Bella Baby Photography Employee Reviews

This is a sales job. Your job is to photograph as many babies in a day as you can and conform to the Bella baby style as much as possible. Commission is not that great for being the one who even took the photos. You cannot post your work or show it to anyone else.

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Sales oriented photography

Photographer/Sales Associate (Former Employee) - Chicago, IL - September 17, 2023

Photographers do it all, from knowing how to control their manual shooting camera on the fly, to greeting the families, setting up (cleaning) the room, wrapping the baby, dressing them and photographing them, to taking family photos, & siblings sometimes. You are the editor of your photos and presenter of your gallery of work along with being the sales person to sell products to the family you greeted that morning who want photos. If you don’t sell the same day or within the 2 week window, you make no money for the time spend with that family, which can be 1-2 hours depending on the situation. Some days you have a good sale and other days there are little or no sales. Commission only based work after you spent the time to complete each shoot for a presentation. Some parents don’t buy the same day and ask you to email them the photos, then you wait & they may never buy anything. You are then out the time spent and did not get a dime for any of it. On top of that, you enter in all the data for each client and do the admin work for free. The more you shoot, the more you can potentially sell is the company push. Your shoot rate and sales rate is constantly drilled into you. Meeting company sales goals can earn you a $1.00 or $2.50 per baby shot in a month, so over 3 months when they pay you, it can add up, but think about that, you made this little amount on a shoot minus taxes for each family that didn’t buy as well as did buy. You don’t always sell, then what?. You leave your galleries behind for the company to potentially sell later when you have left and you never -

Pros

Manage your own day, flexible schedule

Cons

Commission based only, sales job, managers quick to criticize, threaten to take employees off shifts, give a strike if employee doesn't comply with a deadline or follow protocol.

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Bella Baby Photography insights

Based on 109 survey responses

What people like

Feeling of personal appreciation
Inclusive work environment
Clear sense of purpose

Fun, flexible, great management

Photographer (Former Employee) - Shady Grove, MD - July 28, 2023

I had a great time working here. It was the perfect summer job, the management had a great system, explained everything clearly. It was a great and fun way to make money.

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Fine if you don't mind low paychecks

Lead Photographer (Current Employee) - Redlands, CA - July 27, 2023

Work is commission based, there are times you don't work a lot of hours so that's nice if you're selling good. It's overall a good first time job. If you're a professional then freelance is the way to go

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Management and leaddership is unprofessional they all care about is sales.

Photographer (Former Employee) - Honolulu, HI - June 19, 2023

No benefits, leadership are unprofessional. Pay is low. They promise high pay but dont believe them. You will get paid almost nothing. Work place culture sucks specially if you have an unprofessional manager. Expect your manager to throw you under the bus instead of mentoring you.

Pros

Nice babies

Cons

Manager sucks

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Not great for long term. Predatory with a bit of cuteness.

Photographer (Former Employee) - Illinois - May 20, 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?Introduction to a clinical environment.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Company Disorganization& pressure to sell to new parents while in their post delivery rooms (feels predatory).What is the work environment and culture like at the company?Disorganized, pressured. Babies are cute.What is a typical day like for you at the company?Creative, repetitive, with plenty of rule changes.

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Great way to learn — bad pay

Photographer (Former Employee) - St. Louis, MO - May 16, 2023

I feel like I grew tremendously as a photographer wile working here. However, pay is only commission and that is unreasonable for a company to offer their employees.

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fun job

Photographer (Former Employee) - Knoxville, TN - April 26, 2023

It's a fun and rewarding job. but it is also commission base only. you photograph all the babies spend a lot of time capturing images with a risk of them not purchasing and you wont be paid

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Fun

Photographer (Current Employee) - California - April 25, 2023

If you love working with babies :) Great community. Supportive staff.Good place for creativity and if you like self-sufficiency at work. Tips vary, as do families you encounter.

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Busy and Okay Pay

Photographer (Current Employee) - Summit, NJ - March 28, 2023

The pay here is just okay. There's potential for more money at high volume hospitals. The hourly rate your get when doing training is gone once training is over. Then it becomes a commission only based job. So pay can be very low some weeks. Great for practicing photography in a professional setting, but if you are a working freelance photographer in a big city with a decent client list you can make more money on your own.

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Jobs at Bella Baby Photography

Photographer of Newborns in Hospital

Photographer of Newborns in Hospital

Ridgewood, NJ

30+ days ago

Photographer of Newborns in Hospital

Edison, NJ

30+ days ago

The job itself is fun but the pay is pretty low

Photographer (Current Employee) - Ashland, KY - March 16, 2023

I love doing the job but pay is commission baised only meaning you can work a 12 hour shift and take absolutely nothing home for it. Having absolutely no base pay after the first months pretty much makes you a volunteer most days.

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4 stars

Newborn Photographer (Former Employee) - Columbus, OH - February 26, 2023

What is the best part of working at the company?The babies were amazing and most parents were too. What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Fussy babies, not knowing how long you'd be there at the start of the day, some parents were rude about pricing. What is the work environment and culture like at the company?The company was great and very encouraging. I enjoyed the other photographers and my boss was amazing!What is a typical day like for you at the company?Look at what babies were born the day the before and make a list of everyone you need to go talk to. Then move through the list to see if they were interested in photography or not.

