Photo ideas by month · month 1
1 month old: photos worth taking.
A one-month-old sleeps through most of the good photos, and that is the charm of them. Everything worth keeping this month is small and close: the curve of a back, a hand that fits inside a thumbprint, how little of the armchair he takes up. Find the biggest window in the house, put a plain blanket on the floor near it, and work quietly.
Month 1
Things worth photographing this month.
The whole curl
Lay a light blanket on the floor a step back from the window and let the baby settle on one side, knees tucked the way they were tucked before. Stand over her and shoot straight down, filling the frame from heel to crown. It is the shape that goes away first, so take more than one.
One hand in a palm
Ask a parent to open a hand flat against a dark shirt or a folded blanket, then rest the baby's hand in the middle of it. Move in close with the light coming across from the side so the creases in both hands catch. No faces needed — the size difference says everything.
The bracelet on the shelf
The hospital bracelet, the little knitted cap, the tag with a weight written on it. Set them on a windowsill or a wooden table by the window and photograph them plainly from above, with a scrap of paper carrying today's date if you like. It takes five seconds and you will want it in ten years.
Forearm for scale
Have a parent carry the baby along one forearm, head in the palm, and stand so the window lights them from the side. Shoot level with the arm rather than from above, so the frame shows exactly where the toes stop. It is the plainest measuring stick you own.
The same armchair, frame one
Pick one chair and commit to it: the feeding chair, the good armchair, the left corner of the couch. Prop him there with a rolled towel hidden under a blanket and a parent's hand just outside the frame, and stand back far enough to see the whole seat. This is the first of twelve, so note where your feet are.
Milk-drunk at three in the morning
Do not turn the big light on. Sit with a lamp behind you or the strip of light from the hallway, brace your elbows on your knees to hold the phone still, and take the tipped-back, half-open-mouth photo after a feed. It will be grainy and warm, and it will be the one you keep.
Nose to nose
One parent lies back on the made bed with the baby on their chest, faces close, window off to one side. Hold the camera above and slightly around so you get two profiles instead of the top of a head. Take five and keep the one where nobody is trying.
When you have the photo
Turning this month into a keepsake.
Keep this month's chair photo somewhere you can find it in a year — the monthly photo collage maker wants exactly twelve of them, and the milestone photo maker will write “1 month old” across this one for you.
The milestone photo maker reads the birth date and the photo date, writes the exact age onto the picture, and lets you drag everything into place before downloading it for sharing or printing. The monthly photo collage maker holds twelve squares, one for each month of the year, and gives you a print-ready page at the end of it. All of them run in your browser, so the photos never leave your device.
Every photo, filed at the age it happened.
Start a private family timeline free, and stop hunting for the month it belongs to.
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