We had a client recently who thought it would be an awesome idea to change professions and become a photographer – this had us silently in fits of laughter, hopefully I was able to hide this because I tried my best to be professional even though we are regular people just like you!

So I thought it’s time that i’d share just a few things that happens behind that USB & products we produce here at Umbilical Love Photography for our clients..

We love what we do. We love to capture the first moments of a precious newborn baby because its the very first season of every person’s life, a time you will never be able to get back again or re do, a time when bub will fit in your arms so squishy and small. We love to capture glowing pregnant mums who are over joyed at the gift of bringing a human life into this world there is really nothing more precious and the love they share with their partner. Again, a moment that is only experienced maybe one or a few times in a persons life. We love having toddlers run around in the studio, pulling stuff out of our prop baskets or hiding behind the curtain. We love capturing big brother giving little sister a sloppy kiss on the head. We love when new babies poop on our floors! (well maybe not the cleaning up part) but we love that this is real life, and we get to capture it in all its beauty.

So we love what we do. But you may have wondered, why it is important for you to invest in your images/moments with us & why do we (and other photographers) charge what we charge? Let me explain…

Simply, we are a small business. And with any small business you would know that there are expenses. A lot of expenses. This includes but is not limited to; rent, equipment costs, insurances, staff wages, bills, maintenance fees etc and not to mention when the heater breaks down in the back room, this is before we even take one photo.

Someone has to pay for all of those things just like every small business. When you come for a session with us, you are not just paying for us to give you a service but ultimately you are paying for us to run our business. You are our client and you are what keeps us going. Without you there is no us. The difference with photography is that its pretty much a one off purchase and I am thankful that many of my clients will return yearly for updated memories with their family. Yes theres a small session fee that covers a part of our time not just running the session but before the session occurs and then after before you even see the moments we captured with your time with us in the studio. When you buy products it is (majority of the time) a one off purchase especially when you buy digital files because then you have bought the rights to go and do what you please with them how often you like. This means we simply would not survive as a business with high expenses if we only charged let’s say $100 for everything. This is the difference between a business and a person that loves photography and does it on the side as a hobby.

Jodie (the owner of Umbilical love Photography) has the bills of the business to pay for as well as a family of her own. She has 3 hungry, growing young boys and a husband that she needs to feed and provide for. If you’re a parent you would understand the numerous costs of children. Yes we love them but they are expensive to run! haha

But let me take you through some of the hours we put in for our clients and how what you pay for in a small session fee and the offered products is actually really great value for for your investment/money for years to come.

1. Booking the client – we love when clients find us and want to book us straight away but a lot of the time we have to go market out little butts off so people know we exist. This involves hours of designing advertising materials, marketing online, setting up behind the scenes, website needs and much much more. We also have the lovely Emma who gets paid to contact all of our enquiries so we can find out each and everyone of our clients needs and make a custom plan for each shoot. We are a full photography service and this starts right at the enquiry stage, and because we are busy marketing, doing shoots, paperwork behind the scenes tax and payment plans, ordering products etc we don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks – so Emma has taken on the booking process and is absolutely amazing and we can not thank her enough for what she does!

2. Organising the client – emails and phone calls and paperwork go back and forth constantly. Discussing if their due date could change, what they will wear, directions to our studio. All of the fun nitty gritty things you think would be a short but sweet answer – simply take hours upon hours for each and every client – which we absolutely love, but the reality is – it takes a lot of time away from actually doing what we do best! Photographing moments!

3. The session – Lets talk about a newborn session. Newborns are very unpredictable little things and some of these things just to mention a few include; poop, unsettled, hungry, have colic numerous times through out the session. Thats why we allow up to 4 hours to capturing your beautiful newborn baby within your custom session to ensure we can get the very best for you within that time to remember forever. They deserve it/you deserve it! (when Jodie had her 2nd son, just before her photography days, they went to a chain photographer who gave them 15 min – Jodie was stressed, baby had colic and was completely out of sorts, from Jodie’s experience this is one of the main reasons she runs her business as a full service provider as you can never get that time back she doesn’t under any circumstances want her clients to feel the way she did and come back with average moments captured – not a great memory for such a precious time of life).

