Find the Best Photographers in Kansas

Morgan Barrett Creative, LLC brings a documentary, in-home approach to newborn photography for families around Lawrence, Kansas. Rather than a posed studio session, Morgan describes herself as “a fly on the wall,” turning on music and letting a family go about a normal day while she works quietly in the background — an approach aimed at parents who want their newborn’s earliest days remembered as they actually looked rather than staged. She’s been a family photographer since 2016, when her grandmother noticed her eye for photography and bought her a first DSLR camera, and now lists Lawrence alongside Kansas City and Topeka as the areas she regularly serves. Beyond newborn sessions, Morgan runs seasonal “Portraits on the Prairie” mini sessions starting at $210 and offers a sliding-scale payment plan — clients can book at 60%, 75%, or 100% of the full session cost — a detail aimed at making sessions more accessible for families on tighter budgets. Morgan is also open about living with cystic fibrosis and writes for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s community blog alongside her photography work. Her Instagram following is modest at under 300 followers, but her posts are frequent and current, with new work posted as recently as this month, and client testimonials on her site describe her as easy to work with even amid the chaos of young kids. 

Lisa Stout Photography grew out of a personal project rather than a business plan. After welcoming her first son, Remington, in 2009, Lisa started a 365-day photo project she shared with friends on Facebook; a former high school classmate spotted the photos and asked for a family session, and word of mouth took over from there. She’s based in McPherson, Kansas, but her site explicitly lists Salina as one of the central Kansas communities she regularly serves, alongside Sterling, Lyons, Wichita, and Hutchinson. Lisa still works full time as a speech-language pathologist — she holds a master’s degree in communication disorders from Fort Hays State University — and photographs sessions on weekends, so her calendar tends to be limited compared to a full-time studio. Her published pricing includes a $500 newborn session with a 30-image minimum, and an $800 “Baby Plan” that bundles a newborn session with six-month and one-year cake-smash sessions into one package. Reviewers on her Facebook page, which has grown to over 1,600 followers, give her a perfect 5-star rating across 30 reviews. For Salina families who don’t mind a short drive to McPherson or a photographer who’ll travel to them, Lisa’s combination of long-running local reputation and clearly posted pricing sets her apart from photographers who require a quote request just to see a price. 

Jill Swenson Photography has quietly built a loyal following in the Salina, Kansas area without ever needing a traditional website. Working under the banner “Central Kansas Photographer,” Jill focuses on newborn, children, senior, and family sessions, relying on Facebook and Instagram rather than a standalone site to share her portfolio and take bookings. Her Facebook page carries a 100% recommend rating from reviewers and has grown to nearly 500 followers, with fresh posts appearing as recently as this past summer — a sign the business is still active and taking new clients rather than a stale online listing left behind. On Instagram, where she goes by Jill Roberts Swenson, she has built a smaller but engaged audience of over 200 followers. For families in Salina looking for someone who documents newborns alongside the rest of a family’s milestones, Jill offers a straightforward, low-overhead alternative to bigger studio operations: message her directly, see her latest work in her feed, and schedule from there. It’s an approach that trades a polished website for a personal, direct line to the photographer herself, which some Salina parents may prefer when arranging a newborn session on short notice. 

Memory Makers Photography has been photographing Topeka families out of its studio for years, run by photographer Carol, whose portfolio spans everything from senior portraits and headshots to a dedicated maternity, baby, and newborn line. Rather than treating baby photography as a side offering, the studio keeps a standing “Maternity & Baby” gallery separate from its family and senior work, with newborn sessions booked as their own category. Parents scheduling a session can expect the same studio setup used across her portrait work — controlled lighting, a range of props and wraps, and an editing style geared toward soft, timeless portraits rather than trend-driven poses. Because the studio also handles everyday family and individual portraits, many Topeka clients return to book newborn sessions after already working with Carol for engagement or family photos, giving her a head start on knowing how a family likes to be posed. The range of services on offer — from pet portraits to headshots — reflects a studio built to be a one-stop option for a Topeka family’s photography needs over the years, not just a single-occasion vendor. 

