I love taking photos of newborn babies, I adore my job. The best job in the world is to cuddle babies for a living :) But I also take my job very seriously. I have insurance in place should anything happen, I continue to have training and mentoring to improve my posing and technique.
Let's face it, I am handling your most precious little bundle and I want to make sure that they are in safe hands. I also want to produce high quality art that will last for years and years to come and take pride of place in your baby's albums and on your wall.
Over the last year I had mentoring with a lovely Newborn teacher Claire Elliott who is a panel member and mentor with the Guild of Photographers which I am a member of.
During the year we started working towards my Qualified Status. Now this is no easy thing. You have to produce images of consistent quality and variety. To apply for the Qualified Status you have to send in 21 images to the panel. These need to be 3 images from 7 different sessions. The panel is judged anonymously so the judges have no idea who submitted the images.
After months of going back and forward, tweaking and long chats with Claire I was finally ready to submit my selection and just in time before going on maternity leave.
Below are some of the final 21 images I submitted.
Then I had to wait for the results. Being on maternity leave and with not much to do (apart from cleaning the house and sorting out any cupboard I could get my hands on :) ) it was a nail-biting wait. Then our baby arrived on 1st February and I suddenly I was rather busy and did not have time to think and worry about my qualification any more. When Nella was 6 days old Claire came over to help me with her newborn photos and she brought me the fantastic news that on the same day our little lady was born my panel got judged and I passed! I am now officially a Qualified Newborn Photographer with the Guild of Photographers! I am so excited about this and so proud. Just goes to show that hard work pays off (and loving what you do helps a lot too :) ) I am looking forward to meeting all the new babies this year once I am back from maternity leave!
Magda xxx