Portland Birth Photographer Natalie Broders Takes Home a Win
Natalie Broders has received First Place GOLD in the Postpartum category for her image titled “The Lovers After”. In addition to Gold, Natalie also received First Place in the Member’s Choice category and an award for placing in the Top 20 images for the 2023 Annual Image Competition held by the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers.

Natalie Broders is a birth photographer, videographer and birth doula serving Portland Oregon and Vancouver Washington. She lives on a farm with her husband and 2 kids. They raise chickens and love to garden. Natalie loves babywearing, cloth diapering and is passionate about her work as an advocate for birthing people. She had one of her babies at a birth center and her second baby was born at home, in water.

“Two lovers exhale and close their eyes for a brief moment. Savoring the moment, letting that relief wash over them, having emerged on the other side whole and more in love than ever before.“

“It is such a privilege to be invited into the sacred and intimate space that is birth. I am constantly humbled when a family allows me to document their transition into parenthood. Thank you, to this wonderful family, for allowing me to share their birth story – I am forever grateful.”

Natalie Broders

“The Lovers After” by Portland Birth Photographer: Natalie Broders has received four awards.
Gold Award 2023
Best in Postpartum 2023
Best in Postpartum Members’ Choice 2023
Top 20 Award 2023

Peer Feedback for the image “The Lovers After” from other birth photographers around the world.

• “This is just unbelievable. I have no words. They made the baby. They got the baby out! What a testament to their connection and the hard work of birth. Absolutely breathtaking.”
• “Love this story telling here. Very beautiful scene. Beautiful light. My favorite”
• “What a perfect title for this image.”
• “Ok this image stopped me in my scroll. The juxtaposition of these two is something we don’t often see and yet it still feels so intimate and stunning.”
• “What a stunning capture. Love.”
• “Oh gosh, I’m so in love with this image. Their expression is worth 1000 words, it really makes me feel the moment, the relief and the hard work it took to have this little creature with them. Congratulations for such a beautiful capture! Alina G. Vincenti”

Judge Feedback for the image “The Lovers After” from world-renowned birth photographers.

“I love the title, this image is like the release after the great peak. It’s just gorgeous. And to capture that, it tells such a story of what’s come before. It’s a bit of a choose your own adventure of how we got to this point. And you can just feel the relief on everyone’s face, it’s so beautiful.”

Jershua Sutton, Birth Artist / Doula / Filmmaker

“There’s so much to see in this. I love the condensation on the window, it gives me a sense of heat. And all the detail in the background, what’s happened, the drink bottles, all the parts to this. I love this as well and I agree with Jerusha. The way that it’s been captured and just the fact that it HAS been captured is so powerful. It’s not something I’ve ever seen before and yet it’s something that happens. And it may have only been for a short period of time that they both were in this place. Beautiful work and well done to the photographer for seeing this moment and actually having the guts to capture this intimate quiet moment. It’s a beautiful moment and I’m sure this family will look back at it and either laugh at how exhausted they were or and probably love in terms of that intimacy and that beautiful moment, it’s gorgeous.”

Selena Rollason, Internatiuonal Award Winning Birth Photographer

Dad having skin to skin, mum absolutely exhausted but also so peaceful, and I love that there’s no cover over them either. It gives me a sense that it could be hot. It’s so intimate but I’m allowed in for this glimpse. There’s so much love and connection in this image without it being what we normally see as love, like the kisses and the cuddles. There’s none of that, it’s just just that hand. It’s exquisite.

Belle Verdiglione, Founder of Camera Queens

How many times have you thrown your hand out to tell your partner I’m still here, just give me a second in a post-coital and this is so deeply connected to that. She’s like I’m still here, throwing out that hand to give that little bit of touch.

The color tones in this are exquisite. The tonal ranges, the skin tones, I notice the greens and orange in there, it’s just such a beautiful combination of all of this really really juicy yummy skin tones. And the blues are still blues, the whites are still whites. Well done to the photographer for color grading this image, it has been handled exceptionally well. Congratulations to the artist.

Lacey Barratt, COO IAPBP

Note from Natalie:

Here are the other images I entered into the 2023 International Association of Professional Birth Photographers annual image competition that were not awarded, just for fun.

Thank you to the families for allowing me to share these images, and to the association for organizing the international image competition every year.