Melanie's photos have become some of my most precious belongings. She has artfully captured some of the most important moments and times in my life, including my pregnancy, my daughter's first day of life (and many baby- and child-related moments since), and special occasions like my baby shower and birthday parties. These photos continue to bring me so much joy. Melanie's real talent is making photos that feel alive, that capture personality and tell stories. I've also turned to Melanie for professional head shots multiple times during my career as an actress in NYC and LA. I knew she'd deliver shots that reflect my personality and show off my best features. She also makes me feel totally comfortable in front of the lens, where it's my natural inclination to become sort of awkward. And my head shots have never looked typical, or cliche.... they always stand out, in the best way. When I needed a lifestyle shoot for photos to accompany a blog post I wrote, I flew Melanie from out of state to take the photos, since I trust her above anyone to get the best shots, and know that they'll be delivered with Melanie's expert edits (always perfect). I recommend Melanie's photography to anyone who desires high quality, stunning work that stands out, impresses others, and brings pure joy at the sight of it. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. read more

Melanie Rose is an amazing talent. I hired her for my son's christening and first birthday party and I was thrilled with the photographs. Any new mother knows that it was an anxiety-filled day of mini-disasters, mad dashes across town in taxi cabs, and desperate attempts to keep baby clean, happy and dry in their party outfits. Melanie handled all of this chaos with professional sang-froid and captured touching, beautiful, emotional moments of the day that my family and I will treasure forever. I highly recommend Melanie Rose to you, you will not be disappointed. PS - When my high-resolution disk of images was lost in the mail, she even drove to my parents' house in Queens to hand deliver it to me. What impeccable service! read more

Melanie is professional, creative and inspiring. I have worked with Melanie on several projects both personally and professionally and she never lets me down! She has a great selection of equipment and a great eye! I would consider her "full service". I did a photo shoot with her where she applied my makeup and helped with the styling of my hair (it's too wild for just one person to tame!), from there she shot my photos, retouched them if needed AND provided me with prints. Amazing. read more

Melanie shot my Trash The Dress Shoot shortly after my wedding. I secured an unique location and described to her the idea I had in mind. She totally took off with it and delivered some of the best pictures I ever was in! I would book Melanie again for myself or to do portraits of my step kiddies. Melanie shoots young and old with the same creativity, professionalism, and enthusiasm. Hire her! read more

I originally found Melanie Rose Photography on Yelp when looking to schedule newborn photos for my unborn daughter. I had no intentions of doing maternity photos, but I liked what I saw on her website, and I found her pricing very reasonable, so I went for it. I'm so glad that I did! I think some maternity photos can be so cheesy and even creepy, and I was very nervous about how they'd turn out, but Melanie knew exactly what I meant when I expressed my concerns, and I couldn't be happier with the final product. She did my makeup, and helped me pick clothing that would look best on my 8-mo prego body. I felt comfortable the whole time, and the photos turned out great! When my daughter was born, Melanie came to our house to shoot the newborn photos within the first week, and I was completely happy with the way the session was handled. Melanie was warm, friendly, and patient, and very flexible around feedings and diaper changes. She helped us to pick out outfits and locations around the apartment to get the best results. I think she really captured our daughter's "spirit" in the photos, which is funny since I don't think we even knew what that was yet, but it's true. We get so many compliments on her newborn photos and birth announcement, still. I wish I could accurately describe the quality of Melanie's work, which is ultimately why I chose her originally, and definitely why I've given her repeat business. I find her style to be extremely fresh without being pretentious, and she has a talent of capturing the most "real" moments and making them look like something you'd see in a magazine. Her work has a very rich professional look to it. One of my biggest fears was having photographs that looked amateurish or like some that I've seen that are done for free at hospitals. While fine for some, it wasn't how I wanted to do it. You only have one shot to document your child's first days, and I wanted to make sure I chose the best possible (within reason, financially) photographer to take on this task for our family. Since then we've engaged Melanie Rose Photography for the "first year package" which means we have the pleasure of working with her every 3 months, and as we round the corner towards my daughter's 9 month birthday I'm starting to get a little sad that we won't be able to professionally document her growth with Melanie every 3 months for the rest of her life... or maybe we will . I'm going to check with Melanie to see if she does a "first 18 years package". read more

