Prof pic - how often?

kreeper611

How often have you had, or do you plan on getting, pro pics of your LOs? I'm talking a regular photographer and/or something like Sears.

I mentioned getting pics done of C at 6 months, but heck we still don't have prints of the 3 month ones and it's only another 2 months away.  I want to budget out what I'd plan on spending this year.  Also, we do not have a fancy camera and probably won't for quite some time.

nvp05

KelleyA did Rena's newborn, 6 month, one year, and 18 month/holiday pics. And we've gone to Picture People/Portrait Innovations a few times (Valentines pics, etc). 

I wasn't planning to get her 2 year pics done since we spent a lot on her party. But my sister's friend is starting her own business and offered to do them for very cheap...so we're doing 2 year pics in a couple weeks. After this I'll probably do holiday and yearly bday pics with a photographer and do Picture People, etc a couple times a year.

cali_girl92504

We did newborns and plan on doing 6 month, 1 year and 18 month for sure. We will likely do some holiday ones this year too if we get around to it.

If you did 3 month pics I'd wait till 9 months and then do a 1 year maybe?

You can always borrow a fancy camera too - I don't mind meeting you to let you use ours. Fair warning, having a fancy camera doesn't mean your pictures are better...I still suck at taking pictures but DH does real well with it. You can tell which pictures I took and which he did (on FB and my blog)

CareBear01

We had a package of 4 within the first year (could have included mat. pics, but I already had him when we bought).  We chose

Newborn (ended up being 5 weeks)

6 months (I felt like at 3 months, he still wasn't doing much more than what the newborn shots were - it ended up being at 7 months, and he was at least sitting on his own at that time).

9 months (ended up being 10 months - which was good b/c he didn't start really getting on his hands and knees until 10 months - so there were some good "crawling" poses). 

12 months (still haven't had time to schedule them, and he is 13 months!  - do you notice a pattern, here??  I was going to try to wait until he was at least standing on his own, but he hasn't even begun to try, yet, so I may just have to forgo that "stage" of pics since it's past the year mark)

Looking back on the pics, I think they are all adorable in their own way, but if I had to cut one out, I would have skipped the 9 month and just did newborn, 6 month, 12 month.

CareBear01

kreeper611:

How often have you had, or do you plan on getting, pro pics of your LOs? I'm talking a regular photographer and/or something like Sears.

I mentioned getting pics done of C at 6 months, but heck we still don't have prints of the 3 month ones and it's only another 2 months away.  I want to budget out what I'd plan on spending this year.  Also, we do not have a fancy camera and probably won't for quite some time.

Also, I can't remember what you are doing for childcare, but a lot of daycares take yearly pictures (they have someone come in and do them, then you can buy a package).  I like it b/c it's cheaper and less time consuming for me (personally, I don't think they come out as cute, though b/c they aren't working for the smile and cute poses).

readyforbaby

So far we have only taken him once at 3 months to JC Penny.  The pictures turned out really cute.  At around 6 months he had pictures done at daycare but those weren't the best of him.  We had planned on getting professional 1 year pictures done but they just did pictures again at day care and those came out so cute so I think we will just stick with that.

MMS2007

for both my kiddos i've done newborn, 3mo, 6mo, 9mo and 12mo.  after that for my DD, i've done holiday and birthday and we just did bluebonnet for them both.  but my hubby and i are real picture people.  these are things that we value and will hold onto. 

i've used the same photographer each time, www.bellababiesphotography.com.  the owner/photographer is kristi and she's so nice.

Cajun_gal

We did newborn and almost 4 months old.  We'll prolly go to Picture People or something like that for around 6 month pictures and then professional 9 month and 1 year pictures.  After that, probably once a year professional and throw in a Picture People shoot once a year probably as well.  It seems like a ton to me, but I suck at taking pictures and already treasure those great pictures of Dylan and don't want to regret not having captured all his stages really well.

darva

I'm horrible and Kaitlyn only had 1 "professional" picture done (at Sears lol) and Sam has had none, cept the ones from the hospital.  We take SO MANY pictures of them, that I just don't think to do it.  Not to mention the time it takes.  Micaela... I did them at least once a year until she was 5.  Sad right?  It's just so hard with three of them!  Kaitlyn has had several pictures made at MDO though, so I do have some that aren't just candid shots and I was actually really impressed with the MDO ones.  They came out so cute!

