How To Find An Affordable Baby Photographer

The first year of your baby’s life can be an expensive time. From investing in a new buggy, new cot, new car seat, to the seemingly endless supply of nappies, wipes and new clothes that your baby needs.

At the same time you may be managing on a reduced income while one or both of you take parental leave. So it’s understandable that you’ll want to make sure that every penny is well spent.

If you’re thinking about having some professional photographs taken of your baby, you may be questioning whether you can afford the investment. Perhaps you’ve looked at a few photographers’ websites, and you feel that the cost of the shoot is out of reach.

However, the good news is that there are ways to find cheaper photographers, and ways to make a shoot with other baby photographers more affordable.

Here are three ways to find a cheaper photographer:

1. Find a photographer who is portfolio building

2. Book a mini session

3. Find a studio offering a special deal

If you know you’d like a shoot with a specific photographer, but the price is out of reach here are three ideas for making it more affordable:

1. Ask for gift vouchers instead of birthday or Christmas presents

2. Sell the baby items you no longer need

3. Follow online tutorials and take the photographs yourself

Let’s look at each of these in more depth.

Find a Baby Photographer Who Is Portfolio Building

All baby photographers start somewhere and, for most it’s by offering shoots for free or at a heavily discounted price. This allows the photographer to develop their skills, and to build up a portfolio of work that they can show to prospective clients.

You may also find that experienced photographers sometimes run ‘model calls’ or ‘casting calls’ when they want to test new creative ideas, work on a personal creative project, or if they are teaching other photographers and need a baby to model for them.

The benefit of this approach is that you can have some baby photographs taken at a heavily reduced price, or sometimes even for free. However, bear in mind that if you’re working with a particularly new photographer the photographs may not be to the same standard as if you booked a shoot with an experienced photographer.

Book A Mini Session

Many photographers offer mini sessions, which may be shorter versions of their regular photo shoots, or short photo shoots with a particular theme – for example for Christmas, or in a special location such as a lavender field.

Usually mini sessions will take place on a specified date, and the photographer will offer a number of time slots on that day.

A mini session can be a very cost effective way of having your baby photographed; you’re essentially sharing the cost of the shoot with all of the other families having a mini session on that day, and they can offer significant savings over the photographer’s usual prices.

Find a Photography Studio Offering a Special Deal

As you research different baby photographers you may come across some studios that offer special deals. For example – “a free shoot and a free print”, or “a baby photo shoot and a framed print for £X.” You’ll also find these deals on websites like Groupon.

This is quite a common marketing method in the photography industry, particularly amongst larger studios that employ multiple photographers. If you’re confident that you will only want to have the shoot and the free / discounted print then this can be a very cost effective (or even free) way of having your baby photographed.

However, these deals probably don’t cover the studio’s costs (running a photography business is expensive.) Instead the deals rely on the fact that most parents will not be able to walk away with just the free / discounted print once they see the photographs, and will spend more on extra prints and digital images.

So, if you choose one of these deals I recommend finding out how much the extra images will cost before you book so that you don’t end up with a much bigger bill than you expected at the end.

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