Melanie is absolutely the best of the best! I found Melanie through a friend after I saw her incredible work. We were fortunate to be able to hire Melanie for the first-year package for our newborn son. This has been one of the best investments we have made - the moments captured by Melanie are second to none. I could not be more thrilled with Melanie's work. She is absolutely amazing at what she does. During our first session, Melanie stayed for three hours shooting away as part of the newborn session. She was patient, caring, warm and friendly. Our son immediately loved her and still responds so well to Melanie. She can get him to smile even at his crankiest moments. We call her the baby whisperer! And Melanie comes to you, where baby is most comfy. Whenever Melanie posts our proofs to the convenient online gallery, I always cry. She is able to capture the innocent beauty of our little boy in such a way that makes your heart melt. It is truly indescribable. I am going to miss Melanie when our year is up. I want to have more kids just so Melanie can photograph them! Bottom line - if you are looking for a truly amazing photographer to capture your most important moments, look no further than Melanie Rose Photography. She is a true artist and master at her work! read more

Melanie Rose shot our maternity and newborn photos. The results were outstanding. She is an amazingly talented photographer and I'm so grateful we went with her! First we had to find her. When I was expecting, I knew I wanted maternity and newborn pics but finding someone who had the style I wanted proved to be difficult. There are some big name maternity photographers out there who do incredible work (and charge for it too). But while I found their work lovely, I don't know... some maternity photos I saw out there were so dramatic and SERIOUS, almost solemn. Now I know pregnancy IS serious but there is also a warmer, breezier, less-dramatic/more-real side to it too! I almost went with a commercial photographer friend-of-a-friend who has a snazzy whimsical style but I wanted more focus on portraiture. After a lot of online searches, I found Melanie and was immediately struck by her work. As you'll see from the photos on her site, she captures images with both a bit of lightness (the joy of her subjects really shines forth) and with reverence. She preserves real life moments and presents them gorgeously. I really appreciated how informative her website was. The newborn session FAQ was super-valuable (she has since added a maternity session FAQ). Plus the fact that she even HAD a newborn FAQ demonstrated lots of experience photographing babies - awesome. And the pricing was presented clearly and specifically. Her prices are very reasonable - she's not supercheap but nor is she overly exorbitant either. She does high quality photography and prints and she charges accordingly. She was great at handling our many questions leading up to the sessions too. Maternity session: I really felt beautiful taking these pics and I think it shows in the results. You can opt for makeup application which I recommend; Melanie did a great job. For someone like me, who usually wears pretty light makeup, the finished result was a bit of a jolt in person (of course you need a bit more makeup for photography), but it looked terrific in the photographs! Melanie was wonderful to work with - she suggested accessories/clothing we could use in advance and was open to our ideas (I did a few nudes, which turned out stunning & tasteful). Overall things felt like a nice collaboration. A few times, DH and I would end up standing there wondering what to do with ourselves, she'd help guide us (not pose us) and we'd fall into interactions that yielded great-looking, natural-looking photos. Melanie came to our home and pinpointed the spot which would give us the best natural light. She was also receptive to our suggestions on a few outdoor shots nearby. Newborn session: The fact that Melanie offers to come to your home for these sessions is further proof of her years of experience working with babies. And she was magnificent with our baby! She came with a space heater, blanket and other helpful components (I think she even brings a white noise machine though we didn't need it). She was so sweet and gentle when positioning and interacting with our little one. Seeing how caring she was with our son was so nice, she is really gifted with little ones and it really comes through in the photos. The same helpfulness she demonstrated during the maternity session came forth - she had great suggestions on clothing/accessories, locations and shots. She showed great patience when dealing with a few crying bouts. It was a pleasant experience for all. She gets the online viewing gallery up in record time and it's beautiful. To this day, it tugs at my heart when I hear some of the songs she had playing during the gallery view, because the songs remind me so much of these photos that captured our love for our son (and each other) so brilliantly. Melanie has a fresh, realistic style that is natural, beautiful and universally appealing. If you are considering hiring her, do not hesitate. She is a consummate professional and a very gifted photographer - you will be very very pleased! We hope to work with her again sometime in the future. read more

