Northants Baby Photographer – 2022 in Review and a Peek at 2023 so Far!
Karl looks back at 2022 as a Northants baby photographer, operating from a studio in the village of Woodford, near Kettering.
A Frustrating Year
2022 was a slightly frustrating year in some respects. The knee injury I suffered in January sadly meant all of the momentum we’d built up with baby photo shoots was lost. I felt it was really important to focus on my existing wedding photography clients, so I stopped promoting the baby photography side of things entirely for a while.
Baby Autumn asleep in a heart-shaped wooden baby photo shoot prop
As summer drew on, weddings slowed down and my knee held up, so we started to spool things up again. We went on a crazy run of photographing baby girls, and it wasn’t until mid-November that we welcomed the first baby born into the photography studio since our restart!
Kicking back in the shocking pink woollen newborn sofa
Baby Photo Shoot Paraphernalia – New Additions!
Over the course of the year, we’ve added lots more inventory. Props, wraps, backgrounds, outfits, and, perhaps most crucially, those little details and finishing touches that add so much to the overall scene.
Perhaps the most popular among them has been our swing baby photo shoot prop. My dad loves a challenge, and I set him the task of knocking one up for us. He smashed it out of the park, and we’ve already had a number of great sessions where we’ve got photographs of babies seemingly swinging away and having the time of their lives! One or two parents have been slightly confused/concerned about how we set it up prior to actually seeing it for themselves, though! 🙂
Newborn baby girl at play on a white wooden swing photo prop
Of the purchased props, the upholstered sofas would have to be my favourites. They’re so beautifully crafted. We’re really starting to improve the styling out of shots involving them, too. In fact, looking back to some of our first attempts using them, they feel really empty now!
A newborn baby boy wears a white dressing gown as he lays back in our beautiful cream and brown upholstered sofa during his newborn photo shoot.
I’m also really excited to see what we can achieve with the fabric goose and the unicorn alpaca, too! Both only arrived at the start of 2023, so we’ve not had much opportunity to use them, yet, and little Autumn was a bit too tiny for us to be able to position her exactly how we wanted her.
The fabric goose newborn photography prop is perfect for posing babies since it is both soft and cuddly
The fabric unicorn alpaca is perfect for a riding pose.
Christmas Newborn Photo Shoots
We added two sleighs and a couple of Christmassy wreaths to the inventory for those who are pregnant this coming December!
A newborn baby girl awake on the white wooden sleigh newborn baby photo prop
A newborn baby girl posed in a Christmas wreath as part of her baby photo shoot.
The Details – Baby Photographer
Another purchase in 2022 was a macro lens that allows baby photographers to capture all of baby’s tiny little features in incredible detail. It’s not something that I would use for the whole session, but it is amazing at what it does!
My macro lens allows incredible levels of detail to be captured, like this baby girl’s eyelashes
Supplying Your Own Props
Two of our clients in the last few months have wanted to bring horse riding saddles along to their own baby’s photo shoots, which was absolutely fine by us. They work great with the rustic wooden crates I picked up in the summer.
Newborn baby girl asleep on her mum’s horse riding saddle
Baby Ethan’s mummy brought along a sit-on elephant toy for his sitter session shoot, which was super cute, too.
If you’ve got anything that’s near and dear to you that you’d like to bring along with you, we’re very much open to suggestions!
2023 – What’s in Store for the Rest of the Year?
I do keep resolving to stop buying new props! 😀 Basically we are out of space now anyway, so anything new coming in will probably need to result in existing stock going out the other way!
The blue wooden newborn bed photo prop is a new arrival in the studio.
There are lots of little additions to our setups for 2023, like these felt snow flakes
As I mentioned above, I just want to keep doing everything that little bit better at the actual time of capture, and that’s where most investment is likely to come. Nicer blankets for bean bag work, trying some different wrapping techniques, and then finding ways to introduce some accent colours into the scene. The goal as always is to improve.
Clients still get to see all of their edited images in black and white as well as colour
We look forward to seeing you and your new arrival soon! More details below!
Karl
OTHER INFORMATION
Find out more about booking your own Newborn Baby Photography session.
Check out the directory of Newborn Baby Photography Props, Fabrics & Backgrounds available for you to make use of in my studio.
If you’re still left with questions, check out the Newborn Photography Session FAQs.
