Sweet baby Lily joined me in the studio yesterday along with her adorable family.  I was warned that I had a sassy one on my hands and mom sure was right!  In the end (and a few minutes in the beginning and in between) I won Lily over and was able to coax her into posing for her newborn portraits.  I am in a strange way pleased that she was a little challenging because I usually don’t wrap babies unless I need to and I’ve been meaning to get more wrapped shots since they are just as adorable as in the buff.  Lily is such a beautiful baby and at 3 weeks I was pleasantly surprised to see the gorgeous head of hair and perfect skin that she had!  These are just three of my quick favorites that I edited for Lily’s family since I will be closing for the week to celebrate my birthday.  I can not wait to share the rest of her images!!

My first session with the Hudson Family was about this time last year for Ryan’s Newborn Session.  I can’t believe how much the kids have grown!  I had the chance to photograph them again last fall for their Fall Family Session but this by far is my favorite session of these gorgeous kids!  Baby Ryan is just too adorable with those soft curls and big brown eyes!  This session was mainly because he just turned one..and though it’s not on the blog yet, we did a cake smash at the end. ;)  Meredith, who is now 3, is just too cute for words.  From her picture below (middle), I’d bet you’d never tell that she is a little camera shy.  And Marisa, 8, is just toooo easy to photograph.  She’s always willing to go first to show her little brother and sister that it’s no big deal and she’s just a ton of fun in front of the camera.  So glad to have these adorable 3 siblings in the studio yesterday afternoon.  It sure was a hot one!  We did venture outside for a bit but I was thankful for the AC and the fact that my studio is always ready to go if needed. :)

Tucker & Griffin’s mini session last Saturday at JC Raulston Arboretum was so much fun!  Tucker started out a little shy but when he saw his baby brother being photographed he decided at the very end that he was ok being photographed with him (which was the whole point of the session!).  It was funny though because by the time Tucker was ready, poor little Griffin was just about done and ready for a nap.  Such is life!  We had to improvise a little but got some cute shots of them together.  Here is mom’s top ten picks from the session!

I love repeat clients!  I was so excited to get to work with sweet Alexis and Casey again.  We met last year during mini sessions (something I don’t do very often!) and this year I got  to photograph the entire family together (which is SO important!).  The girls have grown so much and just keep getting cuter and cuter.  I know their parents had a hard time picking their top ten images of the session because every image in their gallery was just gorgeous.  You can see the girls last year during their fall mini session here:  http://www.melissabergphotography.com/alexis-casey-fall-mini-session-wake-forest-nc-baby-and-childrens-photographer/

My weekend is over and I am going to be catching up on blogging this week!  Here is Caleb’s parents top 10 picks from our mini session last Saturday.  I can’t say enough great things about this family and how wonderful they are to work with!  Such a sweet and fun little boy!!  Read about Caleb’s session here:  http://www.melissabergphotography.com/caleb-sneak-peek-raleigh-nc-childrens-photographer/

So excited to finally be able to post the rest of Marissa’s maternity session from a few weeks ago.  Baby Ava is due in May and I’m so excited to get the call that she’s arrived!  I spoke to Marissa last night and she is doing well (still working…bless her heart, I’ve been there.  We are both nurses and it’s hard work…especially the night shift!).  For this session, Marissa came in with a LOT of ideas and in trying to fit them all in, we went way over on time…but I was happy to let it slide because the purpose of this session for me was to expand my portfolio.  We did lots of different poses, outfit changes and I got to play around with some lighting techniques I had been dying to try.  I think the images turned out lovely and will bring back many memories for Marissa and her family.  Congratulations again to Marissa and her husband.  Not much time left to go!! :)

Baby Camden is a very familiar face here on my blog.  That’s because I’ve photographed him last year as a newborn, a family session at 4 months, a 2011 Christmas shoot and now his 9 month Spring Mini Session at JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I think it’s safe to say that he’ll be on the blog again for a cake smash for his 1 year session. ;)  I love getting to photograph babies as they grow older because working with them just gets funner and funner.  At one session, I remember Camden’s mom asking me if I made faces and noises like that with all the babies I photograph.  I laughed hard,… but the answer was no.  I just learned what makes Camden crack that sweet smile of his.  Lately, it’s been chicken sounds (don’t ask!). I realize I probably sound and look hysterical, but it’s so worth it in the end when you get results like these.  I just love mommy and me sessions because they hold near and dear to my heart.  Having my own 20 month old son and being the photographer in the family, I am rarely in any pictures with him.  It’s so important to capture these moments of you and your children together.  I don’t have any photos like these with my mom and I so wish that I did (as does she).  Time just passes too quickly and you take the current moments for granted.  Next thing you know, your daughter or son is 30 and raising their own family and you’ll have no idea where all that time went. ;)  By the way, how beautiful is the Rose Garden at the arboretum right now?!  Absolutely gorgeous! <3

