Dad to Dad, Why you won't regret doing Birth Photography.
I have had some moms recently reach out so excited about getting birth photos, only to come back and say their hubby's aren't on board. As a mama myself, I have had both births. One with an epidural in the hospital and one at home unmedicated and I remember pretty much zilch from either one. This is why I love birth photography. The reason moms want this, is because when we are in labor we are giving all our energy to getting through contractions. The only thing on our mind is "GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME NOW". We don't remember our support systems working hard, we don't see our own strength or remember our tears of joy meeting our baby. That's where I come in. I am the mama (and dad's) eyes.
I asked a few of my dad birth clients to write why you won't regret hiring a birth photographer. I had them send me a few of their favorite photos I took of their baby's birth (and then I added more because that's just who I am!). Enjoy these five different stories!!
XOXO- Nicole
Author- Ryan Collett
My wife and I have known Nicole for a few years now since we met her at a local mom breastfeeding event. We quickly fell in love with her talent and patience while taking photos of us and our kiddos. We ended up hiring her again for a private photo-shoot of my wife and son, at this time my wife found out Nicole also did Birth Photography. To be honest, I had never even heard of such a thing.. a photographer taking photos of the birth, why? I thought my wife never let this subject down, for the next 2 years she was attempting to convince me to pay Nicole to take photos of the birth when we had our next child. I refused, saying it wasn't going to be worth the money, to be frank.
During those years we ended up moving out of the state. This in turn made it nearly impossible to have those photos done, at least that's what I thought. My wife was now 37 weeks pregnant, living in Florida, and now a major hurricane was approaching our home. We ended up leaving our new home and driving back up to Wisconsin to stay with family. One part of my wife was absolutely stressed to the max scrambling to have a baby somewhere we didn't plan, but part of her was happy to have our baby in Madison, where our oldest was born. This also meant she could hire Nicole for the birth photos. I really couldn't swing this at the time, considering our circumstance being transplanted for over a month from hurricane Irma.
Nicole reached out to me directly explaining how much my wife wanted her to be there and proposed an option that would work for us. So I ended up hiring Nicole without my wife knowing. I had Nicole show up once my wife went into labor (was quite this show trying to call her on the drive to the hospital without my wife knowing!), my wife was ecstatic.
Not only do we now have amazing photos that captured the emotional roller coaster that was our sons birth was, but my wife honestly could not have done it without Nicole there. Nicole was my wife's courage and push the entire time, she continued to motivate her during the intense birth!
Looking back, I honestly don't even think about the money spent to hire her. All I think about is how I could not imagine Nicole not being there, and my wife and I still talk about how we could have her at our next birth but down in Florida. I highly recommend any husband to listen to their wife on this one, because shes right. She's the one birthing the baby anyways!!
Author: Liberty Hodges
I was a bit unsure about having a birth photographer at first. I had no idea it was even a thing and I also didn’t completely understand why my girlfriend would want something so vulnerable like this photographed. After thinking on it for a bit I came to some realizations. First, that this was going to be such a intense, vulnerable, and life changing experience which was exactly the reason she wanted it captured. Two, it not about me and it’s not about completely understanding. The most important thing was that I was there to support her in any way I could.
That aside. After having gone through the experience I would have chosen to have Nicole there even if she wasn’t doing taking any photos. What an incredibly intuitive and caring person. It was like having another midwife there. She was there just enough as support if wanted but never to much. It was clear that she has done this many times and is incredible perceptive with what everybody is going through. I didn’t even notice that she was taking pictures.
The pictures themselves were incredible tasteful and beautiful. They are something that we can look back on forever and share the ones we want with our families. Apryl hardly remembered anything and having these pictures as something she can look back to is awesome. Not to mention that she has looked back at them and made comments like “I would have never known how much you were there for me if I didn’t have anything to look back. ” So you know, brownie points.
Author: Teddy Lentz
Having a birth photographer was definitely worth it for me and my family. For one, having photos of the process was great for my wife. She was able to see this powerful experience from a different perspective. I was, of course, so very proud of her for everything she had to go through for our family, and it is great for her to be able to look back at the photos to see just how strong she was. Secondly, that first photo of our entire family is priceless. Our little one will never be that little again, and it is awesome to have those images of us together as a family for the first time. And those photos were perfect for sharing with family (and close friends) who were not there with us during those moments. My wife and I didn’t want to have a bunch of people in the room, because we were concerned that it would get overwhelming. Instead, we were able to share some of the photos with those closest to us. I really enjoyed looking over the pictures with my mom, who wasn’t able to be there, and tell her all about the birth of her grandbaby. It warmed her heart to see her son holding her grandbaby for the first time!
For soon-to-be dads who aren’t sure about birth photography, I would ask “what’s holding you back?” Our experience with Nicole was that she was like a “fly on the wall” when it came to taking pictures. I don’t even remember her taking the pictures, to be honest, but now can look back at some amazing photos of our experience. It’s not like she got in the way or caused extra stress. This isn’t like a photo shoot in a glamour booth. There was no posing, nothing staged, just a real experience with awesome moments that you can’t get back and probably wouldn’t remember without photos (you’re way too tired to remember everything). It’s definitely worth it, and we will absolutely do it again.
Author: Ryan Seney
There are few moments in life as magical as meeting your baby for the first time. You spend months, if not years preparing for this moment and in a blink of an eye, you are officially a parent. Becoming a parent for the first time was one of the most special moments in my life, a moment I am happy to have photography to look back on.
When our (first) big day finally arrived, my son wasted no time saying hello. My wife’s water broke at 4AM and the magical chaos began. 8 hours later, Myles was here. Looking back on that day, a lot of it is a blur. I am thankful that we decided to get professional photography done (Nicole photographed both our boy's being born!) because in the heat of the moment, you miss the little things. Whether it’s a funny moment during the chaos, the look on your face when your baby arrives or proof that I am an ugly crier. You are so in the moment that you don’t even know what’s happening, especially as the father.
I was skeptical at first to get birth photography done. Who would want to see that? Is it really worth it? Now, two kids later, Myles (2) and Luca (2 months), I can easily say, it was worth every penny. Parenting is hard, challenging, wonderful, exhausting, frustrating, and amazing. Not every day is roses and having photography of that day helps bring me back to earth when times look dark. I will always have the memories of those days but just in case my memories fade, I am happy that I have photos that can last a lifetime. I have photos I can share with my children when their older. It’s a moment like no other. The birth is over before you know it. Don’t blink. Get photography!
Author: Brian Sweeny
When Katie first mentioned wanting a birth photographer, I immediately said 'I don't know if that is something you really want documented do you?!' I initially pictured a camera in our faces and private places and the idea just seemed overwhelming during a private time. She showed me some other birth pictures and while I wasn't 100% on the idea, I agreed since she wanted it.
I remember Nicole arriving and chatting with her here and there but really couldn't tell you much else because it wasn't a big deal like I thought it might be. She wasn't invasive at all and with her being just a comfortable person to be around, I was content with her being there. Being a first time dad, I had no idea what to expect or what was going on. I do remember when Nicole arrived, I just looked at her and said "Is this normal? Is everything going ok?" and she just looked at me with a smile and told me Katie was doing an amazing job. She gave me a hug and told me everything was going great. That helped me calm down a bit and just enjoy the process. The entire day she and the midwives reassured me and helped us so much.
The pictures she took were so interesting to look at because the day was a total blur. She caught a lot of little details that we would never remember like the snacks we ate, and feeding our chickens (we had a home birth). For Katie I know the pictures are even more valuable because she had a totally different perspective and Nicole allowed us to relive and remember the day our son Adrian was born.
