grand rapids birth photographer // the story told by hands

hands are so expressive, and this is especially true during labor and birth. you could almost tell an entire birth story using only photos of hands. the mother's hands, loosening and tensing with each contraction, the hands of birth workers and partners massaging, attending, caressing, or wiping the mother's brow with a cool cloth. and then, the mother's hands reaching out to gather the baby to her chest, cradling with wonder. here is a series of photos from a recent birth, all featuring hands. :)

becoming a specialist : the plan for 2013

after spending more than 10 years with my eye pressed up against the viewfinder of an SLR camera (first it was 35 mm, then digital), after pointing it in the direction of so very many things, places, and people, some things have come started to come clear. you look at my portfolio right now and you’ll see i have been a generalist: weddings, engagements, families-who-are-posed, mini-session portraits, babies, kids, graduation and anniversary parties,  multi-generational family groups, seniors, boudoir, and birth.

what a lovely, lovely world filled with a billions of beautiful faces and thousands of good reasons to celebrate and document those celebrations. i’ve seen the fresh love and creative pinnacle of a wedding day, the flirtatious adoration of an engaged couple, the traditions of families stopping to commemorate, the sensual daring of a woman who’ll be photographed in her undergarments to give some joy to the man she loves, and the tentative coming-into-self of a graduating senior. i have loved it all, each in its own way.

today, feeling now so blessed to have been allowed to witness and document so many sorts of breath-taking people and their moments in time, i feel i can now step back and ask myself: out of all of this varied glory, what is the one thing that resonates most deeply, that brings me so much life that i want to spend as much time around it as possible?

i might have answered this question differently 5 or 8 years ago, had i bothered to ask it of myself, but i didn’t. so today, the answer to this question is this:

that which is raw and ordinary, which is family, which is life. 

more specifically:

family photo-journalism

(the kind where no one gets especially dressed up, and they probably stay home and just do the sorts of things that families do while i just happen to be present to make note of it on film)

and

birth stories

(the sort where women - and their men - are transformed as they undergo the process of giving life to a new little person, and are brave enough to allow me into that space to witness it through my camera’s eye)

mmmm, yes. those things get my heart pumping. these are the ones that i look forward to doing more than any other sort of photography job.

so.

what if those two things became unapologetically my specialty? what if i began to say “no” to other sorts of work so that i could indulge in and master these two sorts? what if i gave myself over to that which i really love, and that which i think i do best?

there’s a degree of risk. will it shrink my client base too significantly? will it disappoint certain folks? will i be going back to square one to re-establish myself within these new parameters?

yup, risky, but it feels right.

this is the new plan, friends. website and blog and facebook page will begin to reflect said changes very soon (well, maybe after my maternity leave).

i’m very much looking forward to this new chapter of my photography career. i hope to see you there.

grand rapids birth photographer // gwen

baby gwen was born at her home's screened-in porch, situated on many acres of rolling green beauty, just after the sun rose. her mama was centered and courageous, guided by her love. it was absolutely perfect. 

birth : will re

after two thwarted attempts at photographing a birth, it has happened at last! tracy and adam were preparing for a home birth with the same midwife who attended hazel's birth. when they invited me in as a photographer, i quickly said yes. i was looking forward to working alongside my midwife (albeit in a very different capacity than her!), this time as the woman NOT in labor. :) and tracy and adam seemed so easy, so real... i knew this would be a good one to have among my first birth photography attempts. i got the call on a thursday mid-day that there would probably be a baby that day. sara, the midwife, said she's touch base again when it was time for me to come. around 6 pm i got her text, "come on over." i arrived at tracy and adam's home to find a quiet, peaceful house full of tracy's birth team. tracy was laboring quietly in the bedroom. not long after i arrived, she moved into the birth pool in the living room. and not long after that, she was giving birth to a little boy! it was incredibly lovely. i felt like such a gift to be allowed to be there.

so many thanks to adam and tracy for inviting me into this miracle. here are just a few photos.

grand rapids birth photographer // will

tracy's was the first birth i actually made it to! the first two both gave birth so quickly that i missed them  (crazy!). and so it was tracy's birth that got me hooked. walking into her house where her (and my) midwives were quietly tending to things, i could sense the focused, sacred feeling of the place immediately. birth was in the air. and tracy's quiet birthing sounds came from the other room. the entire time she worked so quietly, so peacefully. and so it actually surprised me a bit when will actually appeared!  thompson-birth-b+w-WEB-10