Why is birth photography so expensive?

Why is birth photography so expensive? I didn’t even pay that for my wedding photographer!?!

As a birth photographer, this is one question or statement I hear over and over again. Why does it cost so much?

This statement always makes me giggle because I believe we are comparing apple to oranges – both are round, both are fruit but they aren’t at all the same fruit.

When you get married, most people know that a good wedding photographer comes at a price. The industry standard nationwide for wedding photographers is $3800, with it being about $3200 here in the Beaufort area according to leading wedding websites. That’s a lot of money isn’t it? Why do people pay that? Because you want to make sure you have beautiful amazing images right?

So lets put this into perspective with birth photography

Your big day

Imagine booking a wedding photographer, but instead of your wedding day being on a certain Saturday of the month of June, you tell them it will be somewhere around the 15th, give or take a few weeks. I mean, you may even decide last minute you want to get married in May instead.

Also, you can’t really give them a time because you aren’t sure when you will be ready to arrive, so they need to be prepared to show up at a moments notice.

The photographer arrives at the location and asks how long you need their services for but, you really aren’t sure. Maybe you’ll get married in the next 3 hours, maybe you’ll get married at sunset 15 hours from now. Or maybe, you’ll wait until tomorrow after all. And because you can decide at any point in time that you are ready, you expect them to stay nearby the entire time.

Because your photographer doesn’t know when you plan on getting married, they can’t plan for specific lighting in the venue at that time of day – you may decide to get married at lunch with abundant sunlight coming in through the windows, or you may decide to get married in the middle of the night, in a pitch black room except one single light shining just on you. So your photographer needs to be well versed in handling ALL lighting situations and have the proper equipment, not just relying on natural light alone.

Its time for the first kiss!! A photographer who doesn’t specialize in weddings might not be very experienced in how ceremonies happen, they aren’t really aware of where to stand and the queues that happen right before the kiss. This can cause them to miss it or catch it at an unflattering angle you would never show anyone.

And finally don’t forget that because your wedding photographer has no idea when or how long your wedding will be, they have to keep a back up wedding photographer on call as well to be able to fulfill any other weddings they may have had booked.

I can assure you, if you call any wedding photographer tomorrow and say ” I want to hire you, I don’t know for when, I don’t know how how long, I just want you to show up for however long when I call you”, they would be quoting you a lot more than $3000 to shoot your wedding.

The reality is this is exactly what birth photographers commit to with every client we book.

We commit to being there for you, at any hour of the day, for however long you need us to be, knowing how to manipulate the conditions in the room to give you the best images possible all the while knowing how to act in the room and where to stand to get the most breathtaking image of your baby’s first breath!

If anything, this industry is undervalued and underpriced.

Because “anyone” can take pictures with their cellphone now.

Well… so can your wedding guests

But most people wouldn’t dream of having their only wedding images be from their guests cell phones. They wouldn’t trust that once in a lifetime moment to just anyone.

And… lets also be honest – if you have crappy wedding pictures, you can always get some “make up” images in your outfits later on and stage moments if you need to.

But you can’t push your baby out twice. There is NO redo on birth photography, none. 

My answer to the statement “I paid less for my wedding photographer” is YES, of course! I would expect couples to feel like the birth of their child just as worthy, if not more, than their wedding day.

And I ask myself every time – why is birth photography regarded so differently and as something that should be cheap?