in the wildflowers this season. Weekend dates are very popular and fill up quickly. Because we aren’t sure exactly when the season will start or when it will end it’s always good to plan ahead. That way we have ample opportunity to reschedule due to bad weather or move the session up if we see that the flowers are starting to fade.

But we take family pictures in the Fall

Who says family portraits have to happen in the Fall? Or any pictures for that matter. Our wildflowers are unique to Dallas. We don’t get a lot of Fall foliage. Why not take advantage of something special to our area?

Another advantage? Get holiday cards out of the way well in advance. One less thing to worry about when you’re running around Christmas shopping.

When will the wildflowers bloom?

Typically bluebonnets and wildflowers reach their peak between March and the end of May. It all depends on rainfall, temperature, and whether they have been disturbed by livestock grazing or mowing. We should start to see their little blooms popping up anytime now.

Check out these great resources for more information on Texas Wildflower Season in 2019! Don’t forget to contact Laura to book your session now!

https://www.dallasnews.com/life/texana/2019/02/20/texas-could-best-wildflower-season-almost-decade-thanks-wet-october-report-says

http://www.txsmartscape.com/articles/post.php?post=48

Call Laura now at 214–460-6992 to book your wildflower session!

In this two part series I’d love to introduce my friend Dr. Erin Calaway. She is an amazing Webster Certified Chiropractor located in Far North Dallas, right near my studio. At the cross streets of Preston and Belt Line, Dr. Calaway’s practice – Apex Wellness – is near Addison, Carrollton, Richardson, and Plano. Apex Wellness also offers acupuncture and massage.

North Dallas Maternity Chiropractor

I recently met with Dr. Calaway to interview her for a blog post about chiropractic care in pregnancy. We arranged a time so that I could tour her amazing North Dallas chiropractic practice and get to know her better. As we spoke we discovered that we had actually met years before! That was before our kids were born and careers were started. No wonder we felt so instantly comfortable with each other!

Planning for beautiful wall art

It wasn’t long before we decided that it would be fun to decorate one of the beautiful walls at Apex Wellness with some of my wall art. A maternity chiropractor with beautiful maternity pictures and newborn photography on her walls? Why not?

After months of planning and collaboration, I sent the design to be printed through my archival printing process. Soon the artwork was delivered and then ready to hang at Apex Wellness. I have been honored to work with some of Dr. Calaway’s patients so we were able able to incorporate some of their portraits into the design.

How to hang a large wall art collage?

I take great pride in proper installation of wall art. Especially such a large design. The first step is to carefully plan the pieces so that they fit properly in the desired location. Secondly, I use rolls of paper to layout the design and mark places for where nails will be located. Thirdly, I hang the paper on the wall and use it as a guide. Lastly, I hang the portraits and remove the paper.

I hope the patients and staff of Apex Wellness enjoy their new artwork. I know I am grateful for the opportunity to display my work.

Next week please join me to learn more about Dr. Erin Calaway and her extraordinary practice at Apex Wellness. Pregnancy Chiropractor in Dallas, TX – Dr. Erin Calaway. 

To visit Apex Wellness or to schedule an appointment for maternity, newborn, child, individual, or family chiropractic care please contact:

Apex Wellness

6009 Belt Line Rd #110, Dallas, TX, 75254, US

972-392-9402

Laura Levitan is a Dallas-based contemporary fine art photographer specializing in maternity and newborn portraits. Laura works with her clients to create stunning works of art for their homes. Through photography, Laura tells the story of each family with custom imagery and exclusive professionally printed artwork. But Laura has a dirty little secret. While on vacation or when spending time with her kids, she rarely gets the pro camera out. She prefers to capture day-to-day memories, on the fly, with her cell phone. Please read below to learn behind the lens tips and tricks for capturing great cell phone photos of your kids, wherever you are.

