Lara Swanson Blog

I’m getting ready to post some more maternity portraits tomorrow, so I figured now would be a good time to outline the current maternity, birth, and newborn photography pricing!

Maternity Couple or Family Photography Session

These fun photo shoots can be in your home, outdoors, really anywhere! They cost $120 and include a disk of all the images at high resolution with up to five retouched, and a proofs site that you can share and order prints from.

Multiple Maternity Photography Sessions

The multiple maternity sessions include a short portrait session each month, showing off your belly and how it grows during your pregnancy. This is $120 total (for as many months as you’d like) and include a large 16×20 print afterwards, showing the different stages of your pregnancy. It also includes a proofs site, disk of images and up to five images retouched per session.

Birth Day Photography

This is for couples who want the moments just after the birth documented - the first time you see your child, the first time you hold him or her, and all of the other special moments between you, your partner and your baby just after the birth. While it takes a lot of scheduling and preparation, this birth day photography includes a disk of the images, a proofs site, and a slideshow of these first moments. Please contact me for pricing information.

Discount!

I’m giving 30% discounts to any couples who choose a maternity session and want child portrait sessions taken throughout the first two years of the child’s life.

Today we celebrate the first day we started blogging daily, back in June of 2007. So much has happened since then, and I’d like to bring you the top ten posts (by pageviews) of the year! They’ll make you laugh, they’ll make you cry, they’ll make you wonder why the heck they have so many views (apparently tons of people are searching on Google about Jamaican wedding cake traditions!). Enjoy!

1. Tips for Self Posing (with a whopping 6K pageviews!)
2. Geeky Weddings
3. Lindsay & Lee’s engagement session
4. A Jamaican Wedding Cake Tradition
5. Beth & Ben’s teaser
6. How to Decrease Redness on Skin
7. KiSS wedding albums
8. Bridesmaid Tradition
9. iPod at your Wedding Reception
10. Rebecca & Ian’s engagement session

I might arrive at your wedding looking something like a pack mule - I’ll have at least one large backpack of major equipment, and likely a handful of other really useful items that can come in handy. So here’s what’s in my bag:

Every Wedding

• 4 cameras (1 40D, 2 20D’s, 1 350D)
• 2 shoe-mount flashes (1 580EX and 1 550EX)
• an arsenal of lenses (my main, and favorite, is a Tamron 17-50 2.8, especially paired with my Canon 50mm 1.4. Add to that two 70-200’s and an 18-55 and we’ve got every angle covered!)
• battery charger and extra batteries for the cameras
• battery charger and extra batteries for the flashes
• diffusers for the flashes (ask me sometime about their nicknames)
• a Shootsac and/or another camera bag for quick access during the ceremony
• a notebook chock-full of ideas and inspiration for your wedding, including all of the photos and ideas you’ve sent me, cell phone numbers, your shotlist, etc.

And sometimes…

• a large diffuser helps during outdoor portrait sessions where we want that extra sparkle in your eye
• if it’s expected to be a low-light reception, I’ll bring my tripod to keep things stable, especially if I’m doing long exposures to capture lots of movement
• a step stool or crate if there’s going to be a lot of large group portraits. We’re talking more than 20 people. It’s always easiest to find a set of stairs or balcony for me to use, but just in case, the step stool is there!

I’ve brought a million other accessories to weddings - Polaroid cameras, slide film, a Kodak Brownie, large black umbrellas in case we want a portrait in the rain, AA non-rechargeable batteries in case guests need them, safety pins and bobby pins for bridesmaids in need… the list goes on! Now all I need to do is master putting on boutonnières…