{Birth Stories} By Dani Christensen Photography

https://vimeo.com/89822258https://vimeo.com/80769470https://vimeo.com/61642611 Anyone who has been following my page lately has certainly noticed my new found passion for Birth Story Photography.  I explained all about it here, but incase you missed it, here it is again.Recently when I was pregnant with my son Deacon, I was deeply consumed with finding the perfect music for his birth video, searching birth story photos on Pinterest to gather ideas, lining up my mom’s plane ticket to come to the birth so she could take photos and video, get the equipment ready, buy new equipment that I thought I needed…. I thought of EVERYTHING I could do to prepare for capturing those first moments of my son’s life.  I’m not kidding – it stressed me out.  I wanted everything to be PERFECT because I knew it was a moment that couldn’t be recreated.  It truly is once in a lifetime.  And then he came.  And none of what I was consumed by mattered anymore.  The pages of pictures I printed and literally brought to the hospital with me to use sat in my camera bag and were never brought out.  I didn’t worry about what pictures and video my mom was getting when he was born.  I didn’t care about making the perfect story anymore because the fact of the matter is, no story that I could try and tell even comes close to the real story of a baby’s birth.After we brought Deacon home from the hospital, I gathered everything together to had been taken and put it into a video – a story – that was perfect in it’s own way.  And it’s a story that was told perfectly the way it was meant to be.  I sat and watched my husband cry watching that video the first time.  I still and sit and watch the tears come from his eyes almost every time he watches it.  And I know exactly why because it’s the same for me.  It takes us back to that moment that we once again became parents to the most amazing little boy.  I love shooting weddings.  It’s a happy day.  It’s a day full of love.  But in my own life, nothing has changed me more dramatically and more instantly than the moments both of my sons were born.  I cannot even begin to describe how truly happy I am to have birth stories for both of them so I can re live those moments over and over again.I’m writing about my experience because something changed in me when I was consumed by preparing to put together my son’s video.  I loved doing it.  Not just “love my job” sort of love, but truly craved sitting down at my computer and allowing the story to unfold in the process.   Here are a few Birth Stories I have put together.  Liam’s is the first one – the story that I recently shot.  The second one is Deacon’s story – my story. Obviously the video and photos were not taken by me.  I had my mom and husband around for that! But I did put it all together.  The third is little Miss McKenzie’s.  I only shot hers for a few minutes after she was born and when she met her big brother, but I think it’s great to see what emotion is still there to capture, even if you’re not comfortable having a photographer in the room when the baby is born.Please contact me for more information if you are interested in having your baby’s birth story captured.  It truly is such a beautiful experience, and one to never forget!