Newborn Hospital Photography?

JenniferLynn84 · Oct 7, 2006

Has anyone done this?

When I had my son in June, I was in the hospital for four days, which is longer than most people. No one ever came around to take his basinette photos! I worked in a retail store studio for two years, and it wasn't uncommon to have someone come from the hospital with their newborn because no one offered to take hospital pictures for them.

I am lucky enough to know what I'm doing in a basic way, enough that everyone loved the pictures I took of him. But I feel so bad for the people relying on, say, a disposable camera. I'd love to offer my services, but I don't think walking into a hospital ward and soliciting is really a proper thing to do.

My other concern is that someone has an exclusive contract with the hospital? I have no idea who to check with for that.

Any ideas, thoughts, concerns? I think I have a potentially lucrative idea, I'm just not quite sure how to get it off the ground. :blushing:

EBphotography · Oct 7, 2006

I think this has definite business potential, I would call the hospital you're interested in though. Not only for their policies but also to see if they could put a sign.

Alison · Oct 7, 2006

I would cal the hospital to see if they are interested. I would be prepared to offer them some details on what you would provide....prints, website with photos, etc and go from there. At our hospital the pictures were horrible, we opted not to have them done and just took our own. I think there is good potential there, and certainly a great client base to help with future portrait sessions

rp1600 · Oct 11, 2006

I was considering exploring this similiar market. In my immediate location we have two fairly large hospitals and both taken newborn pictures, albeit not great ones, a day or two after birth. These are posted on the hospitals web site free of charge, but the parents have to pay to buy the package. These are standard passport type photos and regardless of how the photo comes out, it's what the parents get.

Jennifer I know in just about every hospital there's a gift shop. I'm going to approach them and find out if i can place brochures / biz cards there.

ShutteredEye · Oct 11, 2006

Hmmm, I wonder what Heath Insurance Portability and Accountability Act would have to say about that....

rp1600 · Oct 11, 2006

Well because of HIPAA, the parents would have to contact the photographer first and not the other way around.

his4ever · Oct 11, 2006

I have been to two hospitals where they have a photo comapny that visits all the rooms asking to take the newborns pictures. Then they post it on the hospital website. I opted out cause my husband and I could not afford it. I think it is a great biz opprotunity.
I suggest calling Rockford Memorial Hospital. There is a lady who does the photography and she has this really cool photo booth thing she uses to take pictures of the newborns. I got to see it in action when I went to Rockford to see my friends new baby.

JenniferLynn84 · Oct 12, 2006

Thank you everyone! I'll take a look into it further, I especially like the idea of placing business cards in the gift shop - I never would have thought of it!

jemmy · Oct 12, 2006

I have thought about similar... 'spunking up' the 'first photo' into something more moving and moody... The only ones i have seen are 'stock standard' baby wrapped in blanky. We bought our sons but nobody came around for our daughter... probably because i went home the day after she was born x Rest assured though, we took plenty! x

Christie Photo · Oct 12, 2006

This is a BIG deal in my town. Another studio does it, and has a major lock on it. They have several photographers, and one of them is there for every birth at the one hospital. When my son and his wife had thier second one, they recieved a very large selection of proofs... baby, baby with mom, baby with dad... the whole deal. They could order what they wanted... or not. There was a DVD slide show, set to music.

rp1600 · Oct 12, 2006

you got the name of the other studio doing this? a website? i'd like to see if they hvae their prices posted for this service. Probably not.

JenniferLynn84 · Oct 12, 2006

Me too

I believe I've set my prices very reasonably, where I can still make a ton of profit. I'd like to see what others have done.

Christie Photo · Oct 13, 2006

rp1600 said:
you got the name of the other studio doing this? a website? i'd like to see if they hvae their prices posted for this service. Probably not.

This is what I could find.

http://www.provena.org/stmarys/body.cfm?id=213