When I was designing our new Saratoga Springs portrait studio, I knew I wanted it to be light & airy. It's not a huge space, so every item in the studio needs to serve many purposes. Each piece needs to be beautiful AND functional.

The white walls work to reflect light back on the space, and they make the perfect backdrop for family portraits. The wooden floors are durable enough for a cake smash, but beautiful enough for a milestone session. The leather sofa is the most recent addition to the studio, and it had to be comfortable enough for newborn parents to relax on while I'm posing their baby during a three-hour session, but pretty enough to double as a prop in the studio. And that's exactly how we used it during Miles' first birthday session here in the studio.

This new sofa is my favorite piece in the studio because it makes for comfortable, casual & relaxed family and baby portraits. Plus, it folds down into a bed for all of the crisp white bed images that I love including in our galleries!

I just love the casual family portraits that we captured with Miles and his parents to celebrate his first birthday. They are a local family that came to our Limited Edition Holiday Sessions for their Christmas portraits, and I was lucky enough to see them again a few weeks later for a very fun first birthday session!

Saratoga Springs Photographer, Upstate NY photographer, Boston cake smash photographer, cake smash photographer

If you look really closely at this image above, you might see a few puffs hidden on the sofa... another reason why it works so well in the studio! Puffs and cheerios blend right in for our littlest movers to enjoy during their portraits!

Saratoga Springs family Photographer, Upstate NY family photographer, Boston family photographer, cake smash photographer

Saratoga Springs Photographer, Upstate NY photographer, Boston family photographer, cake smash photographer

Saratoga Springs Photographer, Upstate NY family photographer, Boston family photographer, cake smash photographer

Miles is SUCH a happy little boy, and we got the biggest smiles out of him!

For his birthday portraits, we originally planned a Cookie Monster cake smash. Then we decided to start with some Cookies & Milk portraits before the cake smash. Miles was a huge fan of the chocolate chip cookies, and all of those melted chocolate chips looked adorable framing his great big smile. I love how he reached out to share his cookies with us a few times -- what a sweetheart!

But it's a good thing we started with the cookies, because he later decided that he much prefers cookies to cake, and he was not a fan of his Cookie Monster cake smash!

We finished with a little splash in the bathtub, and this little boy made the studio wetter than it's ever been. He LOVED bathtime, and we captured so many awesome images of him doing his thing in the water! Our baths are definitely a fun addition to our cake smash sessions, and I adore finishing up with lots of baby smiles and a bubble bath!