On the 28th August I had the absolute pleasure of photographing the birth of Frazer David White. People will generally scream “A Birth?” and make disgusting looking faces, but bear with me and look at the images and go from there.
I’ve photographed lots of “life” moments in Paula and Neill’s life – so to be able to share this incredible experience with them – was absolutely amazing.
I had a text from Neill at just before 5am asking if I was awake, and luckily, it woke me up – I jumped up – Paula was in labour it was finally here it was happening I was going to photograph the birth!
It didn’t take me long to get ready, grab my camera bag, call at the studio for an additional battery and then get parked and up to the hospital.
It is hard to put into words the stages that Paula went through, or how supportive Neill and the midwives were, or how fantastic Paula did throughout labour (and the epidural worked wonders!).
Being allowed to share an experience like that is an amazing thing to witness, I know I don’t have children and will probably feel completely and utterly different when I’m pushing my own out – but right there it was an absolutely amazing experience to witness!
I have since had quite a few people ask me prices for Birth Photography – it is something that I would love to offer – however – I need to work prices out. I technically have to be on call for 4 weeks. If I have a Wedding I wouldn’t be able to photograph the birth – and regardless of whether it was a quick, or slow labour. How much would you be willing to pay for something as a one off experience such as this?
Doulas charge anything from £300-£1000 to do birth preparation and attend the birth. You would need to factor in how much you would lose if you had to rearrange a day or two of studio bookings, possibly getting called out in the middle of the night, and the potential to be at a birth for quite a long time. I would want to guarantee my photographer could attend, so would be willing to pay up nearer the top end of the 300-1k scale rather than 300 but them still have weddings booked in (unless they were able to have back up for the wedding or the birth)
ReplyDeleteThank you Vivienne, it is such a hard thing to price. I know someone who charges £850 and then when I mentioned this to a few people they were surprised at how much it would cost. But like you say, its not a quick thing for a lot of people X
DeleteI agree with vivienne..
ReplyDeletea lot do pay up to $2k in america...
majority of birth photographers I know are from america. Maybe its worth emailing and talking out about what they charge?
and its true.. its because you're on call for upto 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after due date.
it could be a short labour or a bloody 3/4day labour.. you and the client have no idea how it will pan.
so you are worth a lot of money for your amazing services adele
hopefully ill have enough money for our next :P
x
I think it is really hard, and people have asked if I can do a shoot within the first hour of birth. I agree with how much a lot of the american photographers do charge for this also. X
DeleteI am so envious of this couple having such beautiful outstanding pictures of the birth of their baby. My wedding day was a fantastic day but the birth of your baby does not compare and is sadly not documented in the same way. Having an independent person to do this is priceless as I only have a handful of pcs of the births of my two boys as your so overwhelmed and taken by the event (and my husband is not one to think to take pics). I agree with the ladies above re commitment to birthing families and potential clashes with other bookings would be a dilemma but I would be prepared to pay on par with wedding photography, if not more. Down side though is this kind of money being available when your about to reduce to maternity pay and all the expense of a baby would effect whether I could afford it. If I was to have another baby think I would be asking family and friends to perhaps contribute to this as a gift rather then all the usual presents, if you did gift vouchers. X
ReplyDeleteAwww Claire - I think things like this (and weddings) are once in a lifetime things that happen. But also gift vouchers so people could contribute would be something that I would look at :)
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