<p>We're "hiring" a woman I used to babysit for, who does photography as a hobby (for friends only) in a style I really like, and does some commerical type work for art galleries, stuff like that. She's also a huge advocate of natural birth, had two homebirths herself, and is one heck of a mama bear, so I'm so thankful to have her there in a multi-role capacity. She will be our doula, but is aware that when possible, I'd rather have her photographing, and DH acting as support. But when needed, she can put down the camera, and doula me. </p>
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<p>I haven't talked with her about prices yet, it's a bit awkward since I had posted a FB message asking for advice for doulas, and she said she would love to be my doula. But we haven't talked about it being an official thing. Doulas in our area charge around $400-500. Birth photographers in this area (and there are only about 3, none of whose style I even remotely like), seem to charge between $600-800. </p>
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<p>I think it depends on what you're looking for too. I don't need my photographer to do a lot of touchups and post processing. Just do a semi-decent job of capturing the moments, transfer to a disk, and send it to me. I don't need it to be touched up, I just want the emotion, you know? But then again, I've got some experience with lightroom, so I can do it myself if I want as well. </p>
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<p>To me, it seems reasonable to pay a photographer in this case approximately the same as you would your doula. They're both on call, both possibly there for a very long (or short) time, working under stress situations, etc. If you're expecting prints and a lot of post processing from your photog, then yes, I could see this being more expensive. </p>