Maternity photos: The 5 common mistakes that could cost you an experience you will never get back

The biggest moments in our lives all share one thing in common. Once they pass, we can not do them over. Bringing a child into the world is one of those moments. I’ve heard from too many parents who wish they could have done things differently when it came to documenting their pregnancy and the first months of parenthood. One of my clients told me she loves her maternity portraits because they remind her of all the beautiful moments they experienced, and she doesn’t want to lose sight of that during the sleepless, stressful times.

I’ve put together this list to share with you the 5 biggest mistakes new parents make when it comes to maternity photography. The last thing you want is to miss out on this experience all together and not have the photos that remind you of all those beautiful moments. And what might be worse, is rushing at the last minute and hiring the wrong photographer who leaves you disappointed, and still without photos you love.

Timing

Plan to do your shoot when you are 7-7.5 months along. You will be visibly pregnant and not miserable/tired/bloated yet. Also plan for the viewing session within a week of the shoot. If you schedule your shoot too far along in your pregnancy, you run the risk of missing out on gorgeous maternity photos if your little angel comes a little early. Also schedule your viewing session with your photographer within a week of the shoot, for the same reason. If your baby comes early, all plans go out the window.

Printing

Choose a photographer who prints your images and avoid the ones who just give you digitals. This is because almost every single person who only wants digitals has every intention of printing them and with a new baby in the house, that’s just never going to happen. Most legit photographers have options for both prints and digitals. You also can’t lose prints in a hard drive crash and you don’t want to leave that up to chance.

Ordering prints from a professional photographer ensures that the prints are of the highest quality. Costco might be cheaper, but consumer grade printing tends to fade quickly, and thin materials, such as canvas, will easily tear.

Expertise

Choosing an experienced photographer checks too important boxes. The first is that they know about safety and how to pose pregnant clients. If someone has not worked with expecting mothers, they will not know which poses to avoid and how to modify poses. The second is that their work might not be as consistent and your photos are less likely to look like the ones on their website. You don’t want to gamble with this because you can’t go back in time and redo it.

Preparation

You will have a much tougher time working with a photographer who doesn’t help you prepare for a successful session. The right photographer will help you find the right best outfits, location, style, and help you coordinate hair and makeup styling so you look your best and everything runs smoothly with as little effort as possible on your part. If you have to figure all of that out on your own, they are not the right photographer for you.

Investment

Professional photography is definitely one of those things where you get what you pay for. That doesn’t mean you have to spend $10,000 to have a great experience and beautiful photos. If you are choosing someone who only charges a few hundred dollars and gives you all of the digital images, that’s like going to a fancy restaurant and getting a bag of raw ingredients and being told to cook them and serve them to yourself.

If you want a safe experience, and beautiful photographs, without having to figure out how to produce a professional photo shoot, hire a real professional. The higher investment is well worth the time, stress, and potential risk of missing out on something you can never get back.