9 months is such a great age, however it’s also the age where babies start to develop stranger anxiety.  At 6 months most babies will smile at anyone and everyone who looks in their direction.  At 9 months they start to realize that person looking back at them is not someone they trust or are familiar with.

I remember when my son was about 10 months old and we had some friends of my husband’s come to our house to bring us a baby gift.  Kyle was standing next to me while I sat on the floor with him, but was literally digging his fingers into me doing his best to latch on as if our friends were there to take him away or something!  Overcoming this fear as a photographer definitely takes some patience and often times help from the parents in figuring out what will best distract their little one and ease their fears.

I’ve been finding more and more that music plays a big role in adding some fun into my photo shoots, especially music babies are familiar with.  I’ve had parents play anything from “I’m a gummy bear” to the theme from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and even current country and pop songs that they love to dance to at home.  iPhones have made bringing the music to the shoot that much easier as pretty much any song can found on YouTube, AmazonPrimeMusic, iTunes, etc.

That ended up being the case with this little girl at her 9 month photo session.  She was very leery, even though I had photographed her newborn, 3-month and 6-month photos, but seeing someone just one time every 3 months for an hour doesn’t necessarily mean I’m someone she’s familiar with.

We took these photos at Roseville Central Park and made our way around the park to various spots.  One being the fountain, which she loved playing at!  After that was done we moved to a little shady spot where mom broke out the cell phone, so she could play some music and let her baby have a little fun.  By this time she had definitely eased up a bit and a her adorable little personality started shining through.