There is something I really love about keeping first birthday sessions simple. You don’t need an elaborate set or tons of props when you have a one-year-old with this much personality!

For this first birthday session in my Westchester photography studio, we basically fit three little sessions into one.

We started with a pretty pink birthday dress and simple white block letters—which also happen to be a great trick for getting a very fast-moving one-year-old to stay in one place for a few seconds! I SHOOT FAST!

From there, we changed into the sweetest green dress and brought out a handful of balloons. Nothing fancy. Just balloons on the floor and plenty of room for her to play.

And play she did. 😂 She chased them, rolled them around and tried desperately to sink her teeth into them. How we made it through without one popping directly in her face, I will never know. That could have been a VERY quick end to our morning!

Then came the grand finale: the first birthday cake smash.

A simple little cake, a few flowers and one very happy birthday girl. For the cake Stans, I simply put some flowers in a square vase turned upside down. I wanted to try something different and I think the proportion to the cake, it worked!

She had absolutely no hesitation about digging into that frosting. Eventually we had to separate the two of them like best friends fighting on the playground. 😂

Mom was right there on the floor with us through the whole thing—helping with outfit changes, taking little breaks when we needed them and kicking balloons around the studio to keep her moving and interested. We even snuck in a few beautiful mother-and-daughter photographs along the way.

It was such a lovely morning celebrating this milestone and exactly why I love photographing first birthdays. Simple props, a clean white studio and plenty of room for baby to be baby. The result is a gallery that feels timeless but still captures all those funny little pieces of personality you never want to forget.

If you're looking for a first birthday photographer in Westchester County, NY, my studio first birthday sessions can include classic birthday portraits, parent-and-baby photographs and a simple cake smash—all customized around your little one.