Birth Photography and Fresh 48 Workshop by celebrity birth photographer Heather Mohr.

Birth Video Topics Covered:

Birth Video 1:

• How did you decide to start shooting births?
• Did you do any for free in the beginning to build your portfolio?
• How much did you charge for your first paid birth? What was included?
• How much do you charge now? What is included?
• When do you have your clients book their birth photography?
• How do you schedule photographing births? Can you only do so many in one month to avoid them happening at the same time?
• Have you ever had two births that happened at the same time? If so, what did you do?
• Do you offer packages with your birth photography – i.e. add-on a maternity, fresh 48, or newborn session?
• What are some must have’s for a birth contract?

Birth Video 2:

• How do you prevent two births from happening at the same time?
• Have you ever had a time where the baby came when you weren’t expecting it?
• What if you can’t get there in time?
• Does your birth contract cover this? What does it say?
• How long are you on-call for?
• How do you schedule your daily life events around your birth photography clients?
• When do you have the client call you to come to the hospital? At the first sign of labor? Once they are heading to the hospital?

• What are your go-to camera settings for a birth session?
• What if the doctor asks you to leave during the birth?
• What if they have to rush your client into a c-section?
• What do you do if the mom isn’t comfortable being exposed on camera?
• What do you do if you realize that the camera is making the mom more anxious?
• Where do you stand during the birth?

• Do you have to speak with the doctor before it begins?
• Do you get approval to be there or do you have your clients get approval for you to be there?
• How far away is the farthest hospital that you will photograph births at?
• Do you ever travel to do births? If so, how does that work?
• Do you ever use a flash during birth?
• Is there anything that you don’t shoot during a birth?

• How many images do you usually take on average?
• How many images will the client get? Do you edit all of these images?
• Do you shoot in color or black and white during the birth?
• What are your must have shots for every birth session.
• What lens(es) do you use for birth photography?
• Do you use more than one camera to save time switching lenses?

• Do you charge more if the birth is extra long? How do you decide your pricing to cover this?
• What happens if you get sick before a birth? Do you have a backup photographer?
• Do you meet with the clients prior to the birth so that they can get comfortable with you?
• Do you post birth previews on your website or social media pages? If so, do you make the clients sign a release first?
• What preparations do you make in order to be able to be on-call?
• When is the best time to arrive at the hospital for the birth?
• Have you ever had a situation where the hospital staff was rude to you or tried to make you leave? What happened? How did you react?
• Has there ever been a time where you missed important photos (due to someone blocking the shot, camera malfunction, lighting or focus issues, etc.) How did you handle this?

• Do you ever photograph home births? How are they different?
• Can you go over some different birthing situations you have had happen (surrogate birth), adoption birth, multiples, anything that was out of the ordinary. You can tell what you did differently, what you learned from these experiences.

• What are some mistakes you made when you first started being a birth photographer? What would you do differently now?
• What is some advice every photographer wanting to get into birth photography should know?

Fresh 48 Video Topics Covered:

Fresh 48 Video 1:

• When do you schedule your Fresh 48 sessions?
• What happens if a baby comes early? How do you plan for this?
• Do you check with the hospitals to be sure that you are allowed to photograph in the room?
• Has there ever been a time when the hospital/doctor/nursing staff says you cannot photograph there?
• Do you have your clients call you after the baby is born to let you know when to come? If not, how does your process work?

Fresh 48 Video 2:

• Do you turn the lights on in the room or only use window light?
• Do you use a flash (or other artificial lighting, i.e. strobes), or only natural light? If you only use natural light, how do you make it work with night sessions when it is dark; or do you plan to only do sessions during the day?
• What is the typical workflow of your Fresh 48 sessions?
• What are your must-have shots for a Fresh 48 session?
• What is the hardest thing you’ve had to overcome with Fresh 48 sessions?
• How many images do you normally take during a session?
• How many images will the client receive? Do you edit all of these?

Fresh 48 Video 3:

• What if the baby is in the NICU? Are you still able to do some sort of Fresh 48 session? How does that work?
• What happens if the baby comes early and you are out of town or unable to make it to the hospital before the clients are released? What if that happens and they have already paid? If this has not happened, what would you do?

Fresh 48 Video 4:

• What lens(es) do you use during a Fresh 48?
• How do you make each session unique?
• How long do you stay at the hospital with the family?
• How long is the session?
• Do you ever bring any props with you or have the family bring props? (i.e. special blankets or heirlooms, outfits, or toys, etc.)
• What do you set your ISO to on a typical session?
• How do you work with siblings?
• Have you ever done a Fresh 48 session for an adopting couple? How was that different from a regular session?
• How do you do family/extended family photos in such a small room?
• How do you avoid hospital distractions in the background? (machines, cords, etc.)
• Do you ask the mom if she wants breastfeeding photos?
• How do you advise your clients to dress for the sessions? Do you have the mom change out of her hospital gown?
• What photos do you take around the hospital to include in their gallery?
• If you have shot at the same hospital before, do you reuse images if you have a better outdoor shot of the hospital due to the lighting outside at the time of the session?
• What tips do you have to make the mom look her best after just going through birth?
• What tips do you have to prepare the baby for the session?

