How I Got Started with Newborn & Baby Photography | Saratoga Springs Baby Photographer

One of the questions that I get asked all the time is how I got started with newborn photography.  My son is only 2 years old, so my story is not like so many photographers’ stories who fell in love with newborn photography while photographing their own little one.  In fact, I started capturing those tiny newborn details as a single twenty-something!  So, how did I get started?

I used to be a first grade teacher.  A few years into teaching, I knew that I needed a creative outlet so I decided to learn how to take better portraits with my DSLR camera.  Before then, I primarily did travel photography and I took big international trips almost every summer.  I loved wandering around new cities with my camera in hand to document all of the stories around me, but as a teacher I needed a creative outlet that would take me through the school year and fuel my creative spirit.  I knew that one day I would want to be able to take beautiful pictures of my own children, so I started practicing early on all of my friends’ children!

In the beginning, I photographed everything.  Families.  High school seniors.  My friends.  My students.  Babies.  Big kids.  Little kids.  Everything was new and exciting, and I carried my camera with me everywhere I went.

My first newborn sessions were in May of 2012.  Two sweet baby girls who happened to be born on the same day — one was my best friend’s daughter, and one was a coworker’s daughter.  At that point, I had done some online courses in newborn posing and I bought every basket I could find at HomeGoods with the idea of “I could put a baby in that!”

Back then, I was traveling to clients’ home with all of my props in the back of my car.  I carried a huge newborn posing pillow, a bulky backdrop stand, boxes filled with props and wraps, baskets, and my camera bag.  It was so much work lugging all of that in and out of their houses, and I definitely don’t miss those days of filling my car to the brim, unpacking it, carrying it up flights of stairs, and packing it all back up! 

In January 2015 I took an in-person workshop with another baby photographer, and I was so inspired that I came home and decided to convert our living room in our tiny Boston apartment into a studio.  Thankfully, my husband (then fiancé) was on board.  Actually, I think it was his suggestion!  So I created a studio, set up all of my props and backdrops, and finally stopped lugging everything into clients’ homes for their newborn sessions.  I started welcoming clients into the studio that spring, and by summer I left my teaching job to pursue my photography business full time!  

Five years later, and I am out of that tiny Boston apartment with a home studio in Saratoga Springs.  I’ve refined my style, found my focus (pun intended!), and learned so much in the world of baby photography and small business ownership.  I’ve taught other photographers how to get their businesses off the ground, and I’ve placed hundreds upon hundreds of print orders at my photo labs.  

I photograph around 100 families a year, and my first little babies that I photographed are so big now.  I look at these new babies that come into the studio, and I know that we’re going to blink and another eight years will go by just like that.  That is why it is so important to me to beautifully document this stage.  To create timeless portraits for families that they can enjoy forever to remember just how tiny and fresh their baby was when they welcomed them home.  

I’m truly grateful for every family that has trusted me to capture these memories with their babies, and I look forward to welcoming many more little ones into the studio!