Fresh Feature Photo & Film is a Lawrence-based studio built around photographer Eleshea, who traded a career in social work for a lens years ago and has spent more than a decade building relationships with families across Lawrence, Topeka, and the greater Kansas City area. That social work background still shows up in how she works with new parents — she leans into listening before she ever raises her camera, which matters most in the fragile, unpredictable hours of a newborn session. Under what she calls her “Everything Baby” collection, Fresh Feature covers both the anticipation of pregnancy and the whirlwind first weeks after a baby arrives, folding maternity and newborn work into one continuous story rather than two separate bookings. Alongside her baby and family sessions, she also handles weddings, branding work for local businesses, and senior portraits, and her client list stretches from everyday Lawrence families to organizations like KU Medical. She’s also a homeschooling mom herself, which gives her a practical, unhurried patience around fussy babies and squirmy toddlers that’s hard to fake. Families looking for a newborn photographer who won’t rush the session, and who treats the whole first-year arc — bump to bassinet — as one relationship, tend to end up on her calendar. 

As a military spouse herself, Ashley Watkins built her photography business around the reality of PCS orders and deployment schedules — families in the Fort Riley and Junction City area move in and out of Manhattan on the Army’s timeline, not a photographer’s, and her studio markets itself directly to that community alongside her work with local Manhattan families. She’s logged over five years photographing newborns, maternity, and growing families, and her process is spelled out in more detail than most: an initial consultation, a planning questionnaire, then the session itself in studio, outdoors, or at a client’s home, with edited images delivered within two weeks. That kind of structure tends to matter more to newborn parents than most other subjects, since sessions often get scheduled around unpredictable feeding and sleep windows and families want to know what to expect going in. Her dedicated newborn and baby portfolio page shows soft, natural-light images from real Manhattan-area sessions rather than stock photography, a small detail that separates an established local studio from a template site that never got filled in. For military and civilian families alike in the Manhattan, Fort Riley, and Junction City area, Ashley Watkins Photography is reachable by email to check current newborn session dates. 

Sweet Pickle Pictures keeps things simple on its Manhattan, Kansas website: family, child, newborn, maternity, and studio photography, laid out without a lot of extra branding noise. The studio’s dedicated newborn gallery shows the kind of straightforward, well-lit studio portraits that have stayed popular with Kansas families for years — swaddled poses, close-up detail shots of tiny hands and feet, the classics that don’t go out of style. It’s a smaller, more understated operation than some of the flashier photography studios that have popped up around the area, but the site has stayed live and current for well over a decade, which says something about a steady base of repeat and referral clients in a college town where word of mouth still counts for a lot. There’s no dedicated newborn service page with pricing or a booking calendar — everything runs through a straightforward contact form — so it’s a good fit for parents who’d rather have a conversation about their session than click through a menu of packages. For anyone in Manhattan looking for a no-frills, classic studio approach to newborn portraits, Sweet Pickle Pictures is worth reaching out to directly through the site’s contact page. 

Emma Tuttle’s credentials read a little differently than most newborn photographers’ — alongside her portrait work she’s a member of the Kansas Professional Photographers Association and holds an FAA Part 107 drone certification, the kind of detail that shows up more on a wedding or real estate photographer’s site than a baby photographer’s. That dual skill set doesn’t change what happens in a newborn session, though: her Manhattan, Kansas studio focuses on newborn and maternity portraits with the kind of soft, editorial framing that comes from someone who takes the technical side of the craft seriously. Clients can reach the studio directly by phone, a detail that’s increasingly rare among younger photography businesses that push everyone toward online contact forms. Her portfolio work includes newborn sessions built around simple, uncluttered setups that let a baby’s features do the work rather than props or elaborate backdrops. The KPPA membership in particular suggests an ongoing investment in craft — those organizations typically require continuing education and juried print competitions to maintain standing, not just a paid membership fee. For Manhattan-area parents who want a newborn photographer with formal professional credentials behind the pretty pictures, Emma Tuttle Photography is worth a call at (785) 370-3520. 

