A 1st birthday photo session. These are easier to setup for then you think. Most hobby stores will have everything you need for cheap. You might even be able to find some items for cheap at a dollar store. The trick is to keep the area simple but entertaining enough so that the baby will want to grab things. These interactions with the surrounding items makes the whole session a little more interesting but make sure it’s all 1 year old safe.
As always, you want at least one person the baby knows one set and preferably a person who can get the baby to smile. You also want someone else on set just to hold the baby if needed or grab items/set things up quickly because when dealing with babies you are on the baby’s clock. Finally, have a space for diaper changing emergencies as you never know when the baby will have a blowout.
For this setup I went with a little more complicated 1 strobe, 2 speed light setup. I utilized an octogon softbox for the strobe and used it as a key light and put a long softbox on the speed lights and used them as fill lights. I call it a complicated set up as getting a softbox, two long boxes, 2 speedlights, a stobe, and light stands for all three lights isn’t exactly stuff everyone has access to. I likely could have got a similar set up with just the strobe and the octogon softbox and utilized two reflectors in place of the longboxes but it would have taken some careful positioning.