Newborn photography continues to grow each year, and with this growth brings props that can transform your sessions and creativity. I love finding new, unique props and my clients appreciate the many artistic ways I use them.
In my self-discovery with newborn portraits, if you will, I realized I was photographing newborns how I had seen everyone else photograph them. Mistake #1. The one thing I am always encouraging other photographers to do is to find your groove, find your style. I was guilty of not doing this myself. I know... me! Can you believe it?!?! I mean, my rule of thumb is to create what you want… how you envision it, and then you market so the right people can find you for exactly what you do. We don’t shoot like others because we think that’s what our clients want. Because we all already know most of the time clients have no idea what they want. We educate them because we are the professional and we have a style.
Whether you specialize in baby photography or you just book the occasional newborn client, you’ve probably experienced one of the most frustrating parts of the job: newborns who don’t want to sleep. It probably doesn’t sound like an issue at first. So what? Just pose them awake! Except that awake newborns don’t always equal content newborns, and it’s a lot harder than it seems to pose a wiggly, arm-flailing, cross-eyed, screaming baby. We’ve had our share of super-alert newborns. We’re going to share how we approach those sessions without getting frustrated and still get the variety needed to fill a gallery in 3 hours or less.
Your client has just arrived 30 minutes early for her baby’s newborn session and you are nowhere near finished setting up. After hastily greeting them at the door, you scramble, trying to think of where in the world to start. Does this sound familiar? The good news is that you can help prevent these problems by implementing some simple techniques to streamline your newborn sessions. Layering materials, rotating through stations and transitional posing all contribute to a smoother studio workflow.
When we enter a session, we are not only taking pictures, we are creating memories that last a lifetime. Our clients will remember the variety of feelings they experienced while in our care. We need to make it a pleasurable one so they sing our praises to their friends and family. Good reviews travel fast, but bad reviews travel faster.
Have you thought about becoming a newborn photographer but have no idea where to start? You don’t have the fancy equipment. You don’t have the funds or the endless prop supply to get off the ground.
Do you dream of creating a newborn business that energizes you, enriches your family and keeps its hands off your personal life? As a working photographer and mother of three young kids, I empathize deeply with the longing “to make it all work.”
Photographing newborns is an amazing job that poses unique challenges. The most important thing I have learned over my 18 years of working with babies is that a smooth-running session requires transitional posing and planning for the next shot.
Not many photographers specialize in baby birthday sessions. This month we look at the five most important factors that go into shooting and editing a compelling birthday film.
The newborn stage is defined as the first 28 days of life, after which humans are referred to as infants for up to three months. In our studio, we consider newborns to be as old as six weeks, as most babies are born earlier than the 40-week cycle.
