Newborn baby photography | Milwaukee baby Photographer | Infant Photography | Modern Newborn Portraiture » Milwaukee Wisconsin maternity, newborn, baby, child, family photographer

Newborn baby photography | Milwaukee baby Photographer | Infant Photography | Modern Newborn Portraiture bio picture
  • Thank you so much for visiting! I am a professional natural-light photographer specializing in pregnancy, infant / newborn, baby, child and family photography serving the greater Milwaukee Wisconsin areas.

    "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" Psalm 139:13

    Being a parent is an amazing blessing. My desire is to capture the anticipation of your new baby, the beauty of your newborn, the joy of your baby, and the love between families.

    Thank you for visiting!

    โ™ฅ Jill

    106,105,108,108,64,106,105,108,108,118,101,108,105,99,101,114,46,99,111,109moc.recilevllij@llij
    262.689.4593

  • Hello!

Why does professional photography cost more? ~ Milwaukee Children’s photographer

Why does quality portraiture cost more than a chain photography store?

First of all, most professional photographers are the owners and single employee of their small business. Yup, we’re a small business. We have fees like any other business does:

insurance
business taxes (which can be up to 40% for a small business owner)
membership fees to groups such as the PPA (professional photographers of America)
website costs
blog costs
merchant/banking fees
marketing
designer for logo
accountant or accounting software

Now most photographers also like to keep current with their work and attend workshops, seminars, etc so that we can grow and continue to serve the families with high quality portraits.

Its not uncommon for a workshop to be at least $1000+. Then we’ll add in travel, lodging, etc. Many photographers try to go to a workshop once a year to keep learning and growing. This last spring I went to an Audrey Woulard conference in Chicago. A great trip – expensive trip – but one that helped my skills grow.

So we’ll add

workshops/seminars
books
online professional photography forums

The photographer’s equipment is also critical to his/her work as well. The type of lenses, the focal lengths, the camera body, … its all necessary. For anyone who has dabbled in photography as a hobby or has a business, you know its not inexpensive. A camera body is an easy $2,500+. High quality portrait lenses can easily run $1000 – $2000 each. The additional equipment doesn’t end there though. The computer and the editing programs also run very expensive as well.

Camera
Lenses
reflectors
other equipment
props (hats, blankets, baskets, etc).
computer
editing programs

So now your photographer has the necessary small business items, their continuing education, their equipment and NOW they need to figure out how to make any income aside from minimum wage in order to run their business.
On average, I’d say I spend about 10 hours on each client. Consultation time, traveling to sessions, shooting the session, editing the session, answering phone calls/emails, ordering the session (each image is also individually prepared for print), packaging the prints, delivery and follow-up.

Add in:

My cost for products from professional lab
packaging items
shipping/delivery

When I consider in all my expenses, this is how I decide on my session fee and product costs. This type of business is not a money-making business.
Sure, its cheaper to go to a mall, chain photography studio or a less experienced photographer. You get what you pay for as with anything else you’d purchase.
Its not realistic for a family to always choose professional portraiture. Times are tough for a lot of people – for everyone in some way or another. But when you’re researching a professional, please understand why their prices are what they are. They’re there so that I can be a photographer in the future as well. So, I’m not burned out and making minimum wage for something I put my heart and soul into.
Its not unusual for me to be awake at night thinking of new locations, images and styles. I prepare for sessions. I care about doing my best and offering the best. I pay attention to detail and I truly want to leave my clients very pleased with their works of art.

And its not a photography blog without a photograph of this adorable ‘almost’ 3 month old… ๐Ÿ™‚

 

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jennifer - aw, thank you for the sweet picture jill!!! ๐Ÿ™‚

chad - amen sister…

Joanna - awww, love the picture of little A! So sweet! And can I get an amen on this post ;). You sum it up perfectly.

Grateful ~ Milwaukee Newborn Photographer

First of all, thank you everyone for supporting me! This is near and dear to my heart and I enjoy it so much. ๐Ÿ™‚ This is not ‘a job’ to me. Thank you to everyone who passes my name on to others because you encourage me so much when you do that. I’m so grateful to God for being able to be creative in this manner and I’m grateful to family and friends for listening to me talk incessantly about photography.

Last week I was finalizing a client’s session and I had a few new images I had to share.

When I edit a session I am very specific about my own requirements for creating a client proof. This is why I tell the client they will have approximately 25 images to choose from. But, those 25+ images are the ones from their session which are the absolute best. I take a lot of pictures during a session, but when I edit them I only choose the best ones because I only will sell the best ones.
This is different from a mall or chain studio. In those instances your images are usually quickly loaded into their computer or saved on a disk with little or oftentimes no individual editing. My goal is to honestly provide a client with artful memories of their newborn, baby, child or family. I put my heart into what I do and I hope that is reflected in the final product.

I also have had my main website ‘live’ for a couple weeks. You can access either the blog or main website by visiting www.jillvelicer.com.
Sometimes there is some confusion about the need for a blog and a website. Here are the differences:

Blog – displays current work, news, some personal stories/images and some information

Main Website – a collection of images in my portfolio, rates and information about sessions, and the location for clients to view their proofs

Both are important and allow me to communicate in different ways with fans (I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant – its just the word from Facebook) and clients.

I’m also happy to announce that I am listed in the PPA! The PPA stands for ‘Professional Photographers of America’.

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jennifer - beautiful work Jill!! Can’t wait to see ours! and congrats on the PPA and your new blog and website look great!!!!

Sudsy ~ Milwaukee Children’s Photographer

We’ve been back from Kentucky for the last few days and I’m slowly making my way through a teeny bit of the 500+ pictures I took on vacation. Yes, at least 500. lol
One of the evenings Great-Grandma let the kids take a bubble bath in her jacuzzi tub. We have a teeny regular ol bathtub at our house, so this was a blast for them. So, yes, in these pictures they look like they’re having a great time, but let me tell you… Nicholas and Celia were beastly that night. Two weeks of vacation (camping and then trip to Kentucky) had caught up with them. Zero naps and late bedtimes made for some cranky 3 year olds. Thank goodness my Grandma was there for emotional support. I love my children to the moon and back, but sometimes they can make you feel like you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing being a parent.
And… here is another ‘face’ by Celia. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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Joanna - Love it! Especially the one of Aaron – check out those catchlights!

jennifer - Those are so fun Jill!!! Love them!!

F A C E B O O K
I N F O R M A T I O N
  • Please keep in mind that the ideal newborn session is held 5-10 days after birth. Please feel free to contact me for session availability as I will make every effort to serve you. Thank you!

    I look forward to hearing from you!

    Warmly, Jill

P O R T F O L I O
  • Jill Velicer Photography

  • Click image for link to portfolio and session info