Hooray! You’ve booked a newborn session with Liz Viernes Photography! I’m so excited to meet you and my goal is for you to be 100% satisfied with your decision to hire me. In order to prepare for baby’s newborn session, you’ve got some decisions to make!
During our consult call, we’ll talk about a number of different things, including what a session with Liz Viernes Photography is like, what you get for your money, what steps you need to complete in order to book, outfits, locations, etc. My goal in discussing these topics is to get to know you, first of all, and to help you prepare for the session so that you’re ready and excited for our time together!
Prepare For Baby’s Newborn Session – What Will the Session Be Like?
We’re going to capture some awesome memories together and I am absolutely thrilled about it! A newborn session with Liz Viernes Photography is relatively easy and stress-free. My goal is to capture your baby in all her tiny newborn-ness. While he still has the peely newborn skin, while she still scrunches up in that womb pose, during those first fleeting weeks where he’s asleep more than he’s awake. This time will pass too quickly and I want to freeze these moments in time for you before it’s too late.
Depending on what type of session you choose, posed in studio or lifestyle in your home, we’ll be together between 2-3 hours. A posed session is mostly formal shots of the baby but you can add on parent/family posing if you’d like.
A lifestyle session is more candid and relaxed – I come to your home and capture your family getting to know its new member in the comfort of your own environment. There’s very little that looks posed (though I will definitely help you and your family members get into comfortable positions that look natural and familiar) and I like to get lots of giggles, snuggles, and playing.
Prepare For Baby’s Newborn Session – What Do You Get For Your Money?
I collect a non-refundable session fee in order to hold your slot on my calendar and then, once your gallery is ready to view, we’ll set up a Zoom call and I’ll present it to you in the form of a slideshow set to music. At that point, you’ll be able to choose from three packages. Each package contains digital files and/or products such as an album or a stunning metal print.
I do this because I want to rescue your images from the purgatory of your computer’s hard drive. I want you to be able to enjoy your photos daily. I want your children to have physical albums to page through and printed photos on the wall to see their growth through the years. I also want to provide you with beautiful, archival, professionally printed products that will last a lifetime – as opposed to sending you on your way with a print release and no direction (which often results in clients choosing a one-hour place without calibrated machines which results in wildly inaccurate colors and a generally poor product).
I always suggest that clients save their files in at least two different locations in case, God forbid, you lose one set of the files (say your hard drive goes bad) and have to rely on the back-up set. I will save your files for a period of one year but may then delete after that point in order to save space on my own hard drive. I would absolutely hate it if you came to me crying seven years after your session, begging to get another copy of your images, and I had to tell you that I don’t have them. Back-up your files PLEASE.
Prepare For Baby’s Newborn Session – Steps for Booking
In order to book a session with Liz Viernes Photography, I will have you sign a contract, a Covid waiver and submit payment of the nonrefundable session fee. Your time slot on my calendar is only secured once I have all three of these items returned to me. Everything is done digitally so it’s all very easy.
Prepare For Baby’s Newborn Session – Outfits
Outfit changes aren’t really a thing at the posed newborn session. I have everything the baby needs and only ask you to bring a pacifier, diapers, and food for the baby. If the family add-on is chosen, refer to the information below.
For the lifestyle session, outfits are a bit more important to discuss. As a light and airy photographer, I recommend light, neutral, solid colors for any outfit chosen. This will lend a timeless, classic feel to your photos and ensure that you will love your images for years to come, rather than be distracted by some loud, crazy pattern that happened to be in vogue that year. Patterns are out, solids are in. Loud, dark colors are out, soft, light colors are in.
Prepare For Baby’s Newborn Session – Location and Timing
When a client contacts me about newborn photos, typically they already know whether their preference is in studio or in their home. Posed studio shots are a completely different style than in-home lifestyle shots – I’m happy to provide links to blogs that showcase each style so you can make the best decision for your family.
Timing-wise, I schedule all newborn sessions on weekday mornings UNLESS we’re doing a lifestyle session and the lighting in the rooms we discussed is better at a different time of day. I ask you to reach out by text or email within a day or so after the baby’s birth so that we can choose a date for the session – the sooner you contact me, the more flexibility I have to schedule you. I like to shoot newborn sessions within the first 2-3 weeks of the baby’s life.
Liz Viernes Photography is based near Savage, Maryland, and specializes in maternity, fresh 48, posed and lifestyle newborns and first year milestone portraits.
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