To see more of my work click HERE.
Friday 23 January 2015
Some unshared images from recent shoots
Clearly I adore photographing babies, but I also love photographing children. The very mild winter meant I had a chance to take some beautiful lifestyle and outdoor shoots quite late on. This was our local Country Park in Suffolk, but I also cover areas in Essex and London, as I am so close.
To see more of my work click HERE.
To see more of my work click HERE.
Sunday 18 January 2015
Canvas options for your family or baby photo's.
To see more of my newborn photography and family photography in and around Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge and London please click HERE.
Tuesday 13 January 2015
WHY are photographers SO expensive!?
Oh no! Another photographer whinging about people not understanding pricing!
I was prompted to write this post after someone I knew a bit, called my pricing ridiculous. I was a bit miffed and indeed felt very insulted at the time, that she couldn't see that I don't just snap a photo and out it pops, she didn't understand how I felt it is my art, she certainly didn't know what I have invested into my business to create that art.
Another remark frequently made is - why can't your pricing be like school packages? I can understand - £10 for a photo is indeed a bargain, school companies photograph a child in most cases under a minute. Oh I wish I could get 300 newborns through the studio door in a morning with their siblings and earn all that money by charging £10 per photo. I would be super rich!
Most people will look at my photo's and either love my style or look elsewhere, if they decide they love them, they may further look at pricing and then no doubt lots will be put off. I get that not everyone can afford my £200 starting price for a newborn shoot, but let me tell you why I need to charge at least that.
So, if you divide the £200 between the average session length, I am earning £40-£50 an hour! Except I'm not, I have already spent another two hours at least planning your session, so okay maybe it's more like £33 an hour, EXCEPT! Every time I push the button on my camera, whether I charge for it or not, is another day closer to when I need to outlay another £2,000 to buy a new one. To get to the point in my career where I am turning around a gallery for each session, I have undertaken through choice to attend workshops, pay for online courses, in everything from Newborn Safety, producing art, understanding composition, posing. I also invest many hours editing the photo's. I admit I am a bit ocd about my editing, I take each image into photoshop and make sure it's properly composed (I joined the Guild of Photographers as I wanted to be in a professional body and improve my work further) I pay for this each month too. I don't blur out all the baby acne and blotches, I colour correct each patch of skin! I spend a good 2-3 days sometimes longer on producing a beautiful selection of photographs. It's not quite £33 an hour, I really wish it was.
I could go on, but I specialise in photographing precious newborn babies. They are tiny and helpless and vulnerable, I safely and carefully sooth these little wonderful beings, safely into sleepy curled up poses, like when they were in their mothers womb. The parents sit and watch and treasure the experience of watching someone gently handle their gorgeous baby and turn the fleeting newborn moment, into a tangible record and piece of art to last a lifetime. Longer than that icandy pushchair or the latest mobile phone you will keep for a year or two!
I could go on the list is endless, I have hundreds of pounds of props, headbands made from organic materials, handmade hats from the finest yarns. Blankets, buckets. I have stuff everywhere, I am also fully insured. And always trying to grow into an even better photographer. I also can only photograph a small amount of babies or children each month, so I can invest my time in editing their galleries. I could possibly work in a shop or office and earn way more money. My family would get to spend more time with me, as I wouldn't be working all the time. I also wouldn't get requests at 1am in the morning to produce something further for a client or at 10pm on a Sunday evening. This all goes with the territory, but ultimately I do this job because I love it beyond words, I buzz after a session. My clients may not always understand the depth of just how much I put into my sessions, or that one photo may have taken 4 hours to edit, but every client walks away being moved by the experience. And treasuring what I have produced. I know there are lots of people either with new camera's, or charging very little as the public drives them to be cheap, time invested in editing is time away from your own family and children, many photographers are up until 2am editing and then right back at it at 6am. Or worrying about the new photographer up the road charging £50 for a disk and a canvas taking their hard earned clients.
