{Receiving: Birth Photography}

     I have tried to write this post many times now. Honestly, I just can't seem to find the right words. I have so many thoughts and so many posts that I could write about birth, and about birth photography. My thoughts are jumbled, and until I can sort them all out, I want to keep my words here brief. All that I can say is that birth photography has captured me like few other "genres" of photography have. Each birth that I have attended, whatever the scenario or the outcome, has been a powerful, gripping, and unique experience.
     To witness the power of birth is one thing. To capture it with a camera is another. To think that a group of pixels on a screen can convey so much emotion, depth, and beauty is an awesome thing. To share the gift of those pictures with the families that are receiving their newborns--that is a feeling that I can't trade. It is a sacred thing, to be able to seize those first few moments of a child's life on camera and hold on to them forever. Ultimately, whether those moments are captured on an iPhone camera, or on a point-and-shoot, or through a professional photographer, the power of those moments can never change. They remain sacred, frozen in time, breathtakingly beautiful.
     To try and put my passion for birth photography into words, any more than I already have, would undermine the experience. Just know that I have been captivated. Receiving new life--it is a beautiful gift. Capturing the receiving of a child on camera, well, that is a gift too.