Last week I got an email from someone out of state wanting to know my prices for attending and photographing births. The person was wanting to start a business photographing births herself and after being at her first for hours on end, finally left and missed the birth.
Recently a friend called birth “sexy,” and I knew exactly what she meant. Especially in this day and age birth is becoming so vogue, and rightly so! Birth is a rite of passage for so many women and whether it is your own birth, the birth of a child you are adopting, a close friend’s birth or someone your profession has allowed you to assist in giving birth- it is an undeniable feeling of honor an privileged to be present at the birth of a new life.
Needless to say I totally understand why someone would want to be a birth photographer! To get to be there, to take photos of a family’s most intimate and probably most important life event and get to give those photographs to a mother so that she can fully remember and relive the moments when she surprised herself with her own strength and met one of her life’s greatest loves. Who wouldn’t want to be a birth photographer?!
The reality is that you are on call and can spend hours before and/or after the birth with a mother and family. Sometimes there are often crazy emotional roller coasters involved even for a bystander. And even though in my opinion the birth of your child is even more significant and less remembered, brides and their families spend thousands on wedding photography, but just years later often can’t stomach paying even a fraction of that cost to have their birth professionally covered by an experienced birth photographer who is familiar with your birth environment and knows how to stay out of the way and Ativan not interfere with your birth or your birth team by never using a flash, standing in the way, etc.
For me though, I would probably shoot births for potatoes (like old timey midwives 🙂 ) because I love not only the being there and the photography aspect, but I love to know that the birth has been documented for the family. I also love that people are often exposed to birth through the photography (rather than those awful birth horror TV shows!) from their friends and family members’ births, further normalizing and removing fear surrounding birth.
So I basically had to tell the poor person that I wasn’t sure she could sustain a business doing birth photography and unfortunately even though I have 5 years experience photographing births, doulaing and teaching childbirth to couples, I could not keep my my business going by just shooting births, although it would be a dream! 🙂
All of that so to say that I hope you will help me expose more families to the idea of birth photography. If you read my testimonials page you can hear from some moms who have been blessed by having a birth photographer at their births.
To help bridge the gap I am starting an affiliate program for other birth pros (midwives, doctors, doulas, etc) where we can help each other through referrals or birth professionals can offer to include birth photography by me in their packages for their clients at a discounted price. I will begin including our affiliates in our package pricing and information emails, on the side bar here on my site, on the top likes on my Facebook page, and by introducing them to your in my blogging and Facebook updates.
To get more information on birth photography or becoming one of our birth partners (or if you just want to hang out and have tea) email me at Crystal@crystalgarcia.com. Thanks!
