Not so picture perfect

What an experience we had yesterday getting Kylie's newborn pictures done.  In the mommy group I'm a part of on facebook, someone mentioned that they needed newborns to shoot for their portfolio.  It would be $50 with a CD and rights to print. She had a website where I looked at some pictures which looked nice. She also mentioned them being studio sessions giving me the impression that it would be in an actual studio, not in a house.  It seemed that she was an established photographer.  Well, I was completely fooled.

I figured for the price that it would be worth it to drive all the way up to Clearfield (an hour drive). That is one idea I won't be repeating again.  While driving to the place, we realized that the location was in fact a home, not a studio.  It was done in the garage of the house, which was the first red flag. The garage was messy and the fact that there was hardly any padding on the cement floor made it difficult to put Kylie down if we wanted to change her into anything.  Also, she had to open a door to the garage to get more light, but it made it cold for my poor baby, especially when she was naked.  It definitely wasn't the most comfortable atmosphere, but because we drove all that way I felt we should stay.  

The lady taking the pictures said to me that she had tons of props to use, but I could bring anything I wanted. I brought a bag of Kylie's headbands which we ended up using the whole time because the ones she had were not that great.  She only had one cute outfit and then the rest of the props were old and just not nice looking.  I know that Kylie is one month and newborn pictures are usually done within two weeks, but the baskets the lady had were for like premie babies. Because of that, options were limited to what could be done.  She hardly had any blankets and we had to take a few pictures of Kylie in the swaddle blanket we brought (when she was crying).  I wasn't counting on getting pictures of her in that since I can do that at my own house.  Plus, it wasn't even the cutest blanket we own and if I had known we needed to bring a blanket, I sure would have brought something different.  I felt that because of her lack of equipment, the variety of pictures I was hoping for wasn't received.  

Kylie was a little fussy before we left, but fell asleep on the way up so I hoped that she would be good for the photo shoot. When we got there, Kylie ended up needing to be fed.  She is usually content after feeding, so we changed her into a cute outfit and she was really good while taking most of the pictures.  She didn't really complain when we tried to move her or prop her up on something. Most newborn pictures are done naked and the photographer wanted to do some of those.  If you remember, Kylie had just ate and most babies do some business in their diaper after they eat.  Well, Kylie was naked a little too long and I got peed AND pooped on!  Gross, gross, gross.  Her poop smells awful too.  Lesson learned to have an extra change of clothes in the car for not just Kylie, but for me as well.  

We got a few more pictures in before Kylie started to get really fussy.  She's stubborn when going to sleep and it was hard to get her to sleep.  It took a good 20 minutes for her to even calm down and even then, she was only asleep for about the same amount of time. The photographer did get some cute ones of her asleep though.  Once Kylie woke up and was crying again, we decided to be done. 

To be honest, I was dissappointed with the photo shoot altogether.  The photographer wasn't what I expected for the money or the time.  I feel she was very misleading in how advanced she really is.  I am just embarrassed about the whole situation.  I'm sure she captured some great pictures of Kylie; I just wish it was done in a different environment.  Another lesson learned to go with photographers recommended by people I know, not just through facebook.  Sometimes it is worth it to pay more because you're not just paying for pictures, but for experience as well.  And this is one experience I am sad happened.

I know that there will be some really adorable pictures of Kylie that I will love and I'll be sure to post the pictures on here once I receive them.