Newborn photos

alikatt17

I feel like all I post about is baby crap, so I apologize.

The hospital has the Bella Baby stuff, or I can do a photographer in my home for 2-3 hours for $200 w/ full digital rights.  $275 if I do the maternity/newborn session combo.  I think I want maternity photos.  Not that I'm going to do a lot w/ them other than post on FB and put in a Shutterfly album.  I haven't been taking any belly shots and the last time we had any sort of professional pictures taken was our wedding day or at other people's weddings.  Not that i think I'm some gloriously beautiful pregnant woman or anything, I just want them.  I'd keep all my clothes on, FYI. 

Or I can do the Bella pictures, which pricing is not available online, and book a $100 mini session for maternity pics.

The dilemna is that if I book the newborn pictures, I have to pay in full beforehand, and I'm afraid I will love the shit out of the hospital pictures and buy them too.  Therefore spending a shitton of money on photos.  Or I can turn away the Bella people in the hospital.

Please excuse my rambling, vicodin makes it hard to focus on pretty much anything.

AuntFlo

Do the combo, turn away the bella people.

DG1

Yep.

And it will be hard to turn away the bella people. But stay strong. You'll pay through the nose for them, and it isn't worth it. 

I did take screenshots of all of my bella photos, watermark and all. But I'm not printing them or anything. I'm just glad I can go dig up the files and look if I want to. (Actually, Dex was pre-Bella, so he just had the stupid older-style hospital photos taken from directly overhead with him in the bassinette. They don't even look like him and didn't at the time, either. I still had a hard time turning those down.)

DG1

Also, it might help that you have a while (a month?) to say yay or nay to the Bella people. At least give yourself that long. By the time the month passes, you'll have so many adorable pics of that sweet boy that the Bella ones will have lost their luster, or at least will seem less worth the prices they'll be asking for. 

alikatt17

I've heard they are really pushy about getting you to order from them right there in the hospital, they take the pics and come back 30 minutes later w/ an ipad.  So I think if I kick them out and tell them to go away, it would be easier to not be tempted.   

PirateBarbie

get the pro photographer in your home, or the combo package. it would be nice to have some good family shots. 

I never did maternity pics, and any newborn pics that I got were ones that DK and I took in the hospital. I don't think the hospital pics were available for the NICU - maybe they were, but we never got pressured (that I know of - they may have asked DK when I was high on demerol/stadol/whatever wonderful drugs they gave me)

alikatt17

I emailed the photographer w/ my horrible availability for maternity pics.  I guess we'll see what happens!

tawillers

I did the Baby Bella in the hospital for both girls.  I bought the disc for $125 and then made my own prints elsewhere.

Expensive, yes.  But I've always been a sucker for kid pics.  I wanted better-than-my-camera pics of those first hours and then we went to get professional pics when they were 2-4 weeks.

alikatt17

I booked it!  I will have glorious non-naked maternity pictures to share in about a month.

dharmabunny

alikatt17 said:

I booked it!  I will have glorious non-naked maternity pictures to share in about a month.

Yay! Yeah, I don't think there was a Bella Baby pressure cooker photog where I delivered, it was some other independent photog (or maybe just a candystriper with an SLR and a wheelie baby platform). And they were rather...pedestrian. Like documenting a specimen in pink or blue, no real artistry, thought or effort to them. Easy to say no.