baby's first year
PACKAGE
Three sessions, every photo, and a timeless album
because your baby’s first year should be yours to keep forever.
The first year moves fast — one moment, they’re curled up in your arms, and before you know it, they’re reaching, laughing, and taking wobbly first steps. My Baby’s First Year Package includes three sessions spaced throughout the year, capturing every milestone naturally, at home, where your family’s story unfolds. After each session, you’ll receive every final, edited photo to download and keep forever.
I’m Jess McDaniel, and for over 20 years, I’ve been helping families hold onto these fleeting moments. And at the end of the year, I’ll design a beautiful, linen-covered album that arrives at your door just weeks after the first birthday. You can choose the photos, or let me handle it — either way, it’s effortless and something you’ll treasure forever.
Let’s make sure you never forget this first year. Scroll down to see more, find pricing, and book your first session.
Video About My Baby's First Year Package
WATCH BABY'S FIRST YEAR PACKAGE SAMPLE VIDEOS
These slideshows were made for my @bostonbabyphotos Instagram — some have music, some have me narrating with captions. Feel free to watch with the sound off, I won't be offended!
10 weeks, 6 1/2 months and 12 months with her parents
Album layout for maternity, 12 weeks, 6 months and 12 months
2 weeks, 6 months and 12 months with her 2 year old big brother
4 months, 8 months and 12 months with his mama
6 weeks, 9 months and 15 months with her parents
Album layout for 4 months, 8 months and 12 months with her 2 1/2 year old big brother
Maternity hospital session, 7 weeks, 8 months and 12 months
12 weeks, 7 months and 12 months with her parents
THE FIRST SESSION
0-4 months old
Schedule anytime before 4 months old
Some families like to do this first session within days of their baby's arrival. I love when we can, because it's such a beautiful, tiny time to remember. But since I'm not a "make-your-baby-snooze-like-Anne-Geddes" kind of photographer, the age doesn't matter as much for me.
Some families decide to wait until their baby is 6, 8 or 10 weeks old for this first session, but as far as I'm concerned, as long as you do this first session before your baby turns 4 months old, you qualify for my package pricing. I'm also happy to create a package for you with more than three sessions in your baby's first year (I used to offer five sessions in the first year packages - I love when families want to do this!) so please do reach out if you'd like to add maternity or additional sessions into this package and we can talk about how we'd do it.
THE SECOND SESSION
4-8 months old
The middle session, aka the "sitter session"
This one, the classic "sitter session" - the six month old photoshoot - is just gorgeous.
Oh my GOODNESS the chub. The smiles. I just adore it. This is where we get the sweet soft, round body parts...
I just think it's so important to document the rolls before your little one starts moving more and stretching out into a big tall one year old. You'll be so glad we did. They look so different at this session than they did at the first one!
So if you opted for a newborn session (0-4 weeks old), I recommend doing this one at around 6 months old. If you opted for a 3 or 4 month old first session, I scoot this one out a bit, and we do it as a 7 or 8 month old session so we can really show growth in our photos.
THE THIRD SESSION
12 months old
The Cake Smash or Any One Year Old Fun
It's a big milestone, that first birthday!
I've been offering Messy Minishoots for years as my answer to the "Cake Smash" phenomenon - I love documenting babies being messy when they're turning one. Whether that's eating blueberries in their high chair or a cupcake on a blanket in the back yard, it needs to be documented.
And those messy-faced pictures? They're such fantastic art for your kitchen long term! If you don't think your little person would enjoy a mess, that's fine too - let's show off some walking skills... with or without assistance.
It's just fun to document that little person and who he or she is at the 12 month mark.
COFFEETABLE ALBUM
Then, it's album time
I love designing albums, it's truly the magic.
After your baby's first year photoshoot, it's time to design the album.
This is the easiest step of all! If you're excited to help, you can go back and review all three sessions and choose the photos for the book, or you can just ask me to surprise you and choose the photos. Either way, it'll be gorgeous.
