What happens when I book a newborn shoot?

After four years of newborn photography shoots and edging up to 250 newborns (each and every one as cute and squidgy as the next!) I know I’ve learned a thing or two along the way. As I said before, I get it. My entire approach, set up, and business structure is built around my own bad experience. That’s why I work my hardest to make sure I deliver a service that’s as unobtrusive as possible, while capturing precious moments of your little person for you to treasure forever.

It’s important to me to be upfront about costs, timing, styling, and how you can prepare best for the shoot. You’re shelling out your hard-earned money so you need to be confident in the results that we'll aim for. That’s one of the reasons why I enter the Guild of Photographers’ Image of the Month competitions, to ensure I’m maintaining my consistency by achieving results in people’s homes. Whilst every shoot is a technical challenge, with different coloured rooms and limited space to set up a studio, it is entirely my responsibility to juggle those challenges with your desired image choices. But don’t worry, I’ll be honest if I think I might struggle.

So, to help you make an informed decision and to feel comfortable about that choice, I’ve asked a few of my amazing clients to spill the beans on what it’s like to have a newborn photoshoot done, in their homes. Here’s what they said (I’m just going to walk away and let them tell you because I get a bit embarrassed when people talk about me – I’m a shy bairn, honest!):

“We were recommended Tina by a family member. When we saw her photos, we fell in love with her work and booked her straight away.

I was worried, being a first-time mum and having the additional challenges of a baby with cerebral palsy, but Tina put us at ease within ten minutes of arriving at our bungalow. She helped us to change our son into the cutest outfits and advised us on the best way to get the types of shots we were after.

Tina kept us updated through the whole production process and we were so excited to be sent a YouTube gallery of our images. It was so beautiful that we sent it to family members as far away as South Africa and Australia so that we could share the pictures.

The only issue we had was choosing which photos to buy! Thankfully my husband couldn’t decide either, so we bought them all and booked Tina again for our son’s first Christmas shoot.

Tina is the ultimate professional and I would highly recommend her to anyone. We ♥ Tina. ”
Claire

“I know Tina from the school run. I’ve had the privilege of watching her business grow and seeing her skills improve. When I was pregnant with my fourth (and final!) child I decided I wanted some beautiful new baby photos – professional ones, not the fuzzy ones I’d take! I also wanted some nice ones of the new baby with his big brothers.

Having Tina come to me made life so much easier. We timed it so that she came in the afternoon to take photos of just the baby and then the big boys joined us after school for a group shot. I was realistic and knew that trying to get a good photo of all four of them might be a bit too much, but Tina worked her magic and we have some beautiful photos to treasure.”
Rae

I followed Tina’s business page during my rainbow pregnancy and loved her work. After an extremely stressful pregnancy, followed by five days of special care, we came home with our rainbow baby. When Tina arrived for our newborn shoot when our baby was only 11 days old, I was emotionally exhausted. Tina was amazing – she’s so lovely, calm and friendly. She put my mind at ease and captured some fabulous images of my family, including keepsakes we have from Corey. I love the fact that she comes to your home and nothing is too much bother. She works around feeding and changing to make the whole process as easy on new parents as possible.”
Ailsa

“I met Tina through a baby event. She is so friendly and wonderful that she won my heart straight away – I just knew I could trust her with my baby. None of the other photographers I’d met were as reassuring as she was. She is so flexible and calm. She came to our home to take photographs of my third baby and was fab with her.

I didn’t know what to expect but Tina put me at ease and was happy to stay with my baby while I nipped out to collect one and two from school! Tina was amazing with them too and took some gorgeous sibling shots with them all.

Her shushing is something to behold, and so effective and reassuring for the babies. Tina is so thoughtful that she put me in touch with three other mums for whom she’d done newborn shoots, who also had older children and we’re all now the best of friends.

She’s done various shoots for my third baby and they have all been wonderful. When I had my fourth, she asked if I wouldn’t mind her using my newborn as a model for her to practise with her mentor – of course I said yes! But I was having an extension done at the time, so she offered to have the shoot at her home. When we arrived, she had a platter of food waiting for me and my three-day old!

Her communication skills are excellent at every level and she’s so positive a reassuring all the time – she’s been an inspiration to me. I would never go to anyone else and I can’t recommend her highly enough.”
Anthea