Six months. It’s one of my absolute favourite ages to photograph – and honestly, once you understand why, you’ll want to drop everything and grab your camera right now.
At six months, babies have found their personality. They’re expressive, reactive, and full of little habits that are completely unique to them. They’re also – crucially – still where you put them. Before crawling chaos begins, there’s this golden window where they wobbly sit, or sit with support and beam at you, or lie down, grab their toes, and pull faces that will make you laugh out loud for years to come.
Whether you’re taking photos at home or starting to think about a professional portrait session, this guide will walk you through the 10 best moments to capture at the six month milestone – and why each one matters.
🎧 Prefer to listen? This post is based on Episode 041 of the Photographs in a Shoebox podcast. You can listen right here or follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music.
Why Is Six Months Such a Good Age for Baby Photos?
Two things tend to happen around the six month mark that make it a photographer’s dream age:
•      Sitting unaided (or nearly there). You get proper upright portraits – not just the newborn curl. Babies look so much more like little people when they’re sitting up.
•      Expressions, expressions, expressions. They’ve mastered them. Clap your hands, sing their favourite song, pull a ridiculous face – and watch their whole face change. One mum, as I photographed her baby, sneezed and her baby burst into giggles. Whatever works!
You’re also at the point where you’re starting to understand their little ways – what makes them laugh, how they let you know they’re tired, their particular obsession with a certain toy. That inside knowledge makes for brilliant photographs, whether you’re taking them yourself or working with a professional.
10 Photo Ideas for a 6 Month Baby Photoshoot
Here are the moments I’d prioritise – and none of them require any expensive kit or a perfectly tidy house.
1. Sitting Up and Showing Off Their Expressions
This is the one. Get them sitting up, start chatting to them, and just watch. Clap your hands. Sing something. Do your best (or worst) impression of their favourite toy. The expressions will change by the second – surprised, delighted, concentrating, confused – and any one of those frames could be the shot you print and hang on the wall.
If you’re shooting at home, try sitting them on a plain blanket or in front of a simple background so the focus stays on their face. Natural light from a window is your best friend here.
2. Lying on Their Back, Grabbing Their Toes
Oh, to be that flexible again. This is such a signature six month pose – and it won’t last long, so capture it now. Get down to their level and shoot from the side to get the full curve of their little body, or shoot from above to capture the whole scene.
3. With Their Favourite Toy
Don’t worry about sourcing beautiful props – use what they already love. Their current obsession could be a well-worn teddy, a board book, or a specific toy that goes everywhere with them. Include it. In ten years’ time, you’ll be so glad you captured that particular bear (even if it does end up being thrown across the room mid-shoot – that’s a photo too).
4. The Yoghurt Pot Experiment (Weather Permitting)
If you’re feeling brave – and ideally, if it’s warm enough to take this outside – give them a pot of yoghurt and a spoon and just document what happens. It will get messy. It will be brilliant. One of those photos where you forget to put it away because you keep going back to look at it.
5. Rolling or Early Crawling Attempts
If they’re starting to figure out rolling or crawling, photograph it now – they transition out of this phase quickly. There’s something wonderful about capturing that determined concentration, the legs working hard, the realisation that they’ve actually moved. They work it out faster than you’d expect, so don’t wait.
6. The Overhead Shot – All Eyelashes and Details
Stand directly above them while they’re looking down at a book or toy, and shoot straight down. You’ll capture all those long eyelashes, the soft top of their head, those tiny hands. It’s the angle you naturally have as their parent – the one you look down from fifty times a day – and it’s also one you’ll forget more quickly than you think. Worth capturing on purpose.
7. Their Signature Move
Every baby at this age has a particular thing they do. A way they sit. A gesture they make. Something that is completely theirs right now. You know what it is. Photograph it specifically, because they will move on to the next thing before you realise it’s gone.
8. Baby and Teddy, Back to Back
A lovely simple one: sit them back to back with their favourite stuffed animal. It gives a beautiful sense of scale – a reminder of just how small they actually are right now, even when they don’t feel it in the day-to-day.
9. With Siblings or Family
Six months is a wonderful age for sibling photos – old enough to interact a little, young enough that big brothers and sisters still want to be in every picture. If there are grandparents who don’t get to see them often, this is also a lovely age to capture those connections. Don’t overthink it. Just put them together and watch.
10. The Unplanned Moments
The snuggle before a nap. The face they pull when they taste something new. The moment they discover a daisy in the grass (and you hold your breath hoping they don’t eat it). These are the ones that feel small at the time and enormous later. Keep your phone or camera close. You can delete the ones that don’t work. Print the ones that do.
A Few Practical Tips for Photographing at Home
•      Shoot at their best time of day. Tired or hungry babies do not make willing subjects. Time your photoshoot around a nap and a feed, and you’ll get a completely different experience.
• Use natural light. Sit them near a window rather than using flash. It’s softer, more flattering, and produces far nicer photos.
• Try different angles. Get down to their level. Shoot from above. Move around them rather than staying in one spot.
•      Don’t stress about getting every pose. These are guides, not a checklist. Work with what they give you. Babies do what they like – that’s half the charm.
•      Keep outfits simple. Plain, soft colours without busy patterns. Comfortable rather than fussy. You want them to look like themselves, not like they’ve been styled for a catalogue they’d rather not be in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Aside from the specific FAQ’s below, you’ll find more here.
Thinking About Professional Baby Portraits?