Jen Bailey has been photographing families around Wamego and Manhattan since 2011, long enough to have photographed toddlers who are now old enough to bring their own kids in for newborn sessions. Her studio, Memories by Jen Bailey, treats the newborn period as the start of an ongoing relationship rather than a single appointment — the site’s ‘grow with me’ plan is built specifically around documenting a baby through sitting, crawling, and walking milestones rather than stopping after the initial newborn shoot. She recommends booking within the first two weeks after birth, when infants are still curled and sleepy enough for the soft, classic newborn poses parents tend to want framed. Beyond newborns, the studio handles maternity, family, senior, and wedding photography, plus a seasonal Santa session that’s become a local tradition for many repeat clients. The range suggests a business built on referrals and long relationships rather than one-off bookings, which tracks with over a decade in the same small-town market. For parents in the Manhattan area who like the idea of a photographer who’ll still be around for the first-birthday cake smash and beyond, Jen’s newborn-through-milestone packages are worth a look. 

Word of mouth has done a lot of the marketing for Demi Adena Photography, and the numbers back it up — this Manhattan-based studio has racked up more than 230 five-star reviews on Google, a track record that’s hard to fake in a college town where everyone talks to everyone. Demi’s lifestyle newborn sessions lean unposed and relaxed, working with a baby’s natural sleepy stretches and yawns rather than fighting them into elaborate props or poses. The approach carries through her maternity and graduation work too, all built around a similar idea: photography that feels like a natural extension of a family’s own home rather than a staged event. Her portfolio has picked up a handful of magazine features along the way, a nod to an eye for composition that goes beyond standard portrait work. For new parents in Manhattan weighing their newborn photography options, the review count alone tells you families keep coming back and sending friends. Sessions are typically scheduled within the first couple of weeks after birth, when babies are at their sleepiest and most cooperative for the soft, curled poses lifestyle newborn photography is known for. Reach her directly at (785) 317-0548 to check availability. 

Mackenzie Husman started her photography business in 2018, the same year she got married, and has been shooting in the Topeka area for most of the years since, aside from a stretch spent living near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina while her husband was stationed there. The family returned to Topeka in 2021, and her about page describes the city as home ever since. Her newborn page recently added studio sessions alongside her existing in-home lifestyle newborn work, so families now get both options rather than one fixed format. The newborn gallery shows babies sleeping in a small wooden bed prop wrapped in cream and neutral knits, as well as a smiling, wide-awake baby holding a crocheted teddy bear, a mix that suggests she isn’t limited to the sleepy, curled-up newborn shot most studios rely on. Outside of newborn sessions, she also photographs weddings, seniors, couples, maternity, milestones, and events, and her about page mentions having documented military homecomings and promotion ceremonies as well. She currently works full time as a long-term care nurse alongside running the photography business, scheduling sessions around that other career. Clients reach her through a contact form on her site rather than a phone line. 

Kayla Kohn is a Lawrence-based newborn and family photographer who also travels into Topeka for hospital newborn sessions, including a documented Fresh 48 session at the University of Kansas Health System’s St. Francis campus. Her path into the field is a little unusual: before picking up a camera professionally, she served nine years in the Air Force, and her about page describes photography as a calling that found her rather than a lifelong plan. Her newborn work leans toward black-and-white, documentary-style images taken in the hospital room itself, working with the low natural light on hand rather than posed studio setups with props, and focusing on quiet family moments such as a father meeting his daughter or an older sibling being introduced to the new baby. Alongside newborns, she photographs families and expecting mothers throughout Lawrence and the surrounding northeast Kansas region. Her blog has published new sessions as recently as this year, which points to an active, currently booking business rather than a dormant portfolio site. For Topeka families who deliver at St. Francis and want Fresh 48 photos taken in the hospital room before heading home, Kohn’s willingness to travel for hospital sessions and her documentary eye make her worth a look even though her studio is based in nearby Lawrence. 

2become1studio operates out of a home-based studio at 3416 NW Topeka Blvd, run by photographer Dawid Strydom. Rather than a single specialty, the business covers a wide range of family milestones, weddings, engagements, seniors, maternity, and babies, with the newborn work organized into its own dedicated gallery of more than twenty portraits. That gallery includes classic posed newborn setups: babies wrapped and sleeping on soft blankets, wearing hand-knit hats and simple props, photographed against neutral, warm-toned backdrops that keep the focus on the baby rather than an elaborate set. The maternity and baby categories sit side by side in the portfolio, suggesting many clients book Strydom for both the pregnancy and the newborn stage of the same pregnancy. Working independently out of a Topeka home studio, rather than a large commercial storefront, keeps sessions personal and gives families direct access to the same photographer from booking through delivery of the final images. For parents in Topeka looking for a local, all-in-one photographer who can handle maternity portraits now and newborn portraits a few months later without switching studios, 2become1studio’s combined maternity-and-baby portfolio makes that continuity straightforward. Prospective clients can reach the studio directly by phone or email to ask about scheduling a newborn session. 

