Frequently Asked Questions
Capturing the Moments
Birth isn’t just a moment …
it’s a story made of many moments
Your birth experience is one of the biggest life events you will go through. It’s an emotional experience that draws on your deepest strengths. Birth photography helps you relive the moments.
What is birth photography?
Birth photography is often misunderstood. Parents immediately imagine the graphic aspects, or feel that birth is too personal to have someone in there who is not one of their loved ones.
But birth photography is so much more than photos of the moment of physical birth. In actual fact, nothing graphic needs to feature, in fact, you’re capturing the complete story of birth.
How does it work?
Birth photography is very different than hiring a photographer for studio sessions. Births are unpredictable and can happen at anytime! Our commitment to our birth clients is to be on call for them. We’re available 24/7 to come to your birth, at any time.
When did you start birth photography?
Why should I hire a birth photographer?
Birth photography documents your awesome ability to bring life into this world. It is for you to relive one of your greatest accomplishments and to see your strongest self.
Birth is a once in a lifetime event & there is one chance to capture your emotions and reaction to becoming a parent. Giving birth is by far one of the most defining and most treasured and memorable life events that you will ever experience. Birth photographers sole focus is to capture these precious moments.
Birth Photography is about capturing a story. It is about documenting the anticipation of those moments before your baby is born. Birth Photography is about documenting that exact moment when you look at your baby for the first time, hold them in your arms, smell their smell for the first time, hear their cry for the first time.
What kind of images will you take?
Birth is extremely unpredictable. A normal delivery could change to a C-Section in a moment. Birth is not planned, it is spontaneous. Given this, it makes it impossible to commit to the count or types of images, duration of shoot, angles covered etc.
Clients accept that the spontaneous and unpredictable nature of birth means that the extent of coverage & images produced during a birth will be dictated by the events of the day and how things proceed. As a result, there is no guarantee to either the quantity of images or the ability to capture a particular image
Our goal is to creatively and honestly capture the story of your birth and those first few moments with your new baby and we may get anywhere from a minute to five minutes to photograph these moments.
We are also required to adhere to the guidelines of the hospital policies. Given that this is a medical procedure, if the hospital / doctor feels that the photographer should not document the birth, such a request shall adhered to.
Usually the hospital / doctor allows the photographer to stand in one space only during labour. We may or may not be allowed to move. Given this there is no guarantee on the angles of the images as we may have very restricted space to during the LDR shoot
What if we miss your birth?
Unfortunately, birth photography just has so many variables that in extremely rare cases, sometimes this happens. There are times when the situation is out of anyone’s control. As an example, during the current days of Covid-19 traveling to the hospital was prohibited as photography does not fall under essential services. There could be other instances where the doctor decides last minute that they do not want the birth documented.
However, we do lots of preparation together to try and minimize your birth photography from being missed. Communication will be key to ensure we are constantly aware of the situation and are available as and when required.
Given that there are so many variables, we do not charge our clients till the shoot is done.
What equipment do you use?
Flashes or strobes are not used during birth photography. All photography is done using the available light in the labour delivery room.
How graphic are the images?
How & When Should I book a SHOOT?
IS post production done on birth photographs?
The objective of birth photography is to capture the story of birth; the images are not altered, photoshopped, or edited to keep the images as real as possible
Why are birth photos taken in black & white?
Birth Photos are taken in black and white due to the sometimes graphic nature of birth photography. Black & white images help you focus on the emotion & love in the photo and not on the graphic nature of birthing.
What is your image delivery timeline?
Shoot images are sent to you in 7 days following the shoot provided your invoice is closed
Your products can either be sent to the hospital when ready or you have the option to collect the same from our studio in Defence Colony. We do not courier or deliver any products. Certain large products or products with glass cannot be sent to the hospital, such products will need to be picked up from our studio in Defence Colony.
Products time vary between 1 week and 4 weeks. Please speak with us during your pre-shoot discussion about specific product delivery timelines
How technically correct will the images be?
The objective of birth photography is capture the emotion of child birth given the lighting condtions available in the room.
The lighting conditions inside an OT/LDR/inRoom do vary. Certain rooms provide extremely hard light while others provide flat light. The objective with birth photography is not to capture the most technically correct image (the OT is not an environment where lights can be controlled). The objective with Birth Photography is to use the existing light to the best of our abilities and to capture the emotion.
Will you use my photos for marketing purposes?
Because birth photography is still unfamiliar to some people, sharing beautiful examples of this type of photography is a great way to make it more commonplace. In addition, having these images in my portfolio helps future parents who are considering hiring me for their births. However, only modest photos will ever be shared.
If you do feel very strongly against having any posted at all, please let me know and we will certainly respect your wishes.
Do you offer pregnancy & newborn shoots?
Yes we do. You may see the following links for our packages
Birth Photography
Each moment is unique and is captured through timeless photographs without being graphic or intrusive
We are continually amazed at how unique each birth is and find so much joy in capturing these once in a lifetime moments. The amount of emotion & love that takes place when a baby is born is almost overwhelming – and all of it takes place in one brief moment. It can’t be re-lived. It can’t be faked. We capture this priceless moment for you.
How amazing is it that your child will one day get to see the joy on her mother’s face the moment she was born
Birth photography is unlike any other form of documentary photojournalism because it’s documenting the first moments of life of a baby, capturing the moment a family is born.Let us capture the moment when you became parents .. when you were so mesmerised by a tiny family member you have created.