If photographing your baby at home has you thinking about what a professional portrait experience might look like – you can find out everything about my baby portrait experience here.
I work with a small number of families each month from my studio at Parndon Mill in Harlow, Essex. Portrait Experiences are relaxed, unhurried, and completely led by your baby – because that’s where the real photographs come from. Not from posing. From watching.
Read the podcast transcript:
Hello, and welcome to the photographs in the shoebox podcast with me, Sue Kennedy. Today I wanted to chat about the photos to capture of your 6 month baby. I’m coming at this from the perspective of you photographing your own baby at home, rather than what would be your experience in the studio.
At home, you’ve got a little bit more flexibility about when you do the photos. You can do, more frequent shoots, to capture those key moments.
If reading this has you thinking about having your baby photographed properly – not just the everyday snaps on your phone – and you’d like my help, you can find all the details about my baby portrait experience here.
Today I wanted to chat through the photo ideas to mark the six month old milestone of your baby. It’s likely at this stage, they are doing two things.
- They are sitting unaided most likely or they’re certainly well on their way.
- And they have mastered expressions.
There’s gonna be heaps of personality coming through, and you are just starting to understand their little ways, which is, you know, a lovely moment. So let me walk you through the key moments I would suggest you capture at your 6 month baby photoshoot.
- Sitting up and if you chat to them, you’ll just see their expressions change. If you clap your hands, sing their favourite song, or do a silly dance that all helps too. I even had one mother who, when she sneezed her baby giggled, very random. I know, but whatever works. Their expressions change by the second, or it feels like. So, capture that.
- Lying on their backs and, and grabbing their toes. I mean, to be that flexible again, that would be lovely, but anyway, those days are gone, but for babies, that’s exactly what they do. And I think it’s a real feature of this phase.
- Bring in their favourite toys. If they’re starting to look at board books or they’re interacting with their Teddy bear, it often turns into more of a wrestle than a play, or it’s a throw across the room scenario, but they’re interacting with it.
- Yoghurt pot & spoon. If you’re feeling really brave and the weather is on your side, then you can maybe do this outside, give them a pot of yoghurt and the spoon and just record the results. It may get messy, but if you’re in your own home, you can decide what’s acceptable and what’s not.
- Crawling or rolling. They may be starting to crawl. Or rolling onto their tummy and trying to work it out. And they actually do work it out quite quickly. Um, so it’s a great photo to, to capture actually because they transition fairly swiftly. Um, it doesn’t take them long to work it out.
- Looking up at you and if you shoot from overhead and they’re looking down at maybe a book or something, capture that, cause then you’ll get all the eyelashes and the little details. It’s just viewing them from a different angle. You’ll be used to that angle as a parent, but in years to come, you’ll forget. And it’s nice to have some photographs to acknowledge that phase really.
- Their Signature Pose – they may also have a signature pose that they do. A particular way that they sit. Capture that because it may not last, they may go on to something else that is their thing to do.
- Fun shots to do are to sit them back to back with their Teddy bear. It gives a sense of scale.
- Interacting with their siblings or with other members of the family.
- Pinterest is a great source of ideas, but the only thing I would say there is just, don’t be intimidated by, the props and things like that. Use, use what you have. I always think photoshoots should represent you and your family and your style, not necessarily, outfits or accessories that you wouldn’t naturally have at home.
That’s why it’s fun to bring their little toys in. So if they’ve got a, a dinosaur that has gone everywhere with them include it because they may, you know, they may lose interest in a year or two’s time. I think above all, remember that they will do them 🙂
They are babies at the end of the day. So don’t stress about capturing any of these poses, you know, just work with what they give you. Anything you see suggested here or online is, really can only be a guide.
And if it doesn’t work the first time, you can always try it again. That is the fabulous thing about photographing your baby at home.
You can capture the range, you can capture it at any time. So times like when they snuggle, you know, when they’re starting to get ready for a nap, capture those moments when they’ve made a mess, eating new foods, capture that when they see a flower for the first time, or they discover a daisy in the grass. Hopefully, they won’t eat it, but, you know, just capture that moment where they are holding that daisy, that can be super cute.
I would try different angles too. Just have fun with it. You can always delete the ones that you don’t like, but you know that you can print the ones that you love.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on photographing your own 6 month baby photoshoot. I suspect it’s gonna be very different to what I experienced in the studio. It certainly was when I was photographing my daughter at this age, because obviously, I could do the best of both worlds, so to speak. But, I think it’s so important to have everyday memories as well. It is my favourite age to photograph. Particularly if they haven’t discovered crawling because they stay where you leave them. And they’re also incredibly expressive at this age.
Even if you’ve photographed them as a newborn, it’s a great age for the next photoshoot. I mean, you know, me, I’d photograph them all the way through, but life is busy for everybody. So if suddenly they were newborn and next time you look, they’re six months old, you know, try and get some photographs don’t miss out on this phase.
Anyway, that’s all for this episode. Bye for now.
About Your Podcast Host – Sue Kennedy of Sue Kennedy Photography
Sue is a professional portrait photographer based in Harlow, Essex and she specialises in baby, child and family portraiture. Being a parent, she understands just how special your child is to you and her aim is to produce a collection of images that are natural and meaningful to your family. No two moments are ever the same and she wants to perfectly capture those early precious memories and the natural character of your child.
For more information please call 01279 433392, or visit the Sue Kennedy Photography website.
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