provo newborn photographer- 12 answers to your most frequently asked questions

I love it when clients contact me in their second (or even early third) trimester to schedule their newborn portraits. It’s a great time to schedule as my calendar is usually more open, giving you more options to choose from. Some moms are worried about scheduling so far in advance, but I keep dates open on my calendar for babies we need to reschedule. Once you’re on my calendar, you are my priority.

Of course I frequently get calls from moms who have forgotten to schedule in all the last minute pregnancy planning. If that’s you, don’t let it stop you from trying to schedule your baby pictures. I do have random last minute openings when babies are rescheduled and can sometimes work you in.

Newborn sessions typically last between 1 hour (for a Petite Session) and 2 1/2 hours (for a Full Session). Petite Sessions are able to move much faster because we keep baby wrapped and for most of the session baby is held by mom or dad. Full sessions include more setups with baby, and frequently we will take a break mid-session for a feeding. Feeding, changing and soothing baby takes time. It’s completely expected, and we plan for it!

You don’t need to worry about bringing anything specific for baby to wear, other than a clean diaper. I have an assortment of newborn outfits you may use that have been specifically sized for these brand new babies. In fact, I actually prefer using the items from my closet, as they’ve been carefully chosen from vendors who design specifically for these little babies. Their outfits tend to look much better on baby than something you may find on Etsy or amazon.

Depending on baby’s age we’ll use one or two outfits and then plan on using wraps for the remaining setups.

Only a few things are needed for a newborn session. Please bring a diaper, a paci (soothie), and a bottle (if baby is drinking formula). A water bottle and snack for mom is also a great idea.

Everything else will be provided at the studio! I love keeping things super simple for mom. You have a million other things to worry about in this new stage of life, and this is one thing you don’t need to put on that list.

Absolutely! I love working with twins, and have an entire blog post with information about twin sessions here.

My very favorite time to do newborn sessions is when baby is between 5-18 days old, outside of that age range, anything up to about 7 weeks goes (although right around 5-6 weeks can be a little tricky). The older baby gets, more awake baby will be. This is absolutely doable, it just means that baby may be more awake for photos and will probably need to be wrapped for a greater portion (or all) of the session.

I include family members as much as possible, given time constraints (based on what session is chosen). For Mini (Petite) Sessions, I focus on pictures of baby with mom and dad. Sibling photos are included in Standard or Deluxe Sessions, as we have more time to try to get these precious photos of your kids together during a full session.

I have this great outline for choosing a photographer in general, but my main advice would be to first look around at newborn portraits and get an idea of what you’d like.

A few things to consider would be if you prefer “posed” or “lifestyle” sessions, if you prefer a certain style of portait like “light and airy” or “dark and moody”.

When you start narrowing down your newborn photographer options, look over your potential photographers websites, social media, etc to see if they are consistantly producing the kind of portraits you’re looking for. You should know exactly what you can expect when you book your session.

There is a wide range of prices for newborn portraits. A lot of the difference comes down to experience, what is included, and where the photographer is located. Cheap sessions can be as little as $400, while luxury sessions can run into the thousands. I love that there is a photographer for every price point. While I firmly believe that you get what you pay for, there are times when budgets don’t allow for the absolute best and that’s ok.

I have a whole blog post with more details about what a newborn session costs! Check it out if you’d like to know more about what you can expect at the different newborn photography price points.

It’s incredible how fast these little babies grow and change. It’s one of those moments in time that you don’t get back, and you’ll want to remember forever. It’s also one of the moments in time that your kids will cherish the most. My own kids LOVE looking at their own newborn (or tiny baby) portraits.

Newborn portraits are timeless, in that while we switch out our family portraits and school photos every year or two, we love keeping a wall of each of our kids newborn photos. We have it in our own home, and I’ve seen baby portraits hanging on the walls of so many of our family and friends homes.

You’ll want them to remember your baby as tiny as they are now (or will be soon), you’ll want to show your kids as they grow- to display in slideshows for graduation and weddings, to compare to your future grandkids and talk about how your new grandbaby is the spitting image of their parent.

This is most of my client’s biggest fears about their newborn session. While it’s completely understandable, it’s incredibly rare that this becomes an issue. Often babies are a little bit fussy for part of the session, but normally it’s not a large part of the session time and baby just needs a moment to soothe.

I will just adapt my posing and workflow and we 99% of the time we can work it out. The majority of babies really love being wrapped, and so if baby is fussy I’ll usually proceed to my wrapped setups and baby settles right down. I build time into the session so we can try things like feeding and bouncing, and most of the time we can still get a full gallery.

In the very rare instance that baby can’t be soothed, we can reschedule for a few days later. I mean very rare, as in throughout my last few years specializing in specifically newborn portraits, I’ve only had this happen twice. We can almost always change gears and get baby happy- it may take a little bit of time, but we schedule that into the session. If baby just absolutely won’t be soothed, a few days can make a world of difference. We’ll just use what we were able to get and will reschedule a shorter session to get what we still need.

Yes! You may purchase additional digital files at your Gallery Reveal / Design Session. The pricing for additional digitals can be found here.