Avoiding the Newborn Photo Nightmare

Getting pictures of your newborn can be very stressful: you have to get them in the first week or so, mom’s are over the top emotional not to mention the added stress of finding the perfect photographer. The list goes on and on, but at the end of the day here are the tricks that I have learned to avoiding the newborn photo nightmare.

You just had a baby and of course you are thinking of all the crazy things you need to get done now. Newborn pictures are usually somewhere on that list of priorities. Where do you start? Clearly, finding a great photographer is ideal because you are going to be looking at these photos for years to come and want something that will be cherished forever.

Living in Utah, photographers are a dime a dozen. It’s like, if you own a nice camera you are a photographer and will charge any price you want because people are willing to pay anything to get good photos of their babies. Googling Utah Photographers will give you plenty of options to choose from, and there are some great ones out there that I would be more than happy to go to. I just think, if I only want a couple great shots I don’t want to pay a billion dollars for something I probably won’t print out except for one picture to hang in the house and maybe for my office at work.

With our son we asked around to where everyone was going and wanted a reasonable price. We found a great girl that was willing to do a newborn shoot for $150. She said the shoot would take 2-4 hours and then she would give us an edited disc of all the images to do whatever we wanted with. This was a great option because it was affordable, got a great referral from a friend and we could print what we wanted. A lot of places we would have to order prints through them which was an additional cost to your whole photo shoot.

My wife had taken him to the location for the pictures and as you know if you’ve ever been pregnant or just delivered, you’re super hormonal, the room is a furnace and the baby had to work through blowouts, feedings and lots of sleep sculpting to get the perfect pose. It just becomes too much for parents and babies especially when you just want to get one shot that is perfect. Honestly, it’s stressful and you’re not a photographer so you just let them take whatever pictures they want.

Well, with baby number two we weren’t going to go through the same experience. We decided that we would go on Pinterest and find some looks that we loved. We had our ideas and they were clear and this was all we wanted. Also, we were skeptical because we were going to try someone new and hadn’t seen her work at all, but the price was right and we were only going to be there for 45 minutes. This was perfect.

We walked into the photo shoot and had a real conversation with our photographer about our expectations. We explained the style we were looking for, shared the props we had prepared and presented her with pictures of what we were going for. Honestly, if we were this prepared and up front with our son’s new born shoot I think that it would have gone a lot smoother. Also I wasn’t present at his shoot and to be there at our daughters to help make decisions with my wife was just what we needed.

Honestly, we couldn’t have been happier with the photos that were taken. The photographer was fantastic and understood what we wanted and helped create the perfect new born shots for our precious baby girl.

So remember, when preparing for pictures in general here are some steps to make sure it goes smoothly.

1. Do your research. Find out what looks you like and be ready to show a sample to your photographer.

2. Don’t go alone. Sometimes we get talked into things we wouldn’t be interested in if we weren’t there alone. Bring back up and make sure they are on your same page with the expectations.

3. Don’t let it go too long. 1 hour is perfect to get your token shot- any more time will just stress you and the baby out.

4. Enjoy the newborn pictures! They grow up so fast.