Look at that face! This sweet face was also my first baby/child model back in 2009 when he was about 8 months. I can’t believe how much he’s grown! Caleb was such a blast to work with yesterday morning at JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh and the weather was absolutely gorgeous!! (and good thing because my “rain date” for Spring Minis, which was today, was a complete BUST!). Caleb was such a great subject and was absolutely ready for his picture to be taken the moment he arrived. He was eager to show me ALL of his faces, including his best KISS tongue impression (lol), dragon claws and various other adorable “poses” he could come up with. There was never a dull moment and it is going to make for quite a stellar gallery for his parents. hehe. All kidding aside, in between the many hysterical faces of Caleb, there were a bunch of sweet moments, bright eyes and coy smiles to be captured…including the photograph above. He was full of so much energy and at the very end said a very soft and sweet “are we done now?” after only 25 minutes, haha, which makes Caleb a perfect candidate for a mini session. ;) Many children don’t have the patience to withstand the full 90 minute session which is why I offer a range of 60-90 minutes. Even if we ended a full session before the 60 minutes were up, there would most likely be plenty of images captured to fill up a gallery. Especially with children, there are always a lot of “good” images captured but some images are very similar to each other or may have been caught mid-blink, etc. I always select the best of the best images which can sometimes be difficult to do. Many galleries end up with more than the minimum number of promised images…sometimes even mini sessions..shhhh! ;) I can’t wait to finish editing Caleb’s mini session and uploading his gallery for his parents. Once they choose their 10 images, I will be sure to blog the full blog post with their chosen images!!

Well, wouldn’t ya know it?  Here I am a professional photographer in search of my own professional photographer for my own family!  Yes, we need family photos too!!  As much as I don’t like being in front of the camera, I know years from now I’ll regret it if I don’t!  Recently I found out that my photographer who I’ve been going to for almost 4 years is no longer taking clients and closing her business. :(  BIG dilemma for me since I love plastering my home with images of my loves!  Even bigger dilemma when I have to wade through 100′s of professional photographers in the Raleigh area.  I now see what my clients go through in order to decide who to choose!

So what things does a professional photographer look for when hiring another professional photographer?  Bottom line…portfolio.  Does the photographers style match the portraits I’m hoping to achieve.  Is the photographers skill level up to par?  Are images nice and crisp, great color, beautiful composition and lighting and evoking positive feelings that make me want my family to BE the subjects in their images.  That’s the first thing I looked at today while perusing the internet searching for Raleigh Family Photographers in google and asking my professional peers for advice and links to their sites.  If their portfolio didn’t match my vision, I moved on.  Did I like their editing style?  This question helped me weed through a lot.  There are a lot of reallllly great photographers out there.  Every photographer has a different editing style…and as a professional photographer, I know which editing styles I am attracted to.

Now I’m not going to lie and say that price wasn’t the next thing that I looked at.  EVERYONE has a budget.  Even Bill Gates has a budget.  I looked at photographers who were less expensive than me and photographers who were more expensive (and even photographers who were willing to photograph us for free!).  While the free offers were very flattering, I had already had my heart set on a handful of other photographers that I wanted to go with..all of which were either priced the same as me or higher.  And that didn’t happen on purpose…  It was what their portfolio reflected.  Their images spoke to me and that put a value to their asking price and I absolutely value custom photography.

Next thing I looked for was their website and blog presence.  Did they have one?  How fresh was the content?  What was the tone of the blog posts?  Do I want to work with this person?  Since many people don’t meet their photographers before their first sessions together, blogs can say a lot.  Obviously portfolio definitely outweighs personality, but when it comes to children and family photography, personality goes a long way.  Will they make my kid laugh?  Will they make ME laugh and feel comfortable?  How clear and concise were the areas on their website?  Did they seem organized?  What was the turnaround time for their work?  Last thing I want to do is hire a frazzled photographer who is way too busy that my images take >4 weeks to appear in an online gallery.  Customer service is a huge deal!!

I think one of the most important things to remember when investing in custom professional photography is that you are not just paying for the time it took to conduct the session or the physical products you purchase.  You are paying for their time from the moment you inquire, the preparation of the session, the actual session, the email correspondence and communication, the uploading, editing, archiving, order preparation, packaging (I could go on and on)……in addition to their time you are paying for their artistic vision, creativity and even their education and professional equipment…all of which are needed to provide you a quality product.  You are also paying for their cost to run a business.  They would not legally be able to provide their services to you without these costs that they incur and that has to be factored into their session/creative fees and product pricing.

The photographers I did skip over (and yes they did exist) were the ones that seemed illegitimate.  How do I know?  Well I can’t be 100% sure, but there are clues.  Did they charge NC state tax?  Were they a registered business?  Did they have a phone number to contact?  Did they belong to any professional photography associations?  Was their work consistent?  (Some “photographers” actually steal images from other photographers and use them in their portfolio to get clients-true story!).  I also have a gut feeling that if a photographer is charging $50 for a session and CD that tells me they can’t POSSIBLY be running a successful legal business.  They might be portfolio building but their prices will not survive like that for long.  And chances are, their work isn’t up to par with quality professional work.  Like with anything, you truly get what you pay for.

In the end, after really narrowing it down and talking it over with my husband (even if I am the professional, he has to like their style too!) we decided to try out two new photographers this year.  I have admired their work for a while and I am so excited to be in front of their cameras!  The first session will happen in the next month or so to capture my little one for his “18 month” photos (even if a little late! woops!) and then the second will happen in August for his two year photos or possibly in the early fall for family photos (hello pretty Christmas cards this year again!).

So I have to ask, what do you look for in professional photography?  :)