When Sandy Williams’ first grandson was born in 2012, she discovered newborn photography. It changed everything. “I absolutely adore babies,” she says.

Today, Williams, M.Photog., is a newborn, maternity, child, and high school senior portrait photographer who earned a bronze medal in PPA’s 2026 International Photographic Competition for a newborn image. A few years after marrying her high-school sweetheart, her husband bought her a 35mm camera, which she enjoyed using as a hobby. When her daughter took up cheerleading and softball and her two sons began playing baseball, Williams upgraded to a 400mm lens to photograph games and competitions. She also captured images of her children’s teammates and handed out prints to their parents.

One photograph was a turning point for Williams. When she showed an image of her cheerleader daughter doing a toe touch to the owner of a local photo printing store, he said it looked like it belonged in a sports magazine. “That’s when I really got more into it,” she recalls. As her children grew older, Leesburg, Virginia-based Williams turned her hobby into a business. At first, she kept things simple by photographing families and children outdoors using natural light. Mostly self-taught, she made photos in auto mode and occasionally worked as a second photographer at the weddings of friends and family members. She decided to elevate her training with lighting workshops with FlashGear.net’s Tim Payne and Westcott Top Pro Julie Gayler, M.Photog., CPP, and began following celebrity baby photographer Ana Brandt, Cr.Photog. Through Brandt’s workshops, Williams learned newborn posing, lighting, editing, and how to photograph parents with their babies.

In 2015, Williams and her husband, then empty nesters, moved from Leesburg to Berryville, Virginia, where she opened a 600-square-foot photography studio. As demand grew, the couple converted the basement of their home into a 1,600-square-foot studio with dedicated spaces for newborn, maternity, and children’s photography.

Sleepy Newborns and Relaxed Children

Nearly 95% of parents want photographs of their newborns, typically at about a week old, while they’re asleep, Williams says. That’s why her studio space includes white noise machines, heaters, and a large sofa. Williams relies on several techniques to help her youngest subjects snooze. Her go-to method is to wrap the baby “like a cocoon” and then gently bounce them on a yoga ball. “I’ve never had a session where I haven’t been able to soothe or calm a baby,” she says.

Safety comes first. A sleeping baby is much easier to photograph safely than one that is awake and wriggling. If a baby won’t sleep, there are poses Williams won’t attempt. “I don’t want any injuries,” she says. If a baby is awake at the beginning of a shoot, Williams photographs family portraits first. “I won’t lie. Photo-graphing newborns is hard. You have to have a lot of time and patience,” Williams says, noting that newborn sessions can last anywhere from 90 minutes to four hours. “You have to be slow. You cannot rush a newborn session.” The key to a successful newborn shoot, she says, is preparation. Before every shoot, Williams creates multiple scenes using different backdrops and props, including bowls, buckets, pillows, and blankets. She also lays out wardrobe changes and accessories such as hats, headbands, and baby crowns. Williams aims to photograph each sleeping newborn in six different poses but admits that the babies ultimately determine how many they’re willing to do. “I try to do every one of my sessions differently, so parents aren’t getting the same group of photos,” she says.

Her lighting kit includes an AlienBees B400 fitted with a 64-inch soft box mounted on a wheeled light stand, which allows her to move easily from one setup to the next. She uses a Nikon Z 6II and a 24-70mm lens, “so I can have the versatility of zooming in and zooming out,” she explains.

Williams also photographs toddlers and children. Her studio has a room stocked full of what she calls “fun stuff” like tiaras, shoes, dresses, fancy gowns in various sizes, as well as bicycles and toy tractors. Williams asks the parents to share with their children ahead of time what will happen at the photo session and offers a sample script: “Miss Sandy is going to be taking photos of us. You can have a lollipop when we’re done if you’re good and you smile and listen and follow directions,” Williams says. She reminds parents that they can help prevent meltdowns by not scheduling sessions during naptime, avoiding giving their children sugary snacks beforehand, and bringing along a favorite toy or comfort item. 

To elicit smiles and giggles during the session, Williams has been known to use her “fart gun,” which she says most kids find hilarious. She also has a long feather she pulls out to pretend she’s going to tickle the kids. “That always seems to work,” she adds, as does music her young subjects like.

Backdrop Magic

Williams regularly browses backdrop websites for inspiration. Earlier this year, she won a silver medal in PPA’s International Photographic Competition for her whimsical image of a girl in a bathrobe and curlers in a retro-looking laundromat. “Most people don’t realize it, but that was a fabric backdrop,” Williams says. “When I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.” To complete the scene, Williams also bought a laundry cart and a kid-sized bathrobe. She picked out specific towels and found an original gossip magazine from the 1960s. “I just started pulling pieces together,” she says.

Williams knew the little girl she wanted to anchor the photo. “I called her mom and said, ‘How about bringing her over? I have a really neat idea,’” Williams recalls. She also asked the mom to paint her daughter’s toenails and fingernails pink. The session took roughly 30 minutes, with Williams coaching her subject to act out different reactions to what she was pretend-reading. “It all came together,” she says. “I felt like it was something no one had seen before. I think because of the colors and the brightness and just the look on her face. It just really stood out.”

For the session, Williams used a Nikon Z 6II with a Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.8. Her exposure was 1/200 second at f/5, ISO 160. She used a Godox AD200 Pro and Godox AD400 Pro, with an octobox and softbox, respectively, on each side of and above the subject, angled down. Williams uses a similar lighting setup for many of her child portrait sessions, occasionally adding a strip box overhead.

Outdoors With Seniors

Unlike her studio sessions with newborns and children, Williams makes nearly all her senior portraits outdoors. Sometimes she suggests locations, but she often takes cues from her subjects. Pre-session, she spends time getting to know them by asking them about their favorite school subjects or if they play an instrument, and other questions “to get that connection going,” she says. For outdoor sessions, she brings a Godox strobe, beauty dish, light stand, sandbag, and a reflector, in case she needs extra light. She typically photographs her outdoor portraits with an 85mm lens set to f/2.8. “I like the bokeh that the 85 gives me,” she says.

Williams also does headshots, engagement, and wedding photography, but is careful not to over-book herself. “I only take on what I can handle so people don’t have to wait for their photos,” Williams says. That includes her broad range of subjects, she adds. “It challenges me,” she says, “to photograph different ages. It keeps my brain moving.”  Photography is “a way to stop time,” she explains. “Children grow, families change, and moments disappear. I love to capture the essence of who they are in that moment.”  

Writer and photographer Allison Shirreffs works with various organizations and publications.