Little JJ holds his dad’s finger

Our friend Shelby and her fiancé Akeem brought us a wonderful subject a few weeks ago — a little baby who overcame the huge adversity of being born very very early. Meet JJ!

This wonderful little guy did make life an adventure — he was far more curious about what was going on than interested in sleeping, but we did manage to get some wonderful photos that we really wanted to share with everyone. 

We also captured a few “behind the scenes” images with our iPhones  as the shoot progressed, showing off the help of the parents in the images — which we love and appreciate!

Pull back shot of JJ as his feet are photographed by Ed. Mom and dad are keeping his attention as Ed works on this.

We’ve always strived to capture newborns in the first week after their birth, but JJ had to be different and spent weeks upon endless weeks in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) after arriving early.  This photo session was done at three months old, but three days before his original due date!

You could never tell from looking at this little guy. When our son Zander was born we watched many of these newborns struggle with life — ours had complications but not the early arrival, meaning NICU for us also and not able to even hold him after his birth for many days. 

It’s amazing watching babies continue to grow and grow. JJ came into the world weighing a mere 2 pounds and 12 inches long. Let me tell you, he’s quite a bit bigger for these photos!

And we look forward to photographing this little guy continue to grow!

Baby JJ being held by his parent’s arms.

Akeem holds his son on his shoulder

Krystal scrunches a nearly asleep JJ for a photo.

Shelby holds her son.

JJ with his koala bear, koala’s are very special to his parents, and I’m sure her son will continue this tradition.