A Little Announcement-Colorado Springs Birth Photography
Introduction to Off-Call births
I have been struggling to find words to introduce this new service. I have been worried that me doing this might de-value birth photography or de-value other birth photographers or maybe make me seem like I am not in it for the long haul, but I have decided to just go for it and phrase it the best I can.
I believe that every family deserves a birth photographer if they want one. That moment… that precious, heart-stopping, gut-turning, not re-doable moment DESERVES to be photographed. Unfortunately, I also realize that having that moment captured professionally is a luxury. The job isn’t easy or cheap for us, but I will talk about the true value of birth photography in next week’s blog post. For this week, I want to announce that I will be doing something for those of you who may want to save a couple pennies… okay… it’s a lot more than a couple, but we can talk about that privately.
I have always offered this service to my friends because it made sense. I can’t do my job for free, but I also don’t want my friends becoming homeless if they can’t afford me. I wanted a happy medium, so I decided to start offering them “Off-Call” shoots. This meant that they payed a deposit to secure their spot and if I could attend their birth without having to worry about all the on-call stresses, I would. But if I had something important going on when I got the call they were in labor or if I didn’t have a babysitter for that day, then I would go to them when I could (most likely after baby was born) and their deposit for the Off-Call session would turn into a deposit for a Fresh 48 session. If I was able to attend the birth, I would start editing the photos I took and the family would get their full gallery after the remainder of the session was payed for.
What makes this different than an on-call birth?
Normally, I would pay a babysitter a certain amount of my fee before they even start watching my daughter. This is called an on-call fee. This ensured that any time I need to drop my baby off with them, they would be able to watch her if I needed them. Then I would also pay for the babysitting. I would also need to pay for a backup photographer and other on-call necessities.
For an off-call birth, I don’t have to pay for anyone else to be on-call with me because I wouldn’t be on-call. I would only be going to the birth if family was able to watch my daughter and I didn’t have any important meetings to attend.
What does this mean for you?
If you are okay with the idea of me possibly missing your birth, but you for sure getting at least a Fresh 48 session, then you are able to get that for a lot less than what a normal birth photography package would normally cost. It ends up being a little easier on me and a lot easier on families’ wallets.
If this sounds interesting to you, please fill out this form and I will email you back.