A lot of you have asked whether we’re doing weekly baby photos of Teddy like we did with Clara during her first year. The short answer is yes. We decided to keep the core idea—baby, fabric, and the age added in post-processing—but gave the series a couple of small updates to give Teddy his own look. Below are his first two weekly portraits.
Note: the number font used is Sullivan and the “weeks” font is Big Mouth.
We loved how Clara’s weekly project turned out, so we didn’t want to completely reinvent the concept. The essentials remain the same: baby + fabric + photoshopped age. That said, we did make two deliberate changes to better suit Teddy and to make the series feel fresh.
- Clothing: During Clara’s first year we often used a simple white onesie, and while that looked clean and timeless, I sometimes wished we’d introduced more personality earlier on. For Teddy we’re dressing him in real outfits from the start—little shirts, trousers, and occasional accessories—so each week will reflect a bit more variety and style.
- Scale reference: With Clara’s shots there were few consistent objects to show growth, so she often filled the frame similarly from Week 1 to Week 52. For Teddy we added a wooden plaque to each image to act as a visual reference and a place to add his age. It gives the series a consistent anchor and makes size changes easier to notice.
Teddy already has a more varied wardrobe than John does, thanks to hand-me-downs, thoughtful gifts from family, and some careful bargain hunting. That means coming up with a new outfit each week should be manageable. A favorite so far is a tiny set of suspenders brought back from London by my mom—he looked impossibly dapper at two weeks old.
For backgrounds we decided not to rotate through dozens of fabrics. Instead, we’ll cycle through around eight simple fabrics and a handmade quilt I sewed. Keeping the backdrops fairly neutral helps the clothing and Teddy remain the focus and avoids visual clutter or color clashes.
We’ve taken his first two photos on the same daybed we used for many of Clara’s early portraits. That daybed moved from our first home’s sunroom to Clara’s current big girl bed, and it offers great afternoon light—perfect for soft, natural portraits. Clara often likes to help, coach, or even jump into a shot, which keeps the process joyful and candid. John’s reflector/diffuser has also been handy for evening out shadows and smoothing the light when needed.
Since you’ve also asked about documenting pregnancy, I want to share how we captured my pregnancy this time. We didn’t do many bump photos publicly during my first pregnancy, so for this one we decided to take a series of images over time and combine them into a single grid at the end. John assembled the grid, and he came up with a nice idea to shoot my belly in front of the same backyard bush across the seasons. The changing foliage around me visually tracked the passage of time—and the bush was in spectacular bloom right around Teddy’s birth, so the final photo was taken when he was just six days old.
One of my favorite maternity photos from this pregnancy was taken during the holidays. It’s a candid moment that required patience—Clara standing still long enough for a longer exposure—and its imperfect charm makes it special. Those informal, real moments are often the most meaningful.
How do you document pregnancies or a baby’s growth? Some people hire a professional photographer, others cast a belly in plaster, and many take a series of photos in the same spot to track progress. We started Clara’s weekly project unsure we could keep it up, but it quickly became something we looked forward to. Teddy’s version has been just as fun so far. Clara’s enthusiasm—cheering from the sidelines and offering direction—adds an extra layer of delight, and we might even record her coaching sessions for posterity.
For anyone considering a similar project: pick a consistent spot with good light, choose a simple backdrop palette, and decide on a small prop or scale reference to show growth. Whether you opt for weekly or monthly photos, the most important part is capturing those small changes and the moments around them. They become a priceless record of a child’s first year.