As a professional newborn photographer based in Chesterfield I have lost count of the times i’ve been told I have an easy job.
“oh you photograph babies, it’s such an easy job, they just lie there, all you have to do is press the shutter”.
“anyone with a good camera can photograph babies”
“it’s not like you are running round after a toddler trying the take photos or ushering people at a wedding to try and get a group photo, a baby just lies there and doesn’t move”.
“newborn photography is the easiest sort of photography you can do”
Ok let me just stop you right there!
I’ve heard them all.
first off any parent will tell you that you can not make a baby do anything they don’t want to do. If a baby doesn’t want to do something theres not a thing you can do about it.
Lets take sleep for example.
You’ve fed and changed your baby and you want them to go to sleep. They don’t want to sleep. They are quite happy with a fully belly just looking around and checking things out. You desperately want them to go to sleep as you have 101 things you need to do, 2 hours later, they are still awake and you have tried everything to get them to take a nap.
Now imagine that you are wanting to take curled up photos of said baby. If baby is awake its nigh on impossible to get them to stay in the curled up poses. To do that you need them to sleep.
With a toddler running around I can capture beautiful images of them playing. With a group of people at a wedding its quite easy to get them all together for a quick photo. But with a newborn, you can be standing round for 2 hours just getting the baby to sleep.
What other genres of photography do you know, who sometimes have to wait a couple of hours before a single photo is taken.
In how many other genres of photography do you get covered in poo, vomit and pee’d on, on a regular basis?
Which other genres of photography could they cause irreversible damage to their client because they dont know what they are doing. Even with wedding photography, you could ruin someones day because you haven’t got a clue what your doing, but its not going to paralyse them or cause their death!
Now do you think my job is easy?
I have been highly trained to know all the tricks in the book (some is wish I knew when my 2 were babies), that will help with babies sleeping. I pass this knowledge on to all my clients too.
In all my years photographing babies Ive only ever had a couple who wouldn’t sleep and this is because they were going thorough a growth spurt at the time. No matter what you do in that situation all baby is interested in is feeding. I can spot this situation a mile off, I don’t keep you sat in my studio of 6 hours (no one wants that), I send you home and you come back a couple of days later and I can guarantee baby will sleep.
I hear so many mums tell me that they had newborn photos done but baby wouldn’t sleep. Again, I can almost guarantee that it was an in experienced photographer.
I make it look easy.
When you are watching me me work, it looks so easy. But there is a lot of skill that goes in to it. I train other photographer to become Newborn photography and learn how to do this safely. they always comment at how easy I make it look, but when they come to do it, its isn’t. But they have me there, by there side to guide them and show them how to correctly work with a newborn.
I’ve had years to master my skills, I know what im doing.
I know how to settle and sooth your baby and I know how to pose them whilst keeping them safe and secure at all times.
Any professional photographer can photograph newborns
Let me just show you what a Professional photograph, who has a few years weddings & portrait experience, can achieve with a newborn, when never photographing one before.
This is how easy it is:
This is my daughter.
This is what you get by just plonking a newborn down and not knowing what the hell you are doing.
This is with an expensive DSLR camera.
This is being a professional photographer.
Just because someone has a DSLR and takes nice photos or is a professional wedding photographer doesn’t mean squat when it comes to photographing newborns.
Newborn photography is more that just having a DSLR, its about knowing how to work and pose so they are kept safe at all times. How to produce a beautiful image that will truly represent how your baby was at that time. Images that you will be prod to show off.
I hate this photo of my daughter so much. You can only see half of her face (as the other half is buried in the blanket) and MY GOD that nappy is awful!
I don’t have any newborn photos of my daughter up on my walls as they are just horrible. I thought it would be easy to photograph her. I’d even watched loads of youtube videos. But, as i’ve said above, a professional newborn photographer will make it look so easy.
Now this is what an experienced newborn photographer will achieve:
Exactly the same pose, but oh so much better.
About a million squillion times better!
You can see her perfect face, her squidgy cheeks, even her tiny toes.
Posing babies is dangerous!
Look i’m not going to beet around the bush here. If you don’t know what you are doing, you could very easily seriously hurt a tiny newborn.
They have very fragile necks with heavy heads. If you aren’t doing a pose correctly, you can snap a babies neck and leave them paralysed.
Its sooooo expensive!
I know it can seem like its so expensive, that you would want find the cheapest newborn photographer you can. But believe me when I say not all newborn photographers are equal.
In this industry, you really do get what you pay for.
Would you really gamble your Newborns safety all because you are trying to save a few quid? Is it really worth it?
Lets compare a newborn photography session with beautiful images with the cost of a travel system.
Cost
Newborn photos (session and images) cost anywhere between £600 – £1000
Travel system (from birth to 3 years) cost between – £300- £1000
How long they last
Newborn photos – Forever
Travel system – maybe up to 4 years
Cost per year
Newborn photos – £0.01 per year
Travel system – £75 per year (on lower end system) £250 per year (on higher end system)
Also with a travel system, there are parts of it that after just 6 months you can no longer use. For example, the carry cot part you can only use till baby is sitting up. The car seat is only good for 18 months.
So although it looks like its expensive, its really not. These are memories that will last a life time. They are memories that will be passed from generation to generation. Your great great grandchild could be looking at them.
Your travel system will be long gone.
To find out more about my newborn sessions you can visit my main website here.
If you would like to book in please email lyn@wingsphotography.co.uk
