Newborn Safety is nothing to take lightly.
Taking pictures of newborns is so much fun I have been in business for over 6 years not specializing in newborns. To be able to photograph a brand new baby in tight curled poses of course is a true gift and who wouldn’t want to do it right? It looks so fun and easy because they are adorable all curled up in those poses and in the props. But this job is extremely hard because it is stressful in the fact that you need to be 100,000,000 times alert and on your toes, your mind needs to be sharp and paying attention to every move the baby makes, the parents make as well. This blog post might scare you or make you upset I hope it does because it is not a joke, or fun game at all. Photographing a newborn is 100% a serious subject in the fact that I want newbie photographers to get educated by someone who has years of experience working with babies.
When I first started in Professional Photography as a Mom I thought I was prepared for taking pictures of newborns it took me years to relaxed at having everything down pat. I had 2 children at the time, I had no idea this would take years of experience to get these tiny tight poses.
I wrote a blog post last year again for Newbie Photographers just starting out. It is always best to assist a Professional Newborn Photographer who has had many years of experience in specializing in ONLY newborns before you diving straight in photographing newborns. : https://blog.lesliestyler.com/?p=12930
The reason why is there are many things you might not have ever thought of before or have the experience of working with them during many photo shoots to see what can happen with newborns. Newborn startle reflex you have to be 100% prepared for ahead of time at ever moment of the shoot to expect to happen when they could jump out of a prop, even a beanbag. That is why it is very important to have an assistant or parent to stay with the baby the entire time.
When hiring a newborn photographer things to think check when looking at their site, this will help you to a little bit. You want to make sure the person really knows what they are doing when taking care of your child. It is one thing to be a parent or babysitter but you want to make sure they are confident with newborns.
1. How many years have them been working with newborns, you should be able to find on their site or contact them?
2. Confident with newborns this will come should come years of experience of course not afraid to handle them.
3. Call and talk to them over the phone and get a feel their personality, are they prepared you should be able to get a feel after talking to a bunch of photographers which one has the most experience.
4. How many newborns a month do they photograph?
5. Do they LOVE newborns, when you talk to them you can either ask them why they work with newborns or read on their site. Are they doing it for the money?
6. Are they patient?
7. Have they ever taken a newborn workshop? This helps as well because the newborn workshop should teach safety
NEWBORN SAFETY
1. Never EVER to leave the baby at all times, even if they are “out cold” they can and will wake up
2. Have 1 person an assistant, parent or Grandma next to baby the entire time. That means when you back up to take the picture you can NOT leave the baby alone on the beanbag even because even then they can roll off.
3. Parents will and do walk walk away from baby’s this is rare but it does happen, most of the time it is new parents. I believe it is because they haven’t had enough sleep but some have said, “their baby is out cold and won’t go anywhere” they truly believe they can’t roll or move. This is YOUR photography responsibility now to ensure that their baby is safe the entire time you are working with them because they are hiring you as a professional.