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Productive workplace

Photographer (Former Employee) - Dallas, TX - February 13, 2023

It was exciting to work with new born babies. I worked with children as a nanny/ babysitter but this was my first time photographing new born babies. The managers were encouraging and provided guidance. Their online training provided all the resources that I would be able to use while I was working. Their in-house training was amazing. I was able to shadow a couple of people at the Richardson and Dallas location. I shadowed them, took notes, and applied what they taught me. They provided constructive critisim so that I would remain confident when I would start working solo. The bi-weekly/monthly portfolio reviews were insightful and beneficial to my overall performance as photographer. They also provided monthly sales workshops that always resulted in higher number of sales and better profits. The best part of the day was always realizing that the babies are truly a miracle. You are photographing the parents precious child on one of the best days of their lives. It is truly a gift working with new borns. Tips- 1. play white noise if the baby is crying 2. get the families to just take photos with you just In case they want the photos later, they really don't have to buy them so might as well!

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Best Job!

Photographer (Current Employee) - Des Moines, IA - January 27, 2023

Working for Bella Baby is a dream job! You have the opportunity to chat with new parents, snuggle adorable babies, and take gorgeous photos for families. It’s a great balance of working with people, working independently (editing), and creativity.

Pros

Amazing support and ongoing education

Cons

It can be difficult at first to find your workflow, but it greats easier after a few months.

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Don't work here

Photographer (Current Employee) - St. Louis, MO - January 18, 2023

Company will gaslight you, and plays favorites. If they like you, you can get away with coming in a few minutes late. If they don't like you they will find any excuse to make your life stressful and uncomfortable. Including getting you on the phone just to explain you can't work after 24 hours, even though management said you can work after 24 hours of being sick. Changes rules and mind about what you can do.

Pros

Working with the families of newborns. Free meal once a quarter.

Cons

Management, upper management, pay, work culture, flexibility in work schedules, benefits

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If you love cute babies, and being helpful to moms, this is the job for you. Only negative is that coworkers work ethics left alot to be desired

Newborn Photographer (Former Employee) - Macon, GA - January 10, 2023

If you love babies, then this is certainly the job for you! The only issue is that management is mainly located in Ohio, or other parts around the state. As such, there isn't a manager to keep up with how photographers work and it shows! Alot of girls would call out with very short or no notice and you could be called in at anytime though you're not scheduled to work. There is the plus side that you do get paid a bit more for working that day. Overall, the company isn't bad, it would just work better if there were managers closer by.

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3 stars

Hospital Photograher (Former Employee) - Redlands, CA - November 30, 2022

Poor Communication

Photographer (Former Employee) - Cincinnati, OH - November 18, 2022

Loved the job but very much lacked communication, training, and catty behavior. Two days of training and no real support. Red tape all over the place and not very diverse. Felt I did not fit in with the team. Nurses were not very communicative, received different answers with the maternity census. Not worth the pay.

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Underpaid and unhappy

Photographer (Former Employee) - Glenview, IL - November 14, 2022

I've only worked here a few months and I'm already leaving. I work completely alone, which I would normally say is fine, but this is isolating. I have not been properly trained. The actual babies and families are not the issue-- I stayed here this long BECAUSE I liked that so much. We are not paid hourly at all, but 100% commission based, so we have to sell packages (which are up to $650, which is a wild amount to ask many families). Photographers only get 35% of the packages that are purchased. The actual shoot is "covered by the hospital", so it seems that Bella Baby gets that money from that. THEN they get 65% of the packages. So what happens when there's no one that buys the photos because you're in an area that is notably not high in income? You go unpaid for your work. I have been told by clients, hey I love these but we just can't afford this.I provide my own equipment (or else I wouldn't have been eligible for the job). I am proud of my work and families normally really like the pictures and their experience with me. However, I will receive consistent feedback from my manager (who was the one that trained me), listing all the things I did wrong for the day. I can handle constructive criticism, but this is just soul crushing at this point. Underpaid, lonely, critiqued by someone that I never ever see, and I edit the photos on my own equipment in a supply closet, the only place they could shove me. This was a learning experience.

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Good part time job

Photographer (Former Employee) - Denver, CO - October 28, 2022

Good pay depends a lot on how many people choose to purchase the photos from their session. It was a good learning experience and a good part time job for me

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Photographing babies is the cutest and happiest job in the hospital.

Photographer (Current Employee) - Mineola, NY - October 17, 2022

The only bad part about this job is being rejected by families. A lot of people have shoots planned or aren’t interested or don’t feel prepared because they had no idea our residence in the hospital. The money isn’t guaranteed which is really hard some weeks since it’s commission and tips only and I am pretty good at my job. Some days just are rough . And no benefits has been kind of awful too. But the parents cry because they love their photos of their new child and it’s really heartwarming and beautiful to experience that.

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