Lessons
Day 1
1Introduction
20:16 2Why Bellies & Babies?
25:22 3The Baby Plan: Newborn to 1-Year
35:19 4Baby Plan Overhaul
28:52 5Creating a Marketing Calendar
18:33 6Social Media
26:50 7Facebook Campaign
06:26Community Displays
33:26 9Customer Loyalty
29:11 10The Moments We Capture
10:55 11Lighting Setup
22:12 12Live Shoot: The 5 Poses
27:06 13Recap: The 5 Poses
25:49Day 2
14Today's Goals
08:03 15Audience Q&A
05:43 16Newborn Boy with Mom (Brady)
29:49 179-month-old Girl with Backdrop (Navia)
15:02 18Newborn Boy w Wicker Basket (Brady)
07:54 19Newborn Girl w Bowl (Eliana)
18:05 20Maternity Session
21:38 214-month-old girl w Blanket (Fiona)
16:59 223-month-old Boy w Blanket (Nolan)
14:55 23Newborn Girl w Hammock (Eliana)
14:33 24Cooper
37:09 25Questions
04:31 26Creating an Efficient Studio
40:31 27Maternity Sessions
10:49 28Working with a Pregnant Body
23:30 29Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
29:22Day 3
309 month old
20:51 31Audience Q&A
17:58 32Becoming a Baby Expert
12:31 33Shy 1 Year Old
25:57 341 Year Old Girl
23:14 35The Miracle Shots
12:49 36Older Ages
21:46 37Consultations
15:16 38Pricing
54:48 39Sales
32:49 40Framing
08:21 41Workflow
15:28 42Closing the Sale
20:24 43Charitable Marketing
13:43 44Family Is...
06:49Lesson Info
Today's Goals
We are going to have a newborn boy and girl, I believe three weeks on dh er six days. So little bitty babies we have ah, three to four month old boy and girl on dh. We also today have a six month old girl, and in addition to that, I moved the pregnancy session today. So we are literally get a power through probably six sessions in less. Ethan for hours now, that is not the norm at my studio. However, I have no problem with that. I am a very fast shooter today. Our goal is to show you technique. Uh, so it's okay, that it's going to be a little faster because we're going to go in there and show you our favorite things to do with those specific ages, and if everything goes well, we should have no problems, and we'll just kind of roll on through that. We're going to go through and dio some of the tips and tricks and tools that we use cover things like backgrounds, props, clothing, equipment. We're going to go through all that we're going to talk about designing sets, how we choose the clot...
hing, what sells, why clients prefer certain things that will cover all of that as well. Um and then we do have a segment about pregnancy walk through we're actually going to have a pregnant mom come in here you gotta teach you how to rap I know that's something that's really popular is how do you tie and make those wraps look good? We'll talk about some of the things they're probably won't do a lot of photography of the pregnancy session with the pregnancy session I would want more time because I feel like each body is very different and we'll talk about why I allow a little more time for pregnancy sessions and also how to sell pregnancy sessions because that's always the biggest question is how do you capitalize on that very time consuming and they're not the highest sellers? We're going to show you some ways to segment into that we're also going to cover some tips and tricks on previous newborns, babies, all kinds of things and becoming a baby expert. Now I do want to talk a little bit about some of the things that I get asked all the time like how do you hang a baby in a hammock and how do you get them to do this and how do you get all those great shots now? Our goal today is to actually show you a little bit of that while I'm shooting, but again I want to remind you this is not a normal studio um it's it's something that in a perfect world it will work but if it doesn't I ve also incorporated a lot of little video clips from my studio where I'm actually getting those shots where I can actually slow it down and educate a little bit there very short videos but I think it's a better way to go so that for sure we're going to cover all those hard to do things in fact I'm gonna give you one technique this afternoon that this is um we call it blocking I'm not going to tell what it is but sounds kind of scary when you're talking about newborns but we're blocking this technique alone I promise you is worth the money that you came here because, um the biggest thing people talk about is how do you get babies to sleep and that's always I'm asked that all the time do you realize every session I do is one hour um in fact I remember the slide in the beginning of the show the baby in the hammock is absolutely not sleep even though he looks like it and I'm going to show you how I got away in fact that is the video that little hammock shot is actually the video today that I'm gonna show you how we get away with that and I think when you see what it is that I actually do it's going to be very shocking to you and it's, it's it's, one of the biggest ah ha moments we had on our last tour, I would literally watch the audiences face when that video came on. It was just so fun to see how such a simple technique that really was a happy accident for me that I accidentally figured out one day has become the sort of the bread and butter of a lot of people studios making those those sleeping babies happen. So kind of excited about that as well. We are going to go to a live shoot. Our goal is to get out there and to get things done. But I want to make sure I think that slide was kind of moved. I feel like, here we go. Yeah, we're good. I'm gonna we're gonna go to a live shoot, but I just wanted to talk for a few minutes, uh, just to sort of re introduce myself. I know a lot of people actually were not here yesterday, uh, out on the internet because I had a lot of people say I missed yesterday heard it was great coming today. So I want to talk a little bit of about who I am not going to great detail but really talk a lot about dreaming. I love this quote when in doubt make a fool of yourself there is micro there's a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth so what the heck leak now that is my life story I feel like that ninety percent of the time