Just take the shot!

Precious photographs of your newborn bundle of joy are surely priceless? But I wanted to highlight a few areas of work that goes into making your newborn session so special and why it might be slightly more expensive than some of the other packages and shoots available at Mini Moo Studios.

· Decent professional equipment

Now you wouldn’t want to turn up and see me using a Kodak disposable camera for the shoot, would you? Of course not! Keeping my cameras, lights, lenses and every other little of tech up to spec is costly and all for the main purpose of ensuring you get the best possible photographs at the end of it.
I use a Sony A7rIV and a 35mm lens for my newborn photoshoots, which will give you huge files to blow up to as big as you like.

· Insurance

Now, god forbid anything should go wrong or something bad happens on a shoot, but that’s what insurance is there for – to support people when accidents do happen. We are after all dealing with one of life’s precious little gifts.

· Training

Much like insurance, I have to go through (and want to go through) some training to make sure I am taking all the precautions to look after your baby. It covers everything from safety to posing to make sure your baby and you are all comfortable with the process. Plus the posing can end up with some amazing results for your photographs.
I have been on;
- 3 newborn training courses (with another booked soon)
- 2 business courses
- 2 maternity courses
- 2 wedding workshops
And I have a family 1-2-1 course booked next month.

I do all of these to stay up to date with the current trend to get the best out of each session I have to offer.
Unfortunately, training is incredibly costly (rightly so), but it is worth every single penny when I show my clients their images and they cry with happiness (that does seriously happen and it’s great).

· Longer sessions

Newborn sessions are usually 3 hours to allow for feeding, settling and posing. In fact, the taking of photos part is only very small in that time frame. I like to get the best out of your sessions and will take my time to ensure this and the happiness of your baby.

· Props

All these cute little outfits, blankets, backdrops, bows, ribbons and baskets start to add up to ensure you get the choice and beautiful shots that you pay for. I don’t even want to know how much I’ve spent over the past year on newborn props…let’s hope my husband doesn’t see my accounts anytime soon!

· Editing

The magic tool that we use to make sure the photos you end up with are polished to perfection, not a hair out of place so to speak! These tools come at a cost as well as the time it takes to edit them.
Newborn babies are never one beautiful shade of pink with completely blemish-free skin. They are in fact the opposite. Quite often, they are a mix of reds, yellows, blues and purples (seriously). They also have lots of flaky skin as it gets used to its outside surroundings. Editing these images can be incredibly hard at times. It takes a lot of practice to be able to see these colours and correct them so that baby’s skin looks flawless.
On average, it will take me about 30 minutes to edit each newborn photo. That’s fine when it’s just 1 or 2, but, when you times it by 20-30 images, that time does mount up.

The list doesn’t end there, but I hope it gives you some insight into why the newborn sessions are slightly more expensive (and oh so worth it)!
I have seen Facebook posts in the past, of people asking for a newborn photographer who doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and this does make me sad. I know the packages look expensive, but above are just some of the reasons why. It’s never just a case of laying baby down, pointing the camera and pressing the shutter button (anyone can do that). What we do as newborn photographers is an art that we have spent so much time and money perfecting and we are so proud of what we can achieve as a result.

If you are looking to book your newborn baby in for a photoshoot, please click here for more information and to book.