Birth photography??Help the noob daddy!!

[Davivascaino]

Hey guys,

As some of you guys might know, my wife is pregnant. I already started shooting her belly, and we really loved the experience.

I was checking the forum, and haven't seen anything recently about birth photography. It would be nice if I could take some pictures while my wife is dying on pain giving birth But seriously, I have no idea which compositions to use, etc.. I do not want to look weird LOL.

Any of you guys have any experience with this?Any shots to share just to help me with some composition? I assume using flash would be a bad idea, specially with the newborn. I was thinking of using a telephoto lens, so I do not need to be very close and my wife can't hit me in the process

Thanks guys!

[-MasterChief-]

first off, congrats to you and your wife!

bring a fast zoom or a prime and leave the flash at home. any of your 50s will work, but something with AF will probably help. these things happen really fast when they start going! good luck and post some pics!!

[rick_reno]

is you're wife ok with this? i'd check that first.

[Davivascaino]

Originally Posted by rick_reno

is you're wife ok with this? i'd check that first.

she will be too damn busy to care

But she will be fine, because I will not be shooting her private parts or anything like that

This is what I want, just some tips on how to take advantage of this unique opportunity without looking like a crazy weirdo

[PeaceFire]

No offense, but as the Dad I think you're going to have more to worry about and won't be wanting to use a long zoom when your wife is going to want your support. Also, I've been to numerous births (as the photographer) and have never experienced a woman "dying of pain". In fact all of the labors I've been to the woman is laughing and joking until toward the end when the contractions are back to back and she just gets exhausted. Then the baby is born and she's back to laughing.

Anyway, you'll want a fast prime, no flash (it's not an issue with the newborn as they rarely keep their eyes open long enough to care, but your wife will probably be annoyed), and just crank up the ISO and shoot.

[Davivascaino]

Originally Posted by PeaceFire

No offense, but as the Dad I think you're going to have more to worry about and won't be wanting to use a long zoom when your wife is going to want your support. Also, I've been to numerous births (as the photographer) and have never experienced a woman "dying of pain". In fact all of the labors I've been to the woman is laughing and joking until toward the end when the contractions are back to back and she just gets exhausted. Then the baby is born and she's back to laughing.

Anyway, you'll want a fast prime, no flash (it's not an issue with the newborn as they rarely keep their eyes open long enough to care, but your wife will probably be annoyed), and just crank up the ISO and shoot.

Thanks for the advice. Well, she can't get epidural anesthesia in the beginning of the labor, because it might prolong it, so they do have significant pain (but the perception of pain varies with each individual) in the beginning.Later on, you are right, most of them are very comfortable after anesthesia is provided.

I think taking pictures would be a therapy for us to try to relax. I am a physician, so I know what can go wrong, and I think keeping our mind busy would help us I guess.

[PeaceFire]

Originally Posted by Davivascaino

Thanks for the advice. Well, she can't get epidural anesthesia in the beginning of the labor, because it might prolong it, so they do have significant pain (but the perception of pain varies with each individual) in the beginning.Later on, you are right, most of them are very comfortable after anesthesia is provided.

I think taking pictures would be a therapy for us to try to relax. I am a physician, so I know what can go wrong, and I think keeping our mind busy would help us I guess.

All of the births I have shot have been home births that had no epis or any sort of pain medication at all! They still laugh and joke between contractions until the last hour or so.

[Davivascaino]

Originally Posted by PeaceFire

All of the births I have shot have been home births that had no epis or any sort of pain medication at all! They still laugh and joke between contractions until the last hour or so.

seriously? holy crap, they are strong

[bnlearle]

Yeah, that's not my experience with natural births. The majority (ime) have been begging to go to the hospital for the epi and the midwife talking her out of it.

After, of course, the mom always talks about how beautiful/peaceful the whole experience was and completely forget the fact that they were begging/screaming to get the epi. The pain goes away, the beautiful emotion of a new life swings in, and these women/people present completely forget the incredible pain that just took place.

And I was born and raised in a hippie family. 7 kids. All holistic/homeopathic growing up, never got a single shot/vaccine in my life till a few years ago, no doctors, etc. Then I grew up and realized how much of a Godsend doctors are

-----

I just did this recently (my son is 18 months old). My wife pushed like 4 times and the baby was out before a minute, I'd say. I wanted it to last longer, to be honest. It was the most incredible experience of my life. I wanted to be right next to my wife the entire time, so I would have had a 24L on one camera and the 35L or 50L on the other. Just setting down which ever camera I wasn't using on the table next to me so I wouldn't have to change lenses. But, again, that baby was here in an instant. Luckily, a friend was in the room and shot a few frames before it was over.

