A Birth Story

Our second son, Navid, was born late in April. A child’s birth is arguably one of the most amazing experiences in the parents’ lifetime. One can never forget the moment the baby is born and the moment you hear the first cry. Our second son, like the first, had to be delivered through a Caesarean section. But it happened earlier than scheduled. We were at one of our regularly scheduled fetal monitoring appointments when we were told that the baby had to be delivered that same day. My wife had not yet packed anything, and we did not have any of our cameras with us. Fortunately, the C-section was scheduled for a few hours later giving me the opportunity to drive back home, pack some essentials, including our Nikon D4 together with a single lens (Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART), and quickly drive back to the hospital.

Thankfully, taking pictures was allowed in the Operating Room (though filming was prohibited). So I took the opportunity and attempted to capture the birth story in the OR in a photo-journalistic fashion. The sample shots below are the result of this attempt…

Any birth photographer should keep a few points in mind. First, fast lenses are a must. The lighting in the OR (and likely in any Labor and Delivery room as well) is typically far from perfect, and using flashes and strobes is typically not practical and possibly not even allowed. As such, using fast primes (f/1.8, or even f/1.4) becomes critical allowing you to open up the aperture and hence be able to keep your shutter speed high enough to avoid motion blur. Second, it is important to shoot in RAW. The Auto White Balance setting in your camera may not function well for the lighting condition in the OR or the L&D room. And using a grey card and setting a Custom White Balance may not be too practical. It is therefore important to shoot in RAW so you can have full control on White Balance adjustment in your post processing. That said, in order to focus more on the story and less on colors and environment, we chose to process the sample shots below as Black and White, and as such, White Balance was no longer a critical concern.  Finally, a non-technical point to always remember is not to stay in the way of doctors and nurses in any way, and try to be the invisible photographer. This was harder in our case as I was also the dad.

Despite the challenges, taking birth photographs is a lot of fun indeed, and can be a truly rewarding experience. Go for it, whenever you get a chance…