A wedding photographer in Northport, Alabama, shared that she recently lost $5,000 of equipment during a wedding weekend. According to her, she jumped into a pool to save a girl whom she noticed was underwater and struggling to resurface.
The photographer is Lauren Birmingham, who shared her story on TikTok. She shares her content online, but mostly on Instagram. However, the clip attached above became her biggest ever, garnering 170,000 views, 27,200 likes, and close to 1,000 comments.
The Alabama woman explained that, over the weekend, she was working at a wedding, and, at the time, was hearing her harness with some of her equipment on. She was close to a pool, and people were all around it.
At one point, Lauren noticed a young girl, probably a two-year-old, pushing one of the pool’s resin chairs toward the deep water. Suddenly, the chair tipped over the edge of the pool, and she attempted to crawl on top of it. Of course, the resin chair didn’t float, but she didn’t know that.
“It [the resin chair] goes down underwater,” Lauren said. “And then she goes down underwater. […] I knew that this was about to be bad.“
Saving A Girl
Instinctively, she rushed toward the pool. On the way, she managed to put another camera down, which she had used for about 90% of the event. Still, she had her other Canon R6 camera, her 65mm 1.2 lens, two batteries, her keys, her AirPods, her Apple Watch, a Holdfast harness, and a Gatta bag with her.
As soon as she reached the edge of the pool, she tried to reach the girl, to no avail. Then, she jumped into the water.
“She couldn’t swim, so she couldn’t get above the water,” the Alabama photographer explained. “And drowning can happen so fast and so quickly, and you don’t have time to take off a camera or do it.”
Lauren managed to lift the girl above the water, and someone helped her get the girl out of the pool. She then became fully aware that she had damaged some of her gear for good, worth about $5,000. Still, she didn’t regret a thing, later writing in her clip’s description, “Forever thankful I was in the right place at the right time, and I would do it all again, camera and all.”
Internet Hails Her As Hero
The video sparked multiple responses.
The vast majority of viewers showered the woman with praise, correctly saying that she had saved the girl’s life. One wrote, “You literally saved it ALL from a complete tragedy! Bless you for being an amazing human.” Another one commented, “Cameras can be replaced. You saved her. That is all that matters. YOU. SAVED. HER.“
Other viewers offered to help her. One viewer asked, “Do you need to borrow a camera body? Lenses? Where are you located?” Others were worried about Lauren, with one writing, “Are you okay? That’s a pretty traumatic experience.”
Fortunately, according to Lauren, she was doing just fine. She has ordered gear replacement, and fortunately, a GoFundMe she set up is close to reaching its goal. It appears that she will be back in business shortly.