Basic Cell Phone Camera Tips

1. Clean your lens
   • There’s nothing worse than messing up a picture because of the mess all over your lens. Make sure to keep that lens clean and smudge free!
2. Turn phone horizontal
   • We see the world in a panorama. Sometimes it’s nice to take a picture in portrait mode. But for the most part you will see more of the action when you use landscape.
3. Zoom with your feet
   • Cell phones are not equipped with powerful zooms. You can lose a great deal of quality in your image if you use the zoom on the cell phone. Just use your feet or take a full size photo and crop later.
4. Keep camera steady
   • This is pretty self-explanatory – brace yourself!
5. Always be ready
   • If you can, keep your phone in camera mode. This way you’ll always be ready to snap that picture.

Get to know the settings on your cell phone camera

1. Set your focus
   • Use the box on the camera screen to set your focus. Just tap on the screen where you want your focus to be and things will become much more clear.
2. Adjust exposure
   • On the iPhone next to the focus box there is a sun icon. Once that appears just swipe up or down on your screen to raise or lower exposure.
3. Take multiple shots
   • To make sure you get the right one just keep pushing that trigger. You can always go in and delete the bad shots later.
4. Use burst for kids
   • Use burst mode to get many options.
5. Try different modes
   • Experiment with all of the modes on your cell phone camera. If you don’t understand how to use them YouTube is your friend. Keep playing until you find what you like.

Lighting: The most important thing no matter what camera you use

Do

1. Use light from the side or front
2. Shade is your friend
3. Golden hour is the best time of day to shoot
4. Shoot on cloudy days

Don’t

1. Use backlighting unless shooting a silhouette
2. Shoot in direct sunlight
3. Use your flash unless you really have no other choice

Composition: No matter the camera composition makes the portrait

****Disclaimer – none of the following portraits were taken with a cell phone. They are just the best examples I have for the composition style I am trying to demonstrate.****

1. Rule of Thirds
   • Use the grid setting on your phone to help you visualize where you place your subject in the frame. Try to place your subject in one of the four quadrants of the grid.
2. Triangles
   • See how many triangles you can picture here with the posing. Dad’s arms form a triangle. Mom and Dad’s heads and bodies form a triangle. All three sets of eyes form a triangle. See if you can find more and list them in the comments below! 
3. Leading lines
   • See how the steps form lines leading up and out of the portrait and they also lead and focus your eye into the subject.
4. Avoid distracting backgrounds
   • This is self-explanatory and I do not have an example 🙂
5. Reflections
   • Use reflections to provide interest 
6. Framing
   • Here the couple is framed by the bridge. You can use all sorts of things in the environment to frame your subject. 
7. Use negative space
   • Sometimes the space around your suject is as important as your suject. All of the negative space here leads your eyes into the subject. 

Perspective: What do you see?

1. Get down on their level
2. Bird’s eye view
3. Play with angles

Now what? – What do you do with all of your cell phone photos?

1. Experiment with editing apps
2. Don’t over process – sometimes less is more. Don’t go crazy with filters. If the photo is amazing it should be good without too much editing.
3. Print your pictures!

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Cake Smash Photographer in Dallas

Recently I met with my former wedding clients to plan their baby’s first birthday portrait session. By the end of the design consultation, we had this beautiful teal ombre cake smash concept planned. At the last minute, we also decided to do a really fun and crazy The Office Themed Cake Smash. I love coming up with beautiful new designs to celebrate every age with my clients. And to create artwork for their home to display those memories.

For the Teal Ombre Cake Smash, I worked with my friend Annemarie Duebner of Smallcakes at Preston and Beltline in Dallas. I told her what I wanted and she came up with the most beautiful (and delicious) cake. A favorite family color is teal so we worked that into the design, and I just knew an ombre effect would be perfect.

Custom Cake Smash Cake

Annmarie and her team did an amazing job on this beautiful cake. It was to die for delicious. Did I mention there were two cake smashes during this session? Well that meant I got to keep one of the cakes and sample away. Believe me, I did. Super yummy!

We added baby boy’s favorite stuffed animals to the set-up because he loves them so much.

How do you get a reluctant baby to smash their cake?

