Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Swaddles, Poses, and Patience: Inside a Newborn Photographer's Studio
Discover the artistry and significance behind newborn photography with Megan Grove, a specialist serving Northern Colorado from her purpose-built studio in Windsor. Having refined her craft since 2009, Megan reveals why she abandoned wedding and senior photography to focus exclusively on capturing those fleeting first weeks of a baby's life.
"These photos are not just pictures. They are heirlooms," Megan emphasizes, sharing her personal regret of not having professional photos of her firstborn during that brief, irreplaceable window. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of the lasting value these images hold for families - unlike material possessions that depreciate with time, these photographs become more precious as years pass.
Throughout our conversation, Megan dispels common misconceptions about newborn photography, particularly the notion that it's simple enough for anyone with a camera to master. She explains the years of experience needed to safely pose newborns, the specialized environment she creates with careful temperature control and white noise, and why the first three weeks of life represent the optimal time for these sessions. As she puts it, "You simply cannot go back" once this window closes.
Whether you're expecting a baby, know someone who is, or simply appreciate the art of preserving life's most precious moments, this episode offers valuable insights into a specialized craft dedicated to creating family treasures. Connect with Megan through her website at megangrove.com or on Facebook to see examples of her beautiful work capturing Northern Colorado's newest residents.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of newborn photography? Well, one specialist might be closer than you think. Today we have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Megan Grove, with Newborn Photography. Megan, how's it going?
Speaker 3:Oh, it's going really good. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Thanks for being here. Did I get your last name right, grove? Yep, okay, just making sure I should have checked that before the show started. We're excited to learn all about you and your business, your photography profession.
Speaker 3:Tell us about it and your business, your photography profession. Tell us about it. I am a newborn photographer serving Northern Colorado, so I see a lot of Loveland, fort Collins, windsor. Occasionally, people from Wyoming will come up to do newborn photos with me. I have a photo studio in Windsor, colorado, and it is specifically designed for newborn photography, because that is the only thing I do. So it has all the things that you would need for newborn photography all the wraps, all the props, just everything. So it's really great.
Speaker 2:How did you get into this niche in photography?
Speaker 3:I've been doing photography since 2009. I was originally hired on by some of the large corporations and I did that for several years. I even tried school photography and when I went out on my own, I tried all the different things weddings, school, the senior photos I tried all of it. But when it really came down to it, I liked photographing babies the best. And when I started doing just babies, I realized that I really only wanted to be doing newborn, because that's just truly where my heart is. It's just I love holding the babies. I feel like it's just really cool getting to be part of that very narrow window in these families lives. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Speaking of narrow I've you know it's such a unique niche that I was unfamiliar with it until we reached out to each other. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:There's a couple, I think one that I would say is that it's not super easy to pose the babies. I think a lot of people see the photos and sometimes think I could do that, but honestly, it's taken me years to learn what I'm doing. Learn the posing. Safety is huge. You don't want to just trust your baby with anybody, so a misconception is definitely that it that just anybody could do it, because, honestly, you want to make sure that you can trust the person that you are having your baby in their hands, so a big misconception is that just anybody could do it. I really recommend finding somebody that has a little bit of experience.
Speaker 2:Right. I mean, can you give us a, for instance, like a secret that maybe you use to make the baby do what you want? I know this sounds strange.
Speaker 3:Well, I've got tons of stuff like the white noise machine. My room is always fairly warm, um, but and there's like always like padding and stuff, like when you're trying to get the baby soothed again. I think all of those kind of things you kind of grow into. Whereas the first photo session I did with a newborn um is definitely not the kind of photo sessions I do now, it was was entirely different. So it's you just really grow into all those kinds of things. I don't know if there's necessarily a secret, more than just kind of practice makes perfect and I do them every week. My last photo session was a newborn. My next one will be a newborn, it's I don't know if there's a secret other than just keep on going and keep on just doing it over and over again until you finally get it.
Speaker 2:I see a title for the article for this podcast today being something having to do with the baby whisperer.
Speaker 3:I hear that sometimes. I hear that sometimes. I think a lot of photographers do, because if you're doing newborn post photography, you do need the baby asleep. So we do spend time getting the baby to sleep. It is, it is definitely part of it.
Speaker 2:We know that marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target customers outside of just everybody that's recently had a baby? Is there a geographic region that you're aiming for? Is there a specific family that's in a certain scenario of of of their lives, like the first one? That kind of thing? And how do you attract your customers now?
Speaker 3:Um I I sorry my screen closed for a second. I love anybody that has a new baby. Obviously I definitely love the new parents, like the brand new parents, because those are fun. But I definitely see a lot of not first time parents. They come as far as geographical location definitely northern Colorado. Some people will come from Denver. I've had people come from as far as like four or five hours away. I kind of almost recommend finding a newborn photographer a little bit closer than that, because it's hard to get your baby in the car for that long.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:But I will photograph anybody's baby. Really, my thing is that I really like to photograph them under six weeks and preferably under three weeks, because timing makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2:Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast, maybe featuring some of your clients and their photos?
Speaker 3:I had an idea for a podcast a couple years ago and I started out. It was actually just going to be like a fun photographer podcast where you're just telling funny stories. But when push came to shove it was a little bit harder than I thought. It was going to be trying to get people scheduled on interviews and I was not being able to focus on newborn photography. So I felt like I needed to choose, and I love newborns. I love little babies.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't give that up, yeah right, but as far as your personality goes, you're attracted to the idea of it. It's just the work.
Speaker 3:I was in debate when I was in college, so I do kind of like that kind of stuff, but at the same time it's not, I don't think it was quite for me. So I think I was okay with just cutting the strings, like within the first couple episodes, and being like well, I tried it, but I don't know that I need to keep doing it.
Speaker 2:Outside of work. What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:I have three boys so I usually do stuff with them. We like paddleboarding, floating the river. It's always a little bit of a bummer when the weather starts turning and we can't do some of our favorite stuff like that anymore. But just hanging out with them, doing stuff with them, is really what I do for fun, when it's not photo stuff.
Speaker 2:Megan, please tell our listeners one thing that they should absolutely remember about newborn photography. What's the big takeaway from this podcast today?
Speaker 3:That these photos are not just pictures. They are heirlooms. These are something that you get to keep forever, and that's super important because most things like if you buy a new car, it's going to depreciate, it's going to break down. Photos literally last forever and it's also such a short period of time. I know that I personally regret not getting photos done of my oldest when he was a newborn. I don't have anything nice to hang on the wall with my other two boys because I did get theirs done. So I do have regrets about that and I feel bad for anybody that ends up regretting that, because you just simply cannot go back. So make sure you get them done at that early stage, because they change so fast. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I agree. How can our listeners learn more about newborn photography and all of the ways that you guys exist online?
Speaker 3:I highly recommend going to my website. It's megangrovecom M-E-G-A-N-G-R-O-V-E, kind of like a group of trees. There's lots of photo examples on there. It talks a lot about what the process is, lots of information on there. But of course I also post to Facebook and that's facebookcom slash megangrovephotography. You should be able to find me on there and that has more of my most recent stuff. I'm always posting on there.
Speaker 2:Just make sure people know that I'm still here doing what I'm doing, doing what I love well, megan, I really appreciate you being on the show and we wish you and Megan Grove sorry, not Megan Grove Photography, you threw me off there Newborn Photography the very best moving forward thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate you having me on today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's gnpfortcollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.