The first days of your child's life are some of the most precious and when they are all grown you will long to remember those moments. Newborn sessions with Amy Stein Photography will capture your child in those early days giving you memories to look back on and share with your child some day when they are grown. I have been handling and photographing newborns for 7 years and can assure you that your child's safety is my utmost concern. You will be invited in the planning of your session and you can provide as many props/outfits as you wish or none at all and let me take care if it for you. Sessions run between 1-2 hours (and normally closer to the two hour mark) for most newborns. Ideally they need done in the first 10 days of life. It is best to contact me during your pregnancy to reserve a spot. I will make note of your due date on my calendar but you will then need to contact me as soon as possible after baby is born to choose a date.
Newborn session fees are $100. This covers a total of 5 hours of time and the use of all of my outfits and accessories. One hour is spent setting up/cleaning up for your session. Approximately 2 hours are spent taking the actual photos and the final two hours are spent creating a proof gallery for you to view your proofs and sample edit sneak peeks so you can see what edited images would look like from your session to help you with your ordering decisions. The entire $100 session fee must be paid on or before the date of the pictures. The remainder of your fees will depend on what you order. Orders are paid for when you place the order sometime in the weeks following the session. SESSION FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.
Tips for making your Newborn session go smoothly:
- Contact me DURING your pregnancy and let me know your due date. This allows me to tentatively know how many newborns I have in a certain month and allows us plenty of time to plan your session.
- Feed baby nice and full before the session begins, even if it isn't quite time yet to eat...a full baby will do much better then one that decides he or she needs to eat 20 minutes into the session. You will have considerably fewer images in your gallery if half of the time is spent having to feed baby instead of taking pictures. However, come prepared to feed baby again during the session even if you fed him or her before.
- Bring a pacifier. Even if your baby doesn't normally use one and you never plan to use it again after the session...they are a huge help in newborn sessions. Without them it is very difficult to keep baby asleep while posing them. Preferably the kind the hospital gives that have the hole in the back you can stick your finger in...these are the most helpful. I normally only get half as many pictures total on babies I am not allowed to use a pacifier on. If you are against a pacifier during pictures and the baby does not cooperate there is no re-shoot or compensation for fewer pictures coming out of the session.
- If you are bringing any props (blankets, outfits, objects of any kind) please let me know this in advance so I can be set up and prepared with stuff of mine that compliments yours. If you are bringing an outfit it is helpful to have baby already dressed in it before you come. This way if they fall asleep in the car we don't have to wake them up changing them right off the bat. If you are not providing an outfit bring baby in something that comes off easy...like a sleeper that doesn't have to go over the head. A cute outfit with two layers that have to go over the head that you don't plan to use for pictures gets baby completely woke up before we ever start trying to get it all off of them.
- Leave siblings at home unless they are older. Toddler and pre-school aged children are very difficult during newborn photo shoots. Newborns do best in a quiet, calm environment and asking a toddler and pre-schooler to sit quietly for 2 hours is asking too much of them. I often hear that an iPad will be brought along to entertain them and over and over I see that in the new environment the toddler/pre-schooler could care less about that iPad. It entertains them for 10 minutes then for the other hour and a half they get very wound up wanting to explore this new place. If wanting a siblings pic it is best to make arrangement to have the dad, or grandparent, or someone else come along who can take them home once the sibling pic is done. Please keep in mind that the probability of a toddler or pre-school posing with a newborn is very small. I love sibling shots when they come out, but have had many a session ruined due to a cranky toddler/pre-schooler along. The newborn senses the tension and never fully relaxes.
- Leave spectators at home. Sometimes it is necessary to bring along grandma or an aunt or a friend to help carry the car seat if the mom cannot, but if not needed refrain from bringing a crowd of people to "watch". My studio is very, very small. I barely have seating for two people...bringing along others they are standing or sitting on the floor behind the lights and cannot see well anyways, it is much less stressful without a crowd watching.
