HOLDERFIELD |
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However, taking photos of the delivery is just the first step in Holderfield’ s job. She then has to go through an extensive editing process that sometimes takes several days to complete. Eventually, Holderfield makes a CD of all of the images she has taken, and she sends the best of them off to a professional lab to be compiled into a baby book. Within several weeks, she then delivers both the book and the full CD to the parents for their enjoyment, which Holderfield said might just be her favorite part of the process. Holderfield delivered Amanda Brown her book a few weeks after Turner’ s birth. Brown said she immediately loved it, and added that everyone she has shown it to said they wished they had hired a birth photographer. Holderfield was pleased by Brown’ s excitement over the book. |
“ My satisfaction is having a mom call me up ecstatic over her book,” Holderfield said.“ Or just,‘ Oh my God. I didn’ t know you got that picture.’ There’ s more pleasure in that than getting a paycheck. I love it. I absolutely love it. It’ s total enjoyment. There’ s self-satisfaction in this too.”
Holderfield has enjoyed photography ever since she was a child, but she did not start doing it professionally until about two years ago. In addition to operating her photography business, Holderfield works as a neurophysiologist.
“ I’ ve always been really artistic, and I gravitate toward the emotion of things,” Holderfield said.“ If you look at a lot of the pictures I do. I try to get faces and expressions. To me it’ s just an expansion of an artsy person.”
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While Holderfield regularly photographs a variety of outdoor scenes of family portraits and sports, she said births are her very favorite thing to photograph.
“ That’ s my favorite,” Holderfield said of birth photography.“ I’ ll skip class to go shoot a baby. I’ ll call in to my regular job to go shoot a baby because that’ s first to me. Because I figure I can work an extra day, and I can get my assignments made up, but they can’ t reschedule their baby.”
Holderfield is so enamored with the birth experience that she is actually taking classes in order to become a midwife. Holderfield and husband Todd’ s fourth child, Kalli, was born two-and-a-half years ago. At the time Kalli was born, Holderfield said she did not know any other birth photographers and
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therefore didn’ t hire one. While she said she has no plans to have any more children, if she did have another one, she would absolutely hire a photographer next time.
“ I think when you’ re in the heat of the moment, you’ re not thinking about these memories for later,” she said.“ That’ s why I send the books. The families are so in awe because they don’ t realize what all was going on in the room at that time. People tell me it’ s like watching a movie.”
Holderfield said she understands if some people are not as excited about the thought of sharing their delivery room with a photographer, but she said that is why she never photographs things against the parents’ wishes. She also makes sure to delete all photographs from her computer as soon as she
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