Sooner or later if the cheaper photographers continue improving, and start to work out they may be earning less than a pound an hour, they also put their prices up or give up. It's like the great circle of life I guess with photographers, without a doubt whoever you choose to capture your images the photographer will be doing it because they love it, and love the connection with people. But eventually they also realise to feed their family, pay the bills that they need to charge a reasonable amount to live.
I was prompted to write this post after someone I knew a bit, called my pricing ridiculous. I was a bit miffed and indeed felt very insulted at the time, that she couldn't see that I don't just snap a photo and out it pops, she didn't understand how I felt it is my art, she certainly didn't know what I have invested into my business to create that art.
Another remark frequently made is - why can't your pricing be like school packages? I can understand - £10 for a photo is indeed a bargain, school companies photograph a child in most cases under a minute. Oh I wish I could get 300 newborns through the studio door in a morning with their siblings and earn all that money by charging £10 per photo. I would be super rich!
Most people will look at my photo's and either love my style or look elsewhere, if they decide they love them, they may further look at pricing and then no doubt lots will be put off. I get that not everyone can afford my £200 starting price for a newborn shoot, but let me tell you why I need to charge at least that.
So, if you divide the £200 between the average session length, I am earning £40-£50 an hour! Except I'm not, I have already spent another two hours at least planning your session, so okay maybe it's more like £33 an hour, EXCEPT! Every time I push the button on my camera, whether I charge for it or not, is another day closer to when I need to outlay another £2,000 to buy a new one. To get to the point in my career where I am turning around a gallery for each session, I have undertaken through choice to attend workshops, pay for online courses, in everything from Newborn Safety, producing art, understanding composition, posing. I also invest many hours editing the photo's. I admit I am a bit ocd about my editing, I take each image into photoshop and make sure it's properly composed (I joined the Guild of Photographers as I wanted to be in a professional body and improve my work further) I pay for this each month too. I don't blur out all the baby acne and blotches, I colour correct each patch of skin! I spend a good 2-3 days sometimes longer on producing a beautiful selection of photographs. It's not quite £33 an hour, I really wish it was.
I could go on, but I specialise in photographing precious newborn babies. They are tiny and helpless and vulnerable, I safely and carefully sooth these little wonderful beings, safely into sleepy curled up poses, like when they were in their mothers womb. The parents sit and watch and treasure the experience of watching someone gently handle their gorgeous baby and turn the fleeting newborn moment, into a tangible record and piece of art to last a lifetime. Longer than that icandy pushchair or the latest mobile phone you will keep for a year or two!
I could go on the list is endless, I have hundreds of pounds of props, headbands made from organic materials, handmade hats from the finest yarns. Blankets, buckets. I have stuff everywhere, I am also fully insured. And always trying to grow into an even better photographer. I also can only photograph a small amount of babies or children each month, so I can invest my time in editing their galleries. I could possibly work in a shop or office and earn way more money. My family would get to spend more time with me, as I wouldn't be working all the time. I also wouldn't get requests at 1am in the morning to produce something further for a client or at 10pm on a Sunday evening. This all goes with the territory, but ultimately I do this job because I love it beyond words, I buzz after a session. My clients may not always understand the depth of just how much I put into my sessions, or that one photo may have taken 4 hours to edit, but every client walks away being moved by the experience. And treasuring what I have produced. I know there are lots of people either with new camera's, or charging very little as the public drives them to be cheap, time invested in editing is time away from your own family and children, many photographers are up until 2am editing and then right back at it at 6am. Or worrying about the new photographer up the road charging £50 for a disk and a canvas taking their hard earned clients.
Sooner or later if the cheaper photographers continue improving, and start to work out they may be earning less than a pound an hour, they also put their prices up or give up. It's like the great circle of life I guess with photographers, without a doubt whoever you choose to capture your images the photographer will be doing it because they love it, and love the connection with people. But eventually they also realise to feed their family, pay the bills that they need to charge a reasonable amount to live.
Tuesday 6 January 2015
Lovely Mya from Colchester, Essex, beautiful Christmas baby photos
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