Newborn Photography Mentoring Intensive
One Day. Real Sessions.
The Skills That Actually Keep Babies Safe.
This is not a workshop. It is not a webinar. It is not a course you watch on your laptop at midnight.
It is a full day inside a working newborn photography studio — my studio, in Saint Paul, Minnesota — learning how to photograph newborns the right way. Safely. Confidently. With the kind of hands-on foundation that no online course can give you.
Whether you are just starting out and want to build your practice on solid ground, or you have been shooting newborns and know there are gaps you haven’t filled yet — this day is designed for you.
What the Day Looks Like
You will spend the full day with me at my Saint Paul studio. We go through everything — not in theory, but in practice, with real equipment, real setups, and real conversation about what works, what doesn’t, and why.
Safe Handling and Posing
How to actually hold, move, and position a newborn. What the body is telling you and how to read it. Which poses require composite shots and why. How to transition between setups without disrupting a sleeping baby. What to do when a baby resists — and why forcing it is never the answer.
Studio Setup and Environment
Temperature, lighting, surface preparation, prop safety. How to set up a session space that keeps the baby comfortable from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave.
Session Flow and Workflow
How a professional newborn session actually runs from start to finish — from the inquiry through the final delivery. Timing, pacing, working with parents, managing the unexpected without losing your composure or your images.
Reading the Baby
This is the skill most photographers don’t talk about enough. A newborn communicates entirely through their body. Learning to read those signals — and respond to them before something goes wrong — is what separates a trained newborn photographer from someone who got lucky.
Safety Protocols
The non-negotiables. What every session requires regardless of experience level, including hygiene, emergency preparedness, and how to communicate your safety practices to clients in a way that builds trust rather than alarm.
Working with Parents
Newborn sessions are not just about the baby — they are about the whole family in the room. You will learn how to set expectations before clients arrive, how to guide parents through the session without making them feel sidelined, how to handle requests that aren’t safe, and how to create an experience so reassuring that referrals become automatic. The way you make parents feel is as much a part of your work as the images you make.
What You Take Home
Every mentoring intensive includes three professional reference documents you will use in your studio for years:
- The Newborn Session Safety Checklist — a pre-session, during-session, and post-session safety framework covering every critical checkpoint
- The Complete Newborn Session Workflow — an 11-step guide from first inquiry to ongoing client relationship
- The Newborn Posing Guide — safe poses, unsafe poses, composite shot guidance, and what to watch for with each setup
These are not generic downloads. They reflect the protocols I have developed and refined over 25 years of professional newborn photography.
Who This Is For?
This intensive is for photographers who are serious about doing this right.
If you are just starting out, this day gives you the foundation that prevents the mistakes that are hardest to come back from — both in your images and in your clients’ trust.
If you have been shooting newborns for a while, this day gives you the chance to identify what you learned by accident versus what you actually know, and to fill those gaps before they become problems.
What this is not for: photographers looking for a shortcut. There are no shortcuts in newborn photography. There is only preparation, practice, and the commitment to putting the baby’s safety above every other consideration — including the shot.
If that resonates with you, we are going to work well together.
This Is an Application Process
I accept a limited number of mentoring students each year. This is intentional — every photographer I work with gets my full attention, and I take that seriously.
When you submit an inquiry, I will review your responses and reach out within 48 hours. If the intensive feels like the right fit for where you are in your journey, we will move forward from there. If it isn’t the right fit right now, I will tell you that honestly and point you toward what might serve you better.
There is no pressure and no hard sell. Either this is the right next step for you or it isn’t — and the inquiry form helps both of us figure that out.
Investment
Newborn Photography Mentoring Intensive — $1,200
This includes your full day in the studio, all three resource documents, and post-intensive follow-up support.
Payment plans are available — just mention it in your inquiry and we will work something out.
I respond to all inquiries within 48 hours.
Giliane Mansfeldt is a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based newborn and family photographer with over 25 years of experience. She holds Top Pro status on Thumbtack for photography mentoring and is the author of The Newborn Photographer’s Handbook.