My sweet baby nephew turned 1 recently and so of course we had to celebrate with a cake smash! Watching babies enjoy their first taste of this birthday treat is a highlight for me. His momma brought a store made cake from our local grocery store and came over to my place, where I set up my studio light and backdrop stand.

As with all my cake smash sessions, we started off with some more formal portraits. I love his shirt pattern against the dark backdrop.

With most indoor 1st birthday photo shoots in the Sacramento area, I bring my backdrop stand and seamless paper to the client’s home. In some cases, if the natural lighting is hard to work with, I will bring my studio light. I’ve invested in a lighting system that mimics natural light, which is perfect for me and the type of portraiture I create. I use the Einstein with an 86″ cover — so it requires a lot of space. I will post a pull back shot one day. Anyway, I absolutely love the light is produces and how it photographs, especially for little babies.

Next we went on to the fun — bring out the smash cake! :p It took some encouraging, but eventually he started nibbling on the cake. If you’re thinking about what color cake to choose, consider the backdrop color. The contrast here between the white cake and charcoal grey backdrop is striking.

When clients contact me about shooting a cake smash session or 1st birthday photos, I give them the option of indoor or outdoor. They definitely look different, and you can view photos from an outdoor session here. For more information or to set up your own cake smash photo shoot, contact me and we can get started on planning your baby’s portraits!