The world wide baby boom a few years ago, created a boom of new born photographers.
Most newborn photographers photograph newborns in a very similar fashion.
As a business coach I talk a lot about how a photographer should separate themselves from other photographers, and stand out from the rest.
The time the majority of Newborn photographers spend on the photography session itself, the culling of the images, the post production, I have heard can be up to 12 hours.
This is an enormous amount of time when you realise that most newborn photographers would average less than $1,000 per session.
When I photographed newborns, one of the criteria that I set myself was to photograph the baby with its eyes open.
You may think that it is not possible to photograph a newborn with its eyes open, but I did it all of the time.
Just as there is a technique for putting a baby to sleep, so I created a technique for waking a baby up, enabling me to capture a variety of expressions in a short amount of time.
Usually my newborn baby sessions took a maximum of an hour, and my average sales were a lot higher than the majority of newborn baby photographers around today.
The eyes are the most compelling part of any portrait, for they are indeed the windows to the soul.
A parent rarely sees their newborns eyes, as we know young babies are usually sleeping, crying, or feeding.
My challenge was to capture the heart of the baby, the many different expressions, and the unique delicate character of a brand new human being, rather than put them into a “one size fits all” prop.
I also set out to record the parents deep love, uncertainty, and great bond with their new addition, so the parents were always included in many of the photographs.
This also helped give some idea of the fragile size of the baby, compared to an adult.
BUT the main reason that I photographed newborns this way, was to give me separation from other photographers, and to maximise my sales, which I was able to do by taking a greater variety of images.
I told my prospective clients that I DIDN’T put babies into unnatural positions, place them into flower pots, or wrap them like they were still in the womb,
but that I took a more sensitive and classic approach of producing images that would not date, and that their baby would not be embarrassed to look at on their 21st birthday.
Keeping the photography session to one hour made good business sense, in that I could do many sessions a week, and my post production time was minimal.
As you can see that I am only coming from the BUSINESS perspective, rather than from the creative one.
It’s ok to be a follower…………. but it’s much better to be a leader.
It makes good BUSINESS sense to make the transition to step away from the herd, and create your own unique style of photographing newborns.
I am sure that if, and when you do, you will have a very successful newborn photography business.
I am at present coaching 4 Newborn photographers and they are working “smarter not harder” and achieving great financial rewards.
My philosophy for business has always been “ If It Is To Be…..Then It Is Up To Me.”
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