And so it begins. A new chapter in my life. A new journey for my wife and I…and our dog who, considering she’s hardly been outside the house for two weeks, is coping exceptionally well. It feels like I’ve already taken more pictures than can possibly be necessary although necessity hardly seems like an appropriate photographic objective given the circumstances. Right?

It started about two minutes after Emmy was born when one of the hospital staff in the delivery room said to me “Dad, did you bring a camera?” as they held her up for me to see for the first time. I can still clearly remember the look on one nurses face when I pulled my rather large camera out of my bag which was only made to seem even larger with vertical grip attached to the bottom and 85mm f/1.4 lens secured to the front. As I raised it up to dial in the required settings she proclaimed “Yep, he definitely brought a camera!” to the other staffer who had made the inquiry just seconds earlier.

Staring through the viewfinder at my newborn baby daughter was surreal for me at that moment as I juggled all of the emotions of that life changing experience with my instincts as a photographer to ensure that at least a few of these literally once-in-a-lifetime shots were properly exposed and in focus. In hindsight I probably should have just brought my point-and-shoot to the delivery room but nailing a shot of my 2 minute old daughter at f/1.4 while she’s propped up by the latex gloved hands of the hospital worker, and as she opens her eyes for the very first time to take in the brand new world around her, was well worth the extra effort. I know that one day she’ll be able to look back at the photos of the day she was born and get a real sense of precisely how and where her life began.

I’ll spare you from the slightly graphic images of those first minutes and share with you instead some of  the photos that I captured in the hours and days following Emmy’s arrival into the world.

…and lastly here is a quick self portrait of our little family. Kind of makes me feel like the luckiest guy in the world :-)

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Images Copyright © 2009 Tomlinson Photography. All Rights Reserved.