Sometimes it takes a few tricks to get baby to tear apart the cake. After all, how many times in their lives have they been allowed to eat a whole cake? This time mom brought some yogurt melts and I stuck them in the cake for baby to dig out.

I think he’s actually eating a yogurt melt here 😉

Baby bath to clean up that mess

After all that cake smashing it was time to clean up!

Don’t Forget Family Portraits

We finished up our fun cake smashes with a few family portraits. I love including family photography in every session. Everyone needs a beautiful family portrait gracing the walls of their home.

Thank you for reading along to see this whole cake smash session in Dallas, TX. Don’t forget to Pin it!

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The Office Themed Cake Smash

As an avid The Office fan I watched season after season with baited breath to see whether Jim would finally ask Pam out. If Michael would ever find love. And if Dwight would ever become a manager. I’ve never watched a show that after watching the entire run I went back and binge watched the entire thing again (thank you Netflix). When my former wedding clients (yes I used to photograph weddings) came in to plan their son’s first birthday session we came up with a cute idea to use a favorite family color – teal, along with their son’s favorite – stuffed animals. I loved the idea. Super cute and personal for sure. I love nothing more than to incorporate personal themes. I will blog about that cake smash in my next post this week.

Dallas Cake Smash Photographer

But as we chatted a little longer, catching up after two long years since their wedding, we learned that the dad and I had both just finished binge watching The Office again. I made a casual comment that I was dying to do a The Office Themed Cake Smash. The dad’s eyes just lit up. He was like, “let’s do it!” And that was all I needed.

How to plan The Office themed cake smash?

Over the next week I was on a mission to design and collect all of the cool things we would need to make this amazing session happen. If you’ve ever watched The Office you have to remember the episode where Jim and Dwight take over the party planning committee.

I have to give major props to mom and dad for finding the baby-sized Dwight Schrute glasses. I wonder if you can try and pick out all of The Office references in the shoot.

And finally, should I mention the cake? I texted with Annie (Annemarie) and asked if she could make a beet themed cake for me. I described exactly what I wanted and of course she was up to the task. What an amazing team they have at Smallcakes. Since we were doing two cake smashes for this birthday they had to come up with two incredible concepts for me. And they did an amazing job for both. And that baby didn’t eat full cakes. My clients left with the “beet” cake and my family and I polished off the other cake. Let me tell you, best cakes in Dallas. Truly delicious.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this milestone birthday session. It was a labor of love to create this The Office themed cake smash session. And while I love both of these cake smashes, I have to say my absolute favorite was the picture of baby Dwight with his beets and jello stapler.

Let me know what you think of this session in the comments. Can you find all of the references? What did I miss? Tell me what I should include for next time. And if you have a great idea for another theme please share it with me in the comments. I’ll see if I can find a client willing to do it. Thanks for reading!

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Game of Thrones Newborn Photography Session

What happens when your client comes in and requests your dream newborn photography session? Jump for joy? Why yes! I think I did. This is why I always have a Design and Planning Consultation prior to any portrait session.

I am a huge Game of Thrones fan so imagine my excitement when my clients requested that theme for their session. A million ideas ran through my head. In this situation, my goal is always to create a setup that embodies the theme and is super cool or cute.

Dragon Eggs Were the Obvious Answer

I had to come up with something epic but beautiful. The answer was jewel toned dragon’s eggs and a dragon’s nest for our little princess. Only the best for the ruler of the seven kingdoms!

Who is the next Delta Duck?

Here’s the other fun thing. These clients also wanted to honor the mother’s sorority which is very important to her. The mascot of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta is the duck. For their baby shower, the hosts had ducks all over the place. I felt it was only fitting that we incorporate a duck into the theme as well.

Extended Family Newborn Portraits

As usual, we had newborn and parent portraits. We were also honored by the presence of the baby’s maternal grandmother. So we, of course, needed to get a few portraits of her as well.

This little girl is so well loved by her parents, her extended family, and friends of the family.

And here are a few more beautiful newborn girl pictures from this adorable girl’s session.

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