This past Saturday was one of the greatest days of my life. My wife delivered a beautiful, healthy, baby boy. This is our second little boy, now the little brother to Kole. I decided to capture some of the moments after delivery to share and comment on.
I didn't want to do any labour/delivery shots as I was actually quite involved in helping my wife through the process and there are times when it is best to put the camera down and be a dad...
The top photo was taken the day after Rhys (baby) was born. I took it when Nina (mom) went out to get a snack. I posed the two boys on the bed with light coming from the north-facing hospital window. I should point out that all of these photos were taken using natural light. I didn't want to use a flash for tow reasons: 1. I have read, and understand that the intensity of the flash can be quite disturbing to a new born baby. If you don't believe me, try using a flash on a new born and see the reaction. Not a happy one. 2. I wanted to be discreet in my picture taking and have these moments feel as natural as possible. A flash is really conspicuous and makes natural shots difficult.
The above shot was done with the light from the window as the key which gave great highlights (or hair light) and provided a very soft-low saturation look. I used my 50mm f1.8 lens for all of these photos (except the one below) to give a very shallow depth of field and allow a good shutter speed in the low, indoor lighting. I have found this lens to be a favorite. It allows fantastic looking shots, it's very small and light and is great indoors when you don't want to use a flash.
This shot was taken by Nina after I set things up. I put a translucent coroplast panel in the front window to soften the light and slid our pillow and blanket covered coffee table up close to it. Nina stepped up on a stool above us and took the shot. This one was done with my Sigma lens @ f2.8. I like to over-expose shots of children and babies as it give a softer, somewhat dreamy look.
This is Nina and Rhys seconds after delivery. The joy in the delivery room was overwhelming. Just doing my best to capture that feeling here.
Nina and Rhys were in such good shape after the delivery they could have come home that same afternoon but it was decided they would stay at the hospital overnight to relax.
And here's Rhys being checked over by our mid-wife Selina.
Moments in life like this are rare. The emotions are hard to describe. All I did was try to take some photos for us to look back on years from now. I wish I had more photos of Kole from when he was born, but I wasn't into photography then...
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