I'm a gigantic idiot honestly honestly people sometimes from afar think its creativity or brilliance I can assure you it's it's idiocy I love to have fun I love to play hard I have a very strong team and we work really really hard but we make everything a game life to me has always been the biggest joke and it's only a joke because you can laugh at yourself and when you can laugh at yourself nothing is ever that bad we can all go through historically anything is better than dead, right? So honestly anything is better. Everything gets better as long as you're breathing and that's my really and truly my attitude because even in the worst times of my life I can always see that her rice and there's always going to be a better day. I wasn't kidding about his I had to throw this in here because this is actually my office so when I said I had big circus letters I was not getting this is the office and this is actually in my studio uh the joke is the bad don't ask I do my best work in bed uh that's actually that is not a quote unquote my mother will kill me if that's however I actually when I write books I actually lay in bed tio and so when I built this office I knew that that was I spent most of my time in hotel room so I tend to be sitting on a bed all that time so this is actually my comfort zone here but you can see that whenever we're doing webinars seminar's this is sort of my magical little kingdom that I have where that is actually happening so not only do I have that above my bed I actually had it tattooed on my arm on my wrist so that no matter what no matter where I go I would always you know whenever things are not looking good I just have to kind of give myself one of these in or so you know sucker punch somebody in the face with it if they'll give me hard time either way I never forget so those two things I mean that word is literally my lifeline so just wanted to share with you I really wasn't kidding about that alright this I had to share and it's something that I mentioned it yesterday I had read this article and I was thinking about and I was reading everybody's post last night and um I'm not interact emotionally read this so I'm kind of kind of let you do it on your own, ok? I'll give it a try these are this was actually written by somebody who who does care for people who are in their last days and I thought it was so breathtaking because this is somebody who said that they had spoke to hundreds of people who passed away and get the five same request the five same things always came up and if you really look at this and you look at what we talked about yesterday and we talked about dreams and we talked about work and time and people that you love every single thing we covered are the peoples that are people dying people's last request things they wish they could have changed, so when we know that we all know that that's how we feel and yet when we can't when we don't allow ourselves to have that freedom um my favorite honestly is the last one. I wish I'd let myself be happier because I think all of these things that we talked about up above really touched you know really brings you to that happiness and and really brings you there so not trying to bring it down I'm actually trying to bring you up, I want you to think about this throughout the entire day and remember everything we're talking about leads back to that to your last day, which, thank heavens we don't know what that is. We can plan on many and many, many hundreds of great days. But when we go back to that perfect day on that last day, the day that you're thinking about these things, you want to make sure that you have as many perfect days as possible and that's what we're going for. Okay, so life is a choice. It's your life, choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly and choose happiness. Now that being said, I think we can choose to do photo shoots, what do you think?
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
I know so many families with new babies at church and have wanted to invite them to let me create studio portraits, both for practice and for profit. You've given me so many wonderful tips and ideas for posing, shooting and marketing. I've already begun collecting appropriate props. I believe in me, but know that selling will be the hardest thing for me. Sandy makes everything look so easy! I related to her emotionalism--I'm the same way. Today at church, a visitor shared about an expectant mother in Ohio who was diagnosed with Stage 3 brain cancer. Thanks to Sandy's pregnancy portraits and the story about the beginning of Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, I emphasized to the visitor the huge importance of that family (already with 4 children) to have a family pregnancy portrait taken. It will mean so much to everyone, but especially the unborn child, who may not ever know its mother. I am also interested in exploring the Now I... training program, if our local hospital needs a special photographer. Thank you for the fantastic seminar I could attend in the comfort of my own home. Cha Ching!
Daniela Moroni
This is my first Creative Live course and I'm very happy with it. I don't have a studio but it was very helpful to understand how to begin a career as a baby photographer. I like the way Sandy explains what she does. You see that she loves her job. I'm glad to have known about Now I Lay me Down To Sleep project. I'm not an english speaker so I'd like there were english subtitles 'cause when she speaks very quickly I miss a lot of words... Thanks Creative Live team!
a Creativelive Student
Sandy is truly an inspiration! Her fantastic photography definitely urges us on to greater things, but I am most impressed by the way she connects with people. Her clients are not just $$ to her, and her job is not simply a way to make money - she feels things greatly, and it shows. This webinar causes me to not only better myself as a photographer/business owner, it inspires me to become a better person.
Student Work
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