$0! Photography is a hobby of mine, so I'm going to try and stage a little photoshoot of my own. My mom may decide to shell out for some professional photos, but if she doesn't then we'll just be stuck with the pics I can manage.
We didn't do them for DD, and I have a weird guilt about doing anything for this baby that I didn't for DD so we won't be doing them again. I also cannot afford or justify spending that much money on a handful of pictures, regardless of how priceless they may be.
Edit to add - we did do a family shoot in a studio when DD was about 3 weeks, but it was $20. We'll do that again.
Post by lgsdesigner on Feb 5, 2015 10:03:36 GMT -5
My BFF is a photographer, so they are free (she won't allow me to pay her). But-- even if she wasn't available, I have a nice camera and would just take them myself.
Maybe I'm just an asshole but I think the photos where the newborns are posed with their head in their hands and stuff are super weird.
Yes! Agreed. They creep me out. Maybe this should be an UO.
That said, photography is my hobby so there will definitely be tons of nicely lighted and composed shots of this baby. Just not the specifically posed newborn shots I've seen. Also I think my parents want to do family pictures at some point.
None. Newborn photos are sweet (if they're not too ridiculous - H and I have a joke about sleeping in a tin bucket that stems from one of our friends actually doing that with their baby), but I don't think babies look like themselves yet when they are first born. So, we save the pro pics for baby's first birthday, when the kid is actually recognizable as how they will look later.
I think my photographer charges around $250 for maternity and newborn combined. I can't remember for sure. She did Iris's newborn photos. And we've done a lot of family sessions with her.
I just booked our family photo shoot for the first weekend in April and she will be doing our newborn session again too.
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Post by jennadesigns on Feb 5, 2015 10:22:13 GMT -5
I'll be doing my own. I'm a professional photographer and did my own with each of my children in the past. Sometimes I think it would be nice to delegate that task to someone else because it's really the last thing you feel like doing after you've had a baby ... but I can't justify shelling out that kind of money for someone else to do it.
I was actually just bitching about this today. Dh's stupid cousin is due about 8 weeks before me with her first and everything is such a production. She just sent her maternity photos out to everyone and 3d ultrasound photos. She included a note that said they've already paid over $1000 for a year of infant photos. I want to send back the photo album of her pregnant self and tell her she can keep the infant ones too. I just don't think I need 24 maternity shots of her in a bound album.
That and my dh was a professional photographer in his former career, so he takes all the photos I need, we just don't do the closed eye newborn shots because personal reasons.
I picked $0. But it could be something- the most I've done as far as NB photos are the ones they take in the hospital. There was one of DS2 that I loved so I ordered a few prints of that pose.
With DS1, I think I paid somewhere between $200-300 for newborn pics, but that included buying a TON of portraits and frames for our parents. This time, I plan to do newborn pics but prob won't spend as much. I don't usually do much in the posing thing.
I have an old friend that's a newborn photographer so I may have her do them, usually she will just charge for the images but I'm not sure for this one. I reached out and am waiting to talk to her about it, it'll depend what she says if I have them done or not. If she doesn't do them I prob won't get them done.
I was on the fence about having them done vs doing them ourselves but ended up splurging $500 for them. I think the last thing I'll want to be doing then is worrying about photographs. My nephew just turned one and I realized they are only that tiny for so long! My photographer comes to our house so we can get nice shots of the nursery and my H and I too. She does a very natural style, no composites of the arms/head or floating dadddy hands.
silentsara that's crazy!! jennadesigns maybe you could barter with a fellow photographer! But doing them yourself gives you total creative control.
I've booked mine. We did a shoot for DD1 and we loved the photos, so we're doing it again. My photographer is only charging me $100 and I get to keep ALL the files, so I figured it was a good deal.
With my first, H's sister flew out to visit and offered to take pictures for us while she was here (she's a professional wedding/baby photographer). They came out amazing and beautiful at 8 days old. When I had DD2, it was all I could do to get out of the house at 6 weeks old with both my kids to get some pictures at the Picture People, and it was SUCH a hassle to get everyone out of the house, and they were all lame so I didn't end up buying the pictures anyway. I ended up framing a gorgeous picture of her sleeping at about a week old that I took myself, and it looks great next to the professional one of DD1.