Plus Heather will answer all questions about the following:

• What did you charge for a a birth session when you were first starting out?
• What was included in that price?
• What do you charge now for a birth session?
• What is included in your packages today?
• How did you reach your first clients?
• Do you use these same methods today?
• How did you market when you first started out?
• How has your marketing changed since your business has grown?

Marketing:

• What is the best piece of marketing advice that you can give us?
• Have you ever tried a marketing tactic that failed?
• How do you market specifically to your niche client?
• Where do you advertise your sessions?
• What has been the best way to market your birth sessions in your area besides word of mouth?
• Do you have a referral program? If so, what does it entail? Please be as specific as possible.

Social Media:

• What social media sites are you on?
• Which site do you feel like works the best for your company?
• How do you grow your fan base?
• Can you give us some sample statuses (3-5) that you use that tend to gain a lot of exposure?
• What types of graphics do you post?
• Do you post sales on social media pages?
• Do you have separate pages for your personal information and one for business?
• Do you ever talk about personal details on your business page?
• What are some tips for selling your work/booking sessions on social media?

Pricing:

• How did you come up with your pricing structure?
• When do you increase your prices?
• How do you let your clients know about the increase?
• Do you ever offer discounts? If so, what kind of discount and how often?
• Do you require a deposit?
• How do you collect payment?
• When is the fee due?
• Do you charge late fees if the client isn’t ready to start on time? If so, how much is it?
• Did you ever have a time where you raised your prices and no one would book at the new price? If so, what did you do? If this hasn’t happened, what would you do?
• Do you ever discount Fresh 48 sessions if the client books you for a birth or newborn session?
• Do you charge more for additional people added to the photos (not immediate family)?
• Do your clients pay you prior to the baby being born or at the time of the session?
• How does your booking process work?

Finding your niche:

• What’s the ideal client you try to market to?
• How do you find your niche clients?
• How do you find clients who are within your price range?
• What advice would you give someone trying to figure out their niche?
• How many areas do you provide your birth photography service to?
• If there is an area where you want to photograph, but you don’t have any current contacts in those cities, what do you do? (If this has never been the case, what do you suggest if someone were in this situation?)
• Have you ever moved your business to a new area? If so, how did you find new clients in that area? (If you haven’t had to do this, what do you suggest in this situation?)

PLUS...

• Did you ever do free sessions to build your portfolio?
• Was there ever a time where you were really glad you had a contract? What happened and how did it help having a contract?
• When do you require the contract to be signed? How do you have your clients sign your contract? Is it online somewhere or do they print and sign it?
• What was the best decision that you’ve made when it comes to your business?
• What do you go over with your clients before the session? How often do you contact them between the time they book and the day of the session?
• Do you network with any other companies? If so, what kind of companies are they? How did you start your business relationship?
• How did you come up with your branding? What is it and why do you feel it suits your business? Did you create it yourself or outsource it?
• Do you have specific business insurance?
• What if the work is great, but the bookings aren’t coming in…what do you do?
• What do you do in the slow season to maintain momentum in your business?
• When it comes to prints and products, do you focus on selling additional a la carte items, or is it more your packages that you try to sell?

Purchased this product? Leave us a review by clicking here and filling out the question field.

"Remembering back upon my newbie photographer days this would have been something I would have loved to have been able to have read and thought "Oh wow that's how you do that?" - Melissa

"I thought it was informative, nice to see how others go about things." - Becky

"The course is laid out very well, and cover all aspects of newborn photography, from poses to business. It is an in-depth look at newborn photography. What to expect, what your clients can expect, and lessons learned along the way. It was easy to follow, also very clean and simple. It was far more detailed than I expected it to be. It is also a good collection of information that people at varying levels can use. It would be great for beginning newborn photographers, as well as established ones that are looking to make changes to improve their business practices." - Stephanie

"It's great! It's informative, detailed and flows together. Nicely done and well put together!" - Katie

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents for any purpose is prohibited. This product was made for the purpose of personal use for professional photographers. It is not to be resold or redistributed for any purpose, including, but not limited to: sharing in workshops, lectures, or other classroom settings.

If you'd like to use any of our products for the purpose of group education, please contact BP4U directly at bp4uguides@gmail.com to see our bulk rates.