We did make an appointment to have a family picture made, but the weather didn't cooperate. lol 

BritanyV

Ummm...never?  lol   I always planned on doing prof pics but we never have.   We take pics all the times but we do have a semi fancy camera we bought when ds was 5 months old and the quality in the pictures are way better than our old camera, even though this one is still a "point and shoot".

 I am planning on doing 2 year old pictures in July to finally get some prof done...but we will see if that happens in July or not!  lol

 

RaeAnt

OK, I"m a little nutso and am a total picture whore. Aside from the full memory sticks i take of him, I've had DS pictures professionally taken every month so far and plan to until the membership runs out or at least until his 1 year. Everyone says how much they change the first year so..... for the second year I'll probably just do 3,6,9 and 2 years.

TexasPaige

We were lucky that some friends are very talented amateur photographers, so one person took pics around two weeks and another around three months. After that, we didn't do anything professional until 16 months. I have a digital SLR, and while our pictures aren't pro quality, we do get some amazing ones now and then.

If I had to do it all over again and went with pro pics every time, I guess I wouldn't so much worry about age and would go with milestones...newborn, sitting up, crawling, walking, etc.

jen5-03

For E, 3, 6, 12mo, at a picture place (Sears at the beginning, then we switched to Portrait Innovations). She had a real photographer take pics at 16mo (grandma paid for those).

And then I planned to do them at 2yr, but we ran a little late so it was more like 2.5 and included some maternity pics for me too.

DS we took at 3mo and hopefully will do it for 6 and 12mo as well.

I've been pretty happy with Portrait Innovations. They're not as artistic as the real photographer pics we got, but they are pretty good with kids and we got some cute pics. Also, if you can limit yourself to just 6 poses, it's just over $100 and you get all of them on CD too, so we spend a LOT less than we did at Sears and you get the prints in under an hour (we go get lunch and then just pick them up afterwards).

anna_j

Ok I might qualify as picture crazy.  So far I've had G's pictures taken 1. newborn--a photographer came to our house 2. family pictures for church with Olan Mills 3. Pro pictures with bunnies at 2 1/2 months 4. 3 month pictures at JC Penney. 5. friend/amateur photographer took pictures of him at 4 months. 6. They took pictures of him at dc at around 3 1/2 months.  Plus I've set up my amateur studio with my own camera and taken some pictures of him.  I plan on getting pictures done at 6 months, 9 months and 12 months also.  I think it has to do with my sister not having any pro pictures of her until she was 2 and she's still bitter about it.

Katieraye09

I'm one of the crazies that took them every month.  I didn't originally plan on doing this but his newborn pictures were a disaster and I came out with 3 shots.  One of the shots was with DH's cowboy hat.  I took him to a different place for his 1 month shots for a "re-do" newborn shoot and took the hat with me that time as well.  One thing led to another and I decided to get his picture made with the cowboy hat every month for the first year.  i'm so glad I did because I have them all hanging in my entryway and think it looks super cute.  That being said...I put myself on a "strict" budget every month and would only order extra pictures on "big" months. (6 months, year, etc.)  I am happy I did it!  Also, if I were to hire a professional photographer (not that the ones at the studios aren't but you know) then I would not have taken them every month and probably just done newborn, 6 month, 12 month.  I'm already feeling bad for baby #2 (whenever that may be) because I may not be able to get my butt in gear and go every month!

somethingchangd

We had them done at 6 months (in part to use for Christmas cards) and have a session scheduled for 1 year.  My mom thinks I'm over the top with just that.  ::shrug::

chrisbride04

I wanted to start with 3 months, but we were late so we ended up doing 4 months/Christmas, 7 months/Easter, 12 months and 18months. After that we did a 2 year and will likely just do prof pics around his birthday every year.

kennifer7

We did newborn, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.  I am so glad i did, they really do change a lot the first year.  We just went to Portrait Innovations, and up until her 12month pictures I really liked going there however, I was not happy about how the 12month ones turned out and they way they kept trying to rush us.  I am thinking about actually calling and complaining about our service.  We will not be going back there.

CindyandScott

With Reagan I did 3, 6, 9, 12. For 3-9 I just went to Picture People/StudioOne etc. For 12 we used an actual photographer. We jsut so happened to capture her at 18 month at Picture people for Christmas cards and then we had pro pics at 2.

Abby's been a bit screwed. I hoped to get some pics of her at 3 months during Reagan's 2 year pics but she was cranky and slept most of the time. We did have 6 month pics which are my fav. I totally forgot about 9mos and then had pro pics at 12mos. 

Interestingly some of my fav pics of the girls were their 6mos and at different places.