When I started my own business, I looked at newborn photography as a way to get busy during the week, I needed that weekday work to survive as I could only do so many family portrait sessions on the weekends, and that did not generate enough income to support my growing family.

At the time I thought; ‘How hard can it be? Just put the baby on a pillow and shoot away!’

Boy! Was I in for a shock!

I soon learned that apart from the necessary skills needed to settle, pose and photograph newborn babies, I needed a few particular character traits too.

Here are the five character traits I think we need to be successful newborn baby photographers.

1. PATIENCE, PATIENCE AND MORE PATIENCE

We have all been there; it’s taken 20 minutes to get the baby to sleep, another 5 minutes to get him posed perfectly, you frame up, hit focus and the moment you are about to release the shutter the baby squirms out of position, and you have to start from scratch! It really can...

Running a newborn photography studio can be a complex but rewarding business. After years in the business, I have learned many lessons.  Some good, some not so good!

Here are my top 10 tips for those starting out as well as the more experienced photographers looking to niche down and specialise in newborn baby photography. Hopefully, they will save you time and maximise your profits.

1. DO THE SUMS!

When I started my own business, I had NO IDEA of how much money I needed to make to run a successful business, pay my bills and look after my family. I took the ‘suck it and see’ approach and man that was not a good idea! It almost broke me and put my family under an awful amount of pressure, emotionally and financially.

Remember when you become self-employed you become the employee as well as the employer. Think about it; if you were to go for a job interview, you would definitely discuss your expected salary before you accepted the position. Likewise, when you...