116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
My Biz: Swisher photographer captures the birth experience
By R'becca Groff, correspondent
Apr. 15, 2015 7:21 pm
SWISHER — Laura Eckert was teaching art and photography at Prairie High School in 2003 when a friend asked her to photograph her wedding. It went so well that Eckert launched her own business.
Then another friend — who worked assisting women in labor and after birth — suggested that Eckert consider professionally photographing the birth experiences for women.
The business grew into New Creation Photography in Swisher. Eckert will be photographing her 50th birth this spring.
'I had a lot of success as a wedding photographer,' she said, 'but when it came right down to it, I loved shooting births, and those two things do not coexist very well. You can't very well tell a bride that you aren't going to show up because you have a mom in labor, so I gave up weddings completely to focus on births.'
Photographing births is a high-stress job, and Eckert — a mother of three — must be ready to go when the text comes in from a client.
'When I go to the hospital I have everything in one bag,' she said.
She photographs the birth, as long as it takes; then does the rest of the work in her home studio, editing through the hundreds of shots and preparing digital slideshows she sends to the client.
She will do printing, or create albums or canvases for those who want that.
'There are definitely times that I am both emotionally and physically exhausted,' she said. 'We would love to get there an hour or two before the baby is born, but birth is so unpredictable that you just don't know how things are going to go.'
Or how long. Once Eckert had two births to shoot, both being induced on the same day — one at Mercy Hospital, the other at St. Luke's — and both using the same OB-GYN doctor.
'I was very much back and forth trying to get both birth stories covered equally, and all day long they were neck and neck.'
Finally the The Mercy birth went fairly quickly, she said, but the St Luke's mom didn't actually deliver until 2 a.m. the next day.
'I was on kind of the same schedule as the doctor,' she said. 'You go where you are needed.'
Eckert said she learned some business lessons along the way, especially when it came to pricing her services.
'Starting out, every birth photographer jumps in and wants to shoot a lot of births, so they offer it for a price that they think people will pay,' she explained. 'But that leads to shooting many births for less than you would shoot a 20-minute portrait session. And when you are driving, say to Waterloo, and spending 18 hours there ... you really have to make it worth your time to do it.'
l Know a company in business for more than a year that would make an ideal My Biz? Contact Chelsea Keenan at chelsea.keenan@thegazette.com
Laura Eckert/New Creation Birth Photography New Creation Birth Photography takes portraits like this May 2014 photo of Nicole Vennie of Robins with her new baby boy.
Laura Eckert/New Creation Birth Photography New Creation Birth Photography's portrait of Casey and Trevor Mills of Cedar Rapids with their new baby boy in June 2013.
Michael Noble Jr./The Gazette Laura Eckert, owner and photographer of New Creation Birth Photography in Swisher.
Michael Noble Jr./The Gazette Baby clothing and accessories sit in the studio of New Creation Birth Photography on Wednesday in Swisher.
Michael Noble Jr./The Gazette Baby wraps sit in the studio of New Creation Birth Photography in Swisher on Wednesday.