Getting a little bored posting about how much I love Melanie Rose Photography... but a less stellar review would be pure fiction. Let me admit that I was hesitant to book this shoot at all, for reasons both outside of and within Melanie's control: First, my little angel is now a toddler knee-deep in the terrible 3s... and to make matters worse, I suspected (rightfully) the shoot was to take place after a day of being properly sugared up by his grandparents on Long Island. Second, this was to be our first "family" photoshoot. Not only was I unsure how my husband would react in front of the camera (he's not smiley) , but I would be very pregnant and increasingly insecure look-wise. Third, and really most important to a vendor review, I was concerned that my repeat business (we are on shoot #3 now, remember) would somehow be taken advantage of~that familiarity would breed less professionalism, cut-corners, in short: disappointment. It wouldn't be the first time (nor the last, unfortunately) that I'd been burned in this manner. And boy, was I wrong wrong WRONG to doubt Melanie. My first two concerns were obviously more personal to me... so let's skip to Melanie the Photographer, and my experience as a repeat client: As I no longer live in NY we had to set up the shoot via email while my plans were in still in flux. Melanie proved, as always, to be flexible and accommodating, and at all times professional. Before the shoot, she made it a point of discussing the style, the feel we were going for, instead of simply relying on our past experiences. She helped me to feel more comfortable about being photographed pregnant with a list of helpful tips she uses for her more traditional maternity shoots. Melanie was willing to travel to me in Suffolk County, taking a chance on my choice of (outdoor) venue while steering me towards the best daylight for the season. And while I fretted over the threat of rain that morning, she ran to the store to pick up umbrellas and rain boots. The shoot itself ran smoothly, as expected. My crazy toddler son, by now deeply in love with his "Aunt Melly", hammed it up for the camera while spinning about like a top. As usual, I was surprised to see a calm, sweet child reflected in the photos~subtle expressions "capture[d]... the way I thought only I could see him", as my husband has said. The family photos were even more amazing: raw but loving, organic without feeling in the least bit posed. We received the link to our proofs within 24 hours, and quality printed photos in an acceptable amount of time following my order. Let me wrap up this lovefest by adding that I have already booked my next shoot with Melanie, this time luring her to my new home in S. Florida to photograph my baby girl and our extended family. I remain a happy repeat customer and highly recommend her. read more

Melanie Rose took pictures of our little girl weeks after she was born. Needless to say, newborns are unpredictable. Our little girl stayed awake the majority of the time that Melanie was taking her pictures and she became cranky towards the middle of the shoot. Melanie was very understanding and extremely patient. The end result... Gorgeous pictures that I will treasure forever. Thank you so much Melanie!!! read more

Gorgeous photos; terrible customer relations. I ordered a package to document the first year of my first baby's life, when she was based out of NYC and traveling to Philadelphia (where I live) for work and to visit family. I had no knowledge of her moving to California prior to signing my contract, even though she had already finalized the details of her move. I fell in love with Melanie's photography and style, but have had a really disappointing experience with her not returning phone calls, not delivering photo orders, and ignoring emails and facebook messages. My son is now 13 months old and I have not received canvas prints ordered from his newborn and 6 month shoots. THe photos that were delivered were high quality, but very late. I recommend finding someone else, until she gets more organized and better at communication. read more

Melanie photographed my parents' 50th anniversary party and all I can say is wow. She was professional, pleasant, and best of all was able to laugh with us, not at us. The sneak peek photos she sent are fabulous and I can't wait to see the rest of the gallery. I'd book her again without question or concern! read more

Melanie photographed a family party for us this past weekend. She was professional, personable, and most importantly the sneak peek of photos she gave us look fantastic. So thrilled we found here and I highly recommend anyone else needing a photographer consider Melanie - I know I'd book her again in a heartbeat! read more

Melanie is simply an amazing photographer. I was SPEECHLESS when I saw her photos. She can connect so deeply with any baby, child AND adult. She has such an intuitive eye and the resultant photos are truly a work of art. I have hired various photographers for events and children's photos in the past. No one even comes close to her work. I thought my photoshoot was going to be a disaster with an active 3year old and a 6month old. It was completely the opposite. I am still enamored by the photos and I can't stop printing them for my home and family. I hired her recently for my son's Christening and once again...a stunning work of art! Don't bother with other photographers...I HIGHLY recommend Melanie Rose Photography, you will be so impressed with her superb talent!! read more

I had the unfortunate experience of working with Melanie. When we first talked, she promised many things...of which she delivered very little of. We did have more conversations than our contract stated, but in the end, the product she created was useless. I had concerns all throughout the design process but she kept saying 'just trust me'. This has been a very expensive lesson to learn to trust my own gut. What she finally presented to me as a final product was full of spelling mistakes, misaligned text, and incomplete sentences. The pages were not cohesive. I wrote Melanie with a detailed list of my concerns. To this day, not one of these concerns have been addressed. I have requested a 50% refund but she refuses. Her customer service is terrible. The website is not usable and I am now starting from scratch we a new designer. Perhaps Melanie is good photographer, but she is not a good designer. Seeing what she considers is final product, its clear she does not take pride in her work. read more

BEWARE- do NOT hire this photographer. Not only did I not get my photos, she took off with my money as well! I hired her for a multi-session package for my new baby, and while she showed up for three of the four sessions, she never sent the photos from the last session (which occurred almost six months ago) and worse yet--she won't return my phone calls regarding the remaining session, and seemingly has no intent to return my money (though she provided a contract stating that she would refund money if the sessions or photographs were not provided). In summary, a terrible experience and a loss of a nice chunk of money, and most importantly, I don't have photos to document such a lovely time in my daughter's life. Addendum--she finally returned my call when she read this review. When I requested that next steps be put in writing, preferably with a refund of half the package price, she stopped communicating again. So much for resolution or for photos. read more