What aperture to you find works best when shooting newborns? I find I am having some issues with my camera or lens locking up...not sure if it is a technical issue or user issue. I try to shoot f2 on my 50 1.4
I like to shoot natural light at f/2.8 & with my strobe I shoot at f/3.2
Lens locking up - this sometimes happens to me if I am too close to the subject.
Also did you get the 50 1.2 and how do you like it?
I borrowed a friend's 50 1.2 - gave it a good test & then borrowed another friend's 50 1.4 - I was impressed with the clarity for the price, so saved me some $$ and went with the 1.4
This was taken with it using natural light from doors behind me
exif :
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: EF50mm f/1.4 USM
Exposure: Manual exposure, 1/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400
Do you layer anything over your bean bag chair to protect it from baby pee pee or poo poo or do you or is the blanket usually enough? Do you have many colored blankets or do you only use a select few colors?
I have a standard mattress protector under the blankets, I shoot on white, cream & brown, I'm a fan of neutral tones, not bright colours
As a new photographer, how much of an investment should I expect to make in this business. I have a camera, two lenses, a flash, some workshops under my belt and am slowing building up my backdrop, blankets and prop supplies. I feel like I am constantly spending though and always looking to add. When is enough enough or is it ever enough?
I am still buying props and camera gear - it's never ending, once you get the L series bug - you're done for 
I have a policy - make the money before I spend it.
I bought enough gear to get me by, then slowly added to my stash of cameras, lenses, software & props.
No workshops for me, I would rather teach myself & spend my money on more gear rather than on a workshop.
You can teach yourself, it can be done 
As far as your pricing, do you find it is working well for you...charging a session fee and putting up a gallery? How many prints do your customers end up buying and does anyone every buy the whole disk? Right now I just charge a flat rate and give a disk because it seems everyone wants the images for facebook, etc. I know this is a commonly disputed thing in the portrait world (disk vs. gallery) but am curious to hear your take on it and if clients every turn you you down due to your disk prices
99.9% of my clients buy the CD of high res images - they come with a sample print of each, this entices the client to buy prints from me as they are professionally printed and colour profiled.
I have had my fair share of clients not booking me due to the price - then they go and book a $100 shoot and burn photographer and get average work, in the end you only get what you pay for !
Let's just say I'm not sitting by the phone hoping for a booking
Finally - how long does it take you to photoshop and edit a session. How many pictures do you take in a session and how many do you display in the gallery? Is it hard to edit them down?
Depending on how cooperative the child has been during the shoot, if there more than one kid, if mum and dad are in the photos etc - I take about 80-150 images, I aim to put 20-30 in their gallery, but always end up with more - I am terrible at culling perfectly good shots 
Takes me about 2 hours to edit a full session, I don't to allot of batch editing, each photo gets it's own personal attention 
Ok whew, sorry for ALL these questions, I probably have some more but will stop here!
That's ok - I hope I helped in some way - I am no expert that's for sure, but I'm happy to share my knowledge & hope people get something from it 