I Don't Care Who Takes Your Newborn Photos. I Just Hope Someone Does It Well.

1 minute ago

6 min read

I don't care whether you hire me, another newborn photographer, or someone else you trust with a good camera. I just hope you have beautiful, high-quality photographs of your baby while they're still so wonderfully tiny.

Now, obviously, I would love to photograph your baby. I have an entire studio full of tiny beds, wraps, outfits, and props that would make that pretty clear. But I also know I'm not going to be the right photographer for every family, and that's okay.

Every Tiny Detail Matters – Aurora Newborn Photography Close-up of a newborn baby's tiny feet holding a white felt heart, wrapped in cream fabric at Tiny Details Photography in Aurora, Colorado.

There are some incredibly talented newborn photographers here in Colorado, and I actually know quite a few of them. We're not all sitting in our studios plotting how to steal each other's clients. We're usually talking about props, lighting, editing, or whatever ridiculous thing happened while trying to run a business that week.

And I think that's something worth talking about.

We're Not All Competing Against Each Other

One of my favorite things about being a newborn photographer is getting to know other newborn photographers.

I belong to a community of photographers here in Colorado, and there's something really wonderful about spending time with people who understand exactly what you do.

We swap props. We share model calls. We learn from each other. Sometimes we're talking about photography, and sometimes we're just trying to figure out how to run our businesses without losing our minds.

The funny thing is that we're all doing essentially the same job, but our photographs can look completely different.

We have different styles, different approaches to lighting, different editing preferences, and different ideas about what makes a photograph beautiful.

I think that's a good thing.

Because the goal shouldn't be for every newborn photographer to produce the same images. The goal should be for families to find someone whose work they genuinely love.

There Are Other Photographers Whose Work I Love, Too

I have a lot of respect for photographers like Nicola Jane, Melissa Alley, Miranda Reinhardt, and Blenda Stevens.

These are photographers I've come to know through our photography community, and I appreciate having people around who understand this unusual little profession of ours.

I especially love that we can admire each other's work without feeling like we have to become copies of one another.

I spent time early in my career looking at what other photographers were doing. Their poses, their props, their editing, even their pricing. I think I was trying to figure out what excellence was supposed to look like.

Eventually, I realized I already had my own eye for photography.

I didn't need to make my work look like someone else's to make it beautiful.

And I think that's an important part of choosing a photographer, too. You should be looking for photographs that speak to you, not just photographs that look like everything else you've seen.

Why I Care So Much About the Quality of Newborn Photographs

I love phone photographs. I have plenty of them myself, and I would never tell a parent to stop taking pictures of their baby with their phone.

Please take those pictures.

Take the sleepy smiles, the ridiculous expressions, the milk-drunk faces, and the photograph of Dad asleep on the couch with the baby on his chest.

Those everyday pictures are going to mean so much to you.

But I also believe there's something different about a photograph created with a quality camera, thoughtful lighting, and someone who understands how to use both.

Newborns have the most incredible little details. The shape of their lips, their tiny eyelashes, the wrinkles on their feet, and the way their fingers curl around yours.

Those are the things I spend so much time photographing.

Phone cameras can create beautiful images, but they also do a lot of processing behind the scenes. Sometimes that processing smooths away texture or changes the appearance of the very details I want to preserve.

That's why I care about the equipment, the light, the focus, and the finished image.

Not because every photograph needs to be technically perfect, but because I want those tiny details to still be there when you're looking at the photograph twenty years from now.

Your Newborn Photographer Doesn't Have to Be Me

Maybe you fall in love with another photographer's style. Maybe their location works better for your family, or their approach is exactly what you've been imagining.

Wonderful.

I'd much rather you choose someone whose work you love than book with me simply because you happened to find my website first.

And if professional newborn photography isn't in your budget right now, I still want you to find a way to preserve this time.

Maybe that's a hospital photographer. Maybe it's a friend who understands photography and has a good camera. Maybe you take the best photographs you can at home and make a point of getting everyone, including yourself, into a few of them.

I don't think parents should feel guilty about what they can or cannot afford.

I just don't want you to reach a few years down the road and realize that nobody took a really good photograph of your baby when they were small enough to fit in the crook of your arm.

Because that stage is unbelievably short.

Find the Photographer Who Sees What You See

One of the things I love about photography is that two people can look at the same baby and see something completely different.

One photographer might be drawn to a beautifully styled setup. Another might love a simple portrait with nothing distracting from the baby's face. Someone else might create the most incredible family photographs.

None of those approaches has to be wrong.

I happen to love creating little stories through my photographs. I love learning about a family and finding ways to incorporate something meaningful into their session. Sometimes that's a color, a flower, a hobby, or something that reminds them of someone they love.

That's what excites me.

But another photographer might create something completely different that makes you stop scrolling and think, That's exactly how I want to remember my baby.

That's the photographer I think you should talk to.

Jennifer's Two Cents

I think newborn photographers have more in common than people might realize.

We're people who genuinely enjoy spending hours working with babies. We get excited about tiny details that most people probably wouldn't notice. We can have entire conversations about a piece of fabric or the direction of a shadow.

And somewhere along the way, we decided to turn that into a business, which comes with an entirely different set of challenges.

I'm grateful to have other photographers around who understand both sides of it.

I don't need to be the only photographer in Aurora creating beautiful newborn portraits. In fact, I hope there are lots of us doing beautiful work, because there are lots of babies being born and lots of families who deserve photographs they love.

I want you to find someone who makes you excited about your photographs.

Of course, I hope you love mine. But if you fall in love with someone else's work, I hope you book them.

Just please don't skip the photographs altogether.

Key Takeaways

You don't have to hire me to get beautiful newborn photographs. Find someone whose work you genuinely love.
Colorado has a wonderful community of newborn photographers with different styles and creative approaches.
Phone photographs are important, but quality equipment, thoughtful lighting, and photographic skill can preserve details that phones sometimes miss.
Professional photography isn't the only way to document your newborn. Do what works for your family and budget.
The most important thing is having photographs of your baby during a stage that passes incredibly quickly.