Photographer Tips: How to Capture the Moment

From This Moment Photography was started in 2011 as a way to learn all I could about photography so that I may give of myself to an organization that gives free portrait sessions to families of babies born sleeping. FTM has grown to not only offering birth and newborn sessions, but also other sessions to our small community.

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Oh the miracle of birth! It is by far one of my most favorite things to shoot. The anticipation of the family members, the determination of mom laboring and the extreme care Dad gives to his wife. It is an amazing thing to witness and capture. Let me walk you through this process of how I shoot a birth story.

As I walk into the room I introduce myself to family members, check to see if Mom has specific requests for the story, and start capturing details about the setting. The monitor that shows her contractions, Dad standing beside moms bed comforting her and the empty baby bed just waiting for the tiny miracle to arrive.

The room is normally dark to help mom stay relaxed, there will sometimes be soft light around the top or bottom of the walls but unless you are shooting during the day and you have an ample amount of ambient light, you will need to adjust your settings for that. I currently shoot with a Nikon D7000 and can comfortably shoot at ISO 700 without worry of too much noise.

There will be some but I feel like it adds to the moment. I shoot 100% with my Nikon 35mm 1.8 for birth stories. It gives me the ability to shoot in low light and has ample space to capture everything that I need from my appointed spot in the room. I will occasionally shoot with the shutter down to 150-200 depending on the moment. I also shoot completely RAW so that when I get the images into processing I can adjust the exposure as I need to.

When time comes for the actual birth I will move to my “spot” at the head of the bed behind dad, I always make sure dad has ample room to move around while still capturing the moment. At one birth story I held the camera in one hand and a bucket for Dad in the other, he didn’t do well with blood and they wanted to be prepared.

You will need to adjust settings at this moment because normally they bring out a bright light and it will allow you to bump up your shutter speed or lower your ISO, that’s completely up to you and the way you prefer to shoot. One of the hard lessons I learned early on was to make sure and adjust for the cord cutting shot if it will be under different lighting.Otherwise you may lose details in the image because of over exposure.

Once the baby has made his/her arrival I will move to the end of the bed and start capturing the moments with mom, dad, and baby. The 35mm allows you to do this  without worry of capturing any private areas of mom.I love this shot the most of any birth story! Mom was overwhelmed by her tiny miracle and just let her tears wash over them both. It was a truly beautiful moment!

After I capture the first moments of the family I will move away from the bed and let them have a few moments to themselves. Usually mom will opt for skin to skin time and that normally lasts an hour or more. After that is over the nursery nurse will come back and do measurements and foot prints. This can take place in a low light area if they do it in the room with mom.    All in all just remember that this is their moment! Be present for any questions but reassure Mom that you are there and will be in the background. I always make sure to tell mom how much of a rockstar she is after birth, how great she did and how amazing her new little one is.

Above all, capture every single detail big or small. It all works into the story of when their little miracle arrived. They will look back on that day and remember even the tiniest of details because you were there to capture them.