The books are beautifully linen-covered, with an imprinted title. We can fit up to 60 photos in the book, which means we can really tell the story of all of your photoshoots from the year. The pages lay flat, and the pages themselves are a nice, thick cardstock. We can title the book however you'd like. The title will be imprinted on up to three lines on the cover.
PRICING
What does it cost?
Three photoshoots at home, the download of all the images + a coffeetable album
$2700
This rate includes the session fees for all three sessions, the download of all 40-65 final, frame-worthy edited images after each of the three sessions and the coffeetable album (normally $295), and opting for the package gives you 20% off.
My Baby's First Year package is low stress! I'm happy to take payments throughout the year if that makes it easier. Just let me know you'd like to enroll and I'll make sure we get your three sessions done in your baby's first year.
I'd love to help, Do YOU have
More Questions?
Want to see a full newborn or older baby gallery?
If you'd like to see a full gallery from a baby's photoshoot, I'd love to show you one. You can ask for one using my contact page here. In your note, just let me know a bit about your family (maybe let me know if this is your first baby or if you have older children, and when you're expecting) so I can send you a gallery that's closest to what you're looking for.
Would you like to have a quick phone call?
I'm more than happy to jump on a quick phone call so that I can get to know you better, and I can answer all of your questions. Click the button below to visit my scheduling page, where you'll find the link to book a stress-free 15-minute phone consultation.
Ready to enroll in the baby's first year package?
If you know when you'd like to do your first session and it's in the next few months, click the button below to check my available schedule.
If you'd like to do your session in a future season, contact me and let me know your timing. I'll schedule an email to go out to you when I open booking for that particular month.
About Jess McDaniel
I am so lucky to have spent the last two decades taking pictures of babies, families, and expectant mothers in their homes all around the Boston area. I love what I do every day, and I feel so fortunate to have chronicled fun, crazy, quiet, energetic, and sweet moments for thousands of fantastic families over the years.
I travel anywhere within an hour of Boston for photoshoots. Outside of photography, I truly love The Container Store, salty food and my husband and daughters. And not necessarily in that order.
FAQs
How do I book a time for a photoshoot on your calendar?
Visit this page here. My photoshoot calendar opens about two months in advance, which means in December my January and February calendars are open, in January my February and March calendars are open, and so forth throughout the year. If you already know a particular time of year when you'd like to take photos, just email me and ask to be put on my "contact first" list for any given month. Then I'll be in touch with you directly when that month of the year is open for booking.
NEWBORNS: I do save a few additional appointments each month for newborns, so if you've just had your baby in the past few weeks or months and the shoot times listed on this page don't work for you, let me know and I'll let you know if there are any other appointments available that aren't listed here.
WAITING LIST: As you can imagine with small children and stuffy noses, etc., I get a ton of cancelations (pretty much at least one every week or two). If you would like to try for an earlier appointment than what you see listed, you can ask to be added to my waiting list. Just send me an email: [email protected]. When I have an opening, I email the entire waiting list at once, and the first reply gets the spot. I schedule sessions usually on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and many Saturdays and Sundays at 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm.
Can I buy a gift card for someone else?
Absolutely! Visit my shopify store here to purchase a gift card for anything you'd like. If you don't see what you're looking for, contact me directly and I'm happy to make you a custom gift card.
I saw somewhere you do online courses teaching parents to take photos with their phones? Where do I find out about that?
Oh yes, that's for 1-2 year olds, it's called my Iconic Set by Boston Baby Photos® program - you can learn more here.
When do you do your Public Garden Minishoots?
In order to address demand for photos once babies are walking around and exploring their world, I'm in the Public Garden twice each spring and fall doing minishoots for families with children who are all over a year old. I announce those dates a few months prior, and loads more info with pricing and samples can be found on the Public Garden Minishoots page of my site here.
I have a question that's not answered here, can we do a phone call?
Of course, my phone call calendar is here. If you don't see a time that works for you, pop me a quick email ([email protected]) and I'm sure we can find a time for a call soon.