But if we were to have biological children again (which we won't), I would do the exact same thing. Wide lens, holding my wife's hand, shooting with the other every so often. We both wanted it that way. Clive just decided to speed on out! :P

Here's my blog post with photos from Clive's birth -- http://bobbyearle.com/blog/clive-kru...y-perspective/

[PeaceFire]

Strange. I've down about half a dozen and they've all been rock stars. For the last hour not so much but that last hour tends to go pretty fast. Also all of them have had less than 5 hours of labor before the baby arrived. I almost didn't make it to two of them because of that! Maybe their midwife (the same one) just had some awesome techniques she'd teach them. I think she used hypnobirth (based on what I know about hypnobirth and what I observed while there).

My mother also swears she had two pain free births, no meds. She also fell and broke her wrist in six different places and required 3 pins and said "it didn't hurt that bad". Some woman can just handle pain better. That and my brother and I were both tiny babies, not the gigantic babies women are having these days. My cousin just had a 9 pounder! OUCH!

[sdipirro]

This is interesting. I was there for the birth of my three sons (two different moms), and my experience was quite different from these fairy tale births! First birth, wife got my hand in a death grip and almost broke my thumb during a contraction. Minor complications during second birth made things hectic for a short time. More than minor complications with the third resulted in near chaos in the birthing room at the time of delivery (complications for both mom and baby - everything turned out OK). Wife also said if I brought a camera in there, she'd kill me. So her feelings were pretty clear.

My first was 9 lbs 1 ounce and came 2 weeks early!

[Christina]

Originally Posted by Davivascaino

Thanks for the advice. Well, she can't get epidural anesthesia in the beginning of the labor, because it might prolong it, so they do have significant pain (but the perception of pain varies with each individual) in the beginning.Later on, you are right, most of them are very comfortable after anesthesia is provided.

Hopefully the other posts in this thread have already enlightened you that anesthesia is not administered for every birth.

I personally found the idea of anesthesia way more terrifying and undesirable than the discomfort caused by the body doing its instinctual thing to make my babies (one natural birth in a hospital with midwives, one natural birth in a birth center with midwives) come out.

Originally Posted by Davivascaino

she will be too damn busy to care

But she will be fine, because I will not be shooting her private parts or anything like that

I strongly recommend that you still ASK HER whether she would be okay with this. As much as I love photos and found the birth process fascinating, I am not the slightest bit sorry that there are no photos of me in labor. Just not something I'd like to see.

The photos of the baby post-birth - that's another story. Those first moments are priceless. And I agree with what's been said - fast wide prime, no flash. You want to be right there, not far off in a corner.

[bnlearle]

Epidurals are terrifying? Jesus, that's like saying the scariest part about getting a root canal or your wisdom teeth taken out or is the anesthesia...

[highergr0und]

I highly doubt the nurses / doctor would allow you to be using the flash..... and screw the telephoto, just be up by your wife's head. The 50 might be too long for the situation. The 18-55 might work just fine with the bright lights in the room, or look at a wider prime or a faster zoom

I was under strict instructions from her to stay up near her head. I didn't want to see all the details anyways.

The first shot I have of my son is the very first moment my wife touched him..... he's still covered with afterbirth (or whatever it is). Then I have shots of him getting cleaned up and checked, back with the wife, then a nurse took some of me walking him down the hall to the nursery. Composition was my least concern at the moment, and I just had a P&S casio superzoom. Think of it as free form documentary. Try not to cut off heads or anything with the frame, shoot raw to be able to fix WB later, and have fun.

Everything happened pretty fast once the nurse gave the green light to call the doctor. A few nurses swooped in and set up, I got settled into to my spot, the doc came in, push, push, baby out, I yelled out "Boy!!!!" when the doc flipped him around (we did not know going in), cord cut, wife held him and said hello, and he was on the table getting cleaned up. I took pics but was way more interested in my new kid than framing up a shot.

[Christina]

Originally Posted by bnlearle

Epidurals are terrifying? Jesus, that's like saying the scariest part about getting a root canal or your wisdom teeth taken out or is the anesthesia...

A root canal or getting your wisdom teeth removed are both surgical procedures. A routine, normal, complication-free birth is not a surgical procedure.

If I had to have a cesarean birth - which would have been a significant disappointment - I would certainly opt for anesthesia. But for a routine normal birth - yes, the loss of control and increased likelihood of complications and interventions, to me, is terrifying. And an epidural would result in both of those.