Ashley Rachelle doesn’t pitch herself as a traditional portrait photographer, and her site says as much: she calls herself ‘the ultimate hype girl’ for the families and expecting mothers she works with in and around Salina. Her maternity and newborn work lives under a portfolio section she’s named ‘Bumps & Babies,’ a lineup that runs from pregnancy through a baby’s first weeks and reflects a photographer who leans into an easygoing, high-energy session rather than a stiff, posed one. A single mom to two teenagers herself, Ashley brings a personal understanding of family chaos to her sessions, something that tends to put nervous new parents at ease faster than a purely technical photographer might. Her work has been featured in Storyteller Magazine and Shutter Up Magazine, an indicator that her style has drawn attention beyond just local word of mouth. She can be reached directly by phone or email, and her Facebook page shows a 100 percent recommendation rate from local clients. Where some newborn photographers favor an all-white, minimalist studio look, Ashley’s portfolio leans toward warmer, more candid moments, the kind of images that read like a genuine morning with a new baby rather than a staged set piece. For Salina parents who want a newborn session that feels more like hanging out with a friend who happens to have a great camera than a formal sitting, Ashley Rachelle Photography is built around exactly that energy. 

Just up the block from Santa Fe Avenue’s cluster of Salina photography studios, Shelley has been building Lasting Memories by SG into one of the city’s more versatile portrait businesses, with newborn and baby packages sitting alongside seniors, maternity, cake smash, weddings, and commercial headshots. Client reviews on Alignable and WhoDoYou date back to at least 2014, and thirteen local business owners currently recommend the studio there, a sign that Shelley’s client base extends well beyond one-time bookings into repeat referrals across the Salina business community. The studio’s newborn galleries sit right in the portfolio next to its wedding and senior work, which says something about how Shelley approaches the craft: rather than specializing narrowly, she treats a newborn session with the same portrait eye she brings to a bride or a graduating senior. For parents, that breadth can be reassuring, since the person photographing a baby’s first days is the same photographer trusted with some of the biggest milestones in a Salina family’s life. The studio sits at 806 N. Santa Fe, an easy stop for families already familiar with the downtown Salina photography scene, and cake smash and seasonal mini sessions round out a lineup built to follow a child well past their newborn days. For families who want one photographer who can grow with them from the nursery through senior pictures, Lasting Memories by SG offers that continuity in a single studio. 

Jane Serene has run Forever Memories Photography from its studio at 737 N. Santa Fe Avenue in downtown Salina for more than twenty years, and newborn sessions are one of the studio’s steadiest offerings alongside seniors, families, and commercial work. That longevity was recognized in 2024, when Quality Business Awards USA named Forever Memories the top newborn photographer in Salina, citing a quality score in the top one percent of businesses reviewed nationwide. Jane serves as both photographer and editing manager, a dual role that lets her carry a baby’s session from the first pose through the final retouch without handing files off to someone else partway through. The studio’s baby gallery spans nearly a decade of sessions, evidence of a business that has quietly built a reputation one family at a time rather than through heavy marketing. Parents booking a newborn session can expect the same studio that already handles their senior portraits, family photos, or even their business headshots, which makes Forever Memories a practical choice for Salina families who would rather return to one trusted photographer for every milestone than start over with someone new each time. The tagline on the studio’s site, ‘Creating Forever Memories, one photograph at a time,’ reflects a business built for the long haul rather than a quick session mill, and with two decades behind her, Jane brings a steadiness to newborn work that’s hard to fake. 