The session time with Jodie also includes Jodie’s photography expertise and 6 years experience. Not to mention workshops attended to perfect the art, and all the organic beautiful blankets and props we use in the studio that goes with our brand, the reason our clients choose us. And don’t forget the equipment. To those who don’t know much about photography you’d nearly faint to find out that a professional camera is a lot of money! Technology is always advancing so we need to make sure we have the best of the best to beautifully capture your bub your family your moments so they are the best they can be for you to cherish through the generations.

4. Post culling and editing – Kelsey (studio manager) spends a minimum of 4 hours sorting through your session photos to pick the best so that the client doesn’t get super overwhelmed with choice at their ordering appointment. Jodie has sat down personally and has taught me her style her years of experience so we can offer you our clients the very style together as a team you have hired us to be. Then she will go over and edit every chosen gallery image as her natural signature look some of these things include lighting adjustments and colour correction smoothing of blankets etc so you look amazing and so we maintain a professional standard. We also take time to back up images on 2 hard drives the cloud and a disk, just in case!! If our computers died, it would be a pain but we wouldn’t be worried in the slightest!

5. The ordering appointment – We love that all of our clients get to come back into the studio to re live their session/moments that we captured together all over again. The faces we watch, the ‘awwws’ we hear, the poke of the husband that ‘thats our baby’, we love it. This typically takes about an hour. After viewing your photos we take the time to show you and go through products on offer with you that is within each individuals budget but more importantly keepsakes that will be loved and cherished for generations to come.

6. Ordering – Each product you order is different in it’s own way they all take a little bit of time some products more time to prep than others to get them ready to order. Whether its just re sizing for a framed print or if its designing an entire album there is work, and this does take time. Then of course we order though the appropriate company which there is communication most times back and forward to them! We use very high quality printing services as well (who are also a business). We promise you we don’t print them at kmart ever!

7. Delivery – Its so exciting when we get packages delivered to the studio! We will personally contact you and let you know that you order is ready to pickup and organise a time for you to come and collect your gorgeous product/s. We also take photos of our beautiful products for a beautiful record of what we have been honoured to produce for you through your experience with Umbilical Love Photography which we are also able to use for advertising purposes so our clients to be get to see what those products actually look like in the flesh so they are not just seeing a “display” which most likely you our client got to see which helped you decide on what you loved and ordered.

So thats a typical but not limited to client journey. And that doesn’t even go into the paper work….

We aren’t trying to rip anyone off, and we never would do that ever, we are just trying to run a business like anyone else. We offer a high quality service with a high quality product that we are proud to put our name to. We didn’t just wake up one day and think ‘hey, ill be a photographer today’. There is weeks, months and years put into building this business. Blood, sweat and tears to! Did we tell you that we painted every wall of the studio ourselves? There was sweat and lots of tears LOL!

Next time you think that a photographer is charging you to much, look behind them and see every other element that gets to that point and after. Not the regular thought of someone that is very uneducated in what is actually involved – e.g.: oh my goodness I just spent $500 on a few digital images – also remember with that money you walked away with something you can use, re-print over and over and share with family and friends you didn’t just go to coles spent your fortnightly groceries all just to eat and put in the loo LOL –

The reality is that we are paid under the award wage, we absolutely love what we do, otherwise we wouldn’t be here today and we wouldn’t have put in thousands and thousands of dollars throughout the years to give you the very best we can in this business. We always strive to offer the best and to treat our clients with the upmost care and respect. We appreciate our clients who treat us the same and you are the reason we are Umbilical Love Photography and we absolutely thank each and every one of you for that!.

Much love, Kelsey and Jodie xx