A day in the life of a newborn photographer
Every day is different depending on what session I have scheduled, and depending if my husband is home to walk the dog and help me tidy up in the morning.
Yes.. I make him help me with that :)
(This schedule is based on a newborn photo session)
~ The studio is always cleaned, prepped and ready to go the evening before a shoot ~
7.45am The first thing I do is make a lovely hot cup of tea. I couldn’t function without one of those!
7.50am Let the dog out to do her business
7.55am Check the temperature in the studio. Put on heaters to make it warm and cosy (Sometimes in the winter this is done the evening before)
8.10am A nice hot shower to start the day fresh, then makeup and get dressed
9am Have a quick tidy up in the house as it’s the first thing that my customers see.
Who wants to see their Photographer’s bras & knickers drying on the kitchen radiator!
9.20am Grab a bit of breakfast. Usually a smoothie or a banana with a coffee.
Brush teeth.
9.40am Check the studio temperature again and turn on any equipment and the Alexa radio for some soothing music
10am Welcome customers into the studio and discuss how the shoot will work, if they want any family shots etc
10.05am Make sure baby is warm, fed and has a clean nappy
~ And from here on out the rest of the session is led by baby. If they need changing, top up feeding etc we stop the shoot and carry on when they are ready ~
~I will go through several set ups and use different outfits/wraps ~
12 - 12.30pm The session is wrapping up. I remind my customers what happens next with their images so they understand the processing time etc. Walk them out and say our goodbyes
12.30pm Tidy up the studio, turn off equipment and lock up.
1pm Upload pictures to my laptop straight away and store in an ‘outstanding edit’ file
1.15pm Again depending on my husband it is around this time that I will usually get ready to take the dog for a walk.
I really enjoy our dog walks as it gives me a chance to get a bit of fresh air (as the studio does get very warm) and gives me a chance to wind down and plan out the rest of my day
2pm Grab a bit of food fuel
2.20pm Look back over the pictures from the photo session.
..Now the tricky bit - start to eliminate the pictures that I don’t need and choose out the favourites. This can be quite tricky and time consuming as I usually love a lot of the pictures but need to give a good variety of shots & angles to my customers. Having to whittle about 150 images down to about 20 is harder than it sounds.
3.30pm Retouch an image for a sneak peek - this is something that I like to do after every session to show the parents a little snippet from the shoot. Customers really appreciate this as the processing time can take anything from 1-3 weeks depending on the time of the year and how busy I am with shooting.
3.55pm Schedule that post to go live on my facebook page for around 8pm that evening.
4pm - The dog starts sniffing around and nudging me with her nose... yes it’s her dinner time!! 4pm on the dot every time :)
4.05pm Find a movie or something to pop on in the background, light the candles, get into my cosy clothes, glasses on... and away I go with editing images from previous sessions.
I have to edit images in the order of the session date to make it fair on all of my customers. Editing time for each photo session can take approx 7-10 hours, depending on the type of session, how many family members in each photo etc.
7pm Start thinking about dinner. My husband is a chef so more often than not he is in the kitchen cooking before me... I am very lucky :)
8pm Set up the studio if I have another session the next day, clean, charge camera etc.
9pm This is where I usually do another hour or 2 of editing if I can.
I don’t like to stay behind the computer if I am too tired as this will effect my work. I like to be able to really focus when I am working, however I do usually manage to edit until about 11pm most nights.
9-11pm Remove make up, clean teeth, set alarm clock...and lights out!
Photo sessions covering Bagshot, Camberley, Frimley, Aldershot, Farnham, Farnborough, Bracknell, Egham, Windsor, Reading, Guildford and other surrounding areas.