The upshot is I don't have the kind of budget I need or time to spend on professional newborn photos, and I'm only going to end up framing one of them anyway because let's face it, newborns aren't nearly as cute as 6-month-olds and 1-year-olds. In my house, THOSE are the photos that get plastered all over the wall. I'll go to the picture people then. In the meantime, my smartphone is perfectly adequate to get a framed 5x7 and to fill a Shutterfly book.
My sister takes great pictures, so she'll be doing our newborn photos. She doesn't like taking money from family, but I'll give her some anyway since she will be spending a lot of time on them with editing.
None. Newborn photos are sweet (if they're not too ridiculous - H and I have a joke about sleeping in a tin bucket that stems from one of our friends actually doing that with their baby), but I don't think babies look like themselves yet when they are first born. So, we save the pro pics for baby's first birthday, when the kid is actually recognizable as how they will look later.
This is exactly why I always get newborn photos taken. Because they only look like that for a few short weeks and I want to remember it with beautiful photos.
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Post by adetheridge on Feb 5, 2015 12:12:25 GMT -5
I am definitely on the fence about this. I already have an awesome camera and a friend that does photography so I *may* get her to do them? I just can't see spending that much money on something when I can snap pictures just as well as they can. I love the posed pictures but I just have a hard time forking out that much money right now. Eh we will see.
Post by veganontuesdays on Feb 5, 2015 12:47:03 GMT -5
I am going to talk to my maternity photographer about this. I can't remember if she just includes it or not. If not I will be taking some pictures myself.
Some of my favorite photo sessions (that I've seen friends do) are those combined newborn/new parent sessions that you do in the first week or two after the baby is born. I don't know if including the parents is implied in a newborn photo shoot, but I'd absolutely love to do one of those.
It's seems like such a special time for both the parents and the baby, especially when they're first time parents and the session captures that new parent "haze."
I might be overly romanticizing the idea in my head, but those always seem so sweet!
I did them for DD. I want to do them again this time, but with big sister and big brother in them too. I love pics of teeny babies with their older siblings! One of my friends is a photographer and she did DD's pics, I might have her do them again this time. I think she charges around $250 for a 1 hour session.
I put $0 because I am a newborn photographer.... I like to call what I do "Natural Newborn Photography" because I don't do a bunch of weird poses, I use natural light only, and I refuse to make it a stressful experience for the babies or their parents. So if a baby isn't wanting to sleep on the posing pillow, in a basket, etc...we just don't do those pictures. We snug them up with their parents, swaddle them in one of my mohair maps, or just reschedule. This is a favorite from a recent shoot. I think it is so much more meaningful than so many awkward, forced poses I see. Edit to add that I charge $250 for a newborn session, which includes my props, travel to the client's home, a session up to three hours, and a cd of 25 edited images (though, normally I can't narrow it down and they get more like 40...) not to sell myself, just to give an idea of my pricing.
Maybe I'm just an asshole but I think the photos where the newborns are posed with their head in their hands and stuff are super weird.
Yeah... I tend to agree for most cases. Sometimes I see one that I think is really cute, but not a lot. Please leave my baby out of baskets and keep the huge bows away from her head.
Post by SassyPants150 on Feb 5, 2015 14:07:41 GMT -5
I rarely splurge on things like this but newborn pictures are the exception. Ours are around $500 with full reprinting rights. I have a Nikon DSLR but trying to mimic professional work is not for me. DD's pictures were so beautiful. I'm so glad that we have that moment so well documented.
This is an ongoing battle H and I have been having. He doesn't understand them and doesn't get spending the $$ on pictures when we "could take them ourselves". He thinks I'm trying to keep up with the Jones' He is pushing for like a mall photographer type situation. I want something more personal and beautiful. Not some kid making minimum wage who doesn't give a crap what my babies pictures look like.
It's really important to me so I might have to save up on my own to justify to him how important they are. Newborn's only look like that for such a short time. I want those pictures forever. They will change so fast. I can't figure out how else to explain to him. I just need to find a photographer that is reasonably priced and has great pictures.
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