Lawrence families looking for newborn portraits close to home often land on Luxe Modern Milestones, the studio Sarah Beth Houser runs out of her hometown. Houser, a mother of five boys herself, has built a name for clean, modern newborn sessions that lean on soft neutral tones rather than heavy prop work, and she holds Newborn Safety Certification, a credential that matters when you’re asking a days-old baby to settle into a curled pose. Her portfolio has been picked up by an unusually long list of photography publications, including KCFW, Malvie, Dreamlette, and Beneath Your Beautiful, and her images have circulated internationally rather than staying confined to the Midwest. Alongside newborn work, the studio covers maternity, baby, child, and senior sessions, and clients can request a digital guide magazine for each category before booking so they know roughly what to expect from wardrobe to timing. Houser also keeps an active blog walking parents through practical newborn topics, from how to pick a safe newborn photographer to what a modernist newborn shoot actually looks like, with behind-the-scenes breakdowns of specific sessions like a deep green baby boy shoot or a pretty-in-pink baby girl session. For Lawrence parents, that combination of a Newborn Safety Certified photographer, a genuinely local studio, and a body of published work stretching well beyond Kansas makes Luxe Modern Milestones worth a look before the baby arrives, since newborn sessions are best booked prior to birth. 

Sweet Me Photography operates as a national in-home newborn photography company, and its Kansas City-area team lists Lenexa among the dozens of cities its safety-certified photographers travel to for sessions. Rather than working from a single studio location, the company brings a full setup to each family’s home, including custom props, backdrops, and lighting equipment, along with a stylist to guide wardrobe and posing choices during the appointment. Every photographer working under the Sweet Me name goes through a standardized safety certification process for handling and posing newborns, which the company markets as a point of consistency across its many locations. Sessions are built to include the whole family, not just the baby, on the idea that a newborn’s first photos should show the people welcoming that baby home as well. Because the company operates at a larger scale than an independent local studio, appointment availability in the Lenexa area can vary week to week depending on which certified photographer is covering that territory. Parents who value a structured, corporate-backed process, with consistent equipment and training across every session regardless of which photographer shows up, may prefer this model over booking with a smaller independent studio. Booking generally happens through the company’s central website rather than a direct relationship with a single local photographer. 

Tarah of Wildwood Photography operates directly out of Lenexa, and her site’s dedicated Lenexa landing page describes a documentary approach built around ‘the real stuff you want to remember’ rather than stiff, posed portraits. Newborn and milestone sessions sit alongside a broader family and motherhood photography practice, and her style leans toward candid, in-the-moment images: a sleeping baby’s tiny features, a toddler’s genuine laugh, the small chaos of a house with a new baby in it. A side project under the name Wildwood Fine Art shows she also works in more artistic, gallery-style photography, which occasionally shows up in the lighting and composition choices in her newborn portfolio. Sessions are described as relaxed rather than tightly scripted, and clients mention pre- and post-session video calls where Tarah gets to know the family before the shoot, a step aimed at making the actual session feel more natural once the camera comes out. Her service area covers Lenexa along with Olathe, Lawrence, Overland Park, and Spring Hill, giving her a wide reach across the western side of the Kansas City metro. Families interested in a more documentary, less traditionally posed newborn session may find her approach a departure from studio-style newborn photography, since the goal is closer to visual storytelling than a set of formal portraits. 

Renee runs Lambs and Lullabies Photography as an in-home newborn and family service, and her site names Lenexa specifically among more than a dozen cities she regularly travels to across the Kansas City metro, from Fort Leavenworth down through Lee’s Summit. Working exclusively in clients’ homes rather than a studio means babies stay in a familiar environment throughout the session, which can mean less disruption to feeding and nap schedules on an already unpredictable day. Her portfolio favors warm, lifestyle-style newborn images: parents holding their baby on their own bed, natural window light, and minimal props beyond a few simple wraps and blankets. The business’s description emphasizes long-term value, framing the photos less as a one-time deliverable and more as keepsakes meant to matter to the family for decades. Renee has also been known to travel outside her core service area, including as far as Topeka, when a family’s timing and location call for it. Because sessions happen in the home, scheduling tends to be more flexible around a family’s actual daily rhythm than a fixed studio appointment slot would allow. Lenexa families interested in a lower-key, at-home alternative to a traditional studio newborn session may find her approach a good fit, particularly if they’d rather not travel anywhere with a days-old baby.