Maternity

Maternity

Horse Ranch Maternity Session by JM Photography

Posted in: Inspire, Maternity

If you don’t have JM Photography bookmarked, I encourage you to check out her site. Jessica is an award winning photographer from Minneapolis/St.Paul, who recently submitted this outdoor maternity session. The photographs are inspirational both for their technical execution and creative approach, conveying an extraordinary amount of emotion and connection. Be sure to read Jessica’s comments below as she offers some great advice for getting the natural looks you want in-camera.

From Jessica:
This session was dreamed up by my client Dani. Her love for Nate and their horse Armani was the perfect way to capture this amazing time in their lives. Nate boards his horse at a beautiful farm out in the country in Minnesota and I was truly in heaven photographing Dani’s maternity session there! Gorgeous white fences lined with mature trees made for the perfect backdrop for this session. Armani was such a loving horse, she would nuzzle into Dani’s belly and it was just too cute and too perfect for words :)

Tips: One thing I strive for in my photography is getting things right “in camera”. I think these days with everyone being digital we tend to over process our images because there are actions galore to give you the look you want. However, if you strive for getting things right in camera, then you cut down on editing time and you truly achieve a natural gorgeous image.

For this session I wanted a beautiful sun flare look. I know there are many actions available for purchase for this, but you can actually achieve this look with out them. The key to great sun flare is to not have your lens directly shooting into the sun, nor do you want the sun totally behind you. For this session I just turned my lens slightly to the left of the sun. I also utilized a hood on my Canon 70-200 f2.8L and Canon 50 f1:2L lenses. This can also help you to filter the light in just the right way. Timing is also important for sun flare, you don’t want to shoot when the sun is on the horizon because then it’s too low to get this look. I like to start about 2 hours prior to sunset for the best flare effect.

// JM Photography // Follow on Facebook //
Maternity Shoot Featuring Cupcakes

Posted in: Inspire, Maternity

I love it when photographers push their own style and try something new –it’s how one grows as an artist. This session from Tiger Lily Photography combines playful and relaxed candid shots with some traditional portraits that are very loving. It also features one of my favorite compositional elements — cupcakes :) These maternity portraits showcase mom’s identity, not just in appearance but in what she loves to do. It tells the story of mom and dad while baby is still ‘a bun in the oven’. Do you have a session coming up that could incorporate elements of story? Share your ideas with us and leave comments for Lauren below.

Lauren Walker is a photographer in Sydney, Australia.

‘Bun in the Oven’
This Maternity Session was with the owner of Classic Cakes in and around her home in Sydney. It’s the first time I’ve really tried a ‘styled’ session of sorts. We picked the ‘bun in the oven’ theme because of her cake making & decorating business.

// Tiger Lily Photography //
Maternity Photography from Erika Laurice

Posted in: Maternity

We’re following yesterday’s baby portraits with a maternity session from Erika Laurice, a photographer from Stillwater, MN (just outside St. Paul). After looking over some of the other maternity sessions featured on Inspire Me Baby this past year, I realized how fabulous all of these expectant mothers look — thanks to fantastic styling, aura-filled settings, and talented, patient photographers. This session from Erika is no exception. Her wisdom is simple and inspirational – Bring out the best in your mammas by making them feel beautiful. Connecting emotionally is so important to capture the beauty and excitement of expectant mothers. Cowboy boots don’t hurt either. Enjoy and please leave your comments below.

From Erika:
I love to photograph maternity sessions because it gives me the opportunity to make a woman feel beautiful when she probably feels the opposite. You have to be very particular when posing for a maternity session because it isn’t always easy to get a pregnant woman in a flattering pose. This particular session I didn’t have a problem with that but sometimes you might have to ask her to push her tummy out, especially when they are laying down. I also try to tell her how great she looks throughout the session and that usually helps with capturing natural expressions. Otherwise she might feel very self conscious.

// Erika Laurice Photography // Follow Erika on Facebook //

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Inspire: Maternity Session at the Beach by Studio Cee Photography

Posted in: Inspire, Maternity

Since summer is coming soon, I thought this session by Studio Cee Photography & Design would be a great inspiration for doing maternity sessions at the beach. Really simple, yet beautiful, hopefully these maternity photographs can give you some ideas for not only location but simple outfits for your client and how to accentuate that baby bump.

From Studio Cee Photography: This young couple is expecting twins in July. We met at this amazing beach around 1.5 hours before sunset. It was a little overcast during the day but during the shoot it was pretty amazing. They were both troopers in climbing up rocks to get a great shot. The first shot where they are situated between the two large rocks was a “magical” shot to me. That is what I told them after I took it. I couldn’t wait to get home and process it.

// By Studio Cee Photography // Follow on Facebook //
Maternity / Family Photo & Video Session by Fresh Art Photography

Posted in: Family, Inspire, Maternity

Jodie and Kim of Fresh Art Photography submitted this gorgeous maternity / family session. You’ll notice that a lot of the same great qualities come up with our featured sessions and this one is no exception: simple, well styled, and not overly processed.

They also offer a unique idea to offer your own clients: videos. Videos are becoming easier to create now that our SLRs have video capability. You might want to look into outsourcing the editing or learning how to edit videos yourself. Just another way to set yourself apart!

dear lucy from jodie allen on Vimeo.

From Fresh Art Photography: Kim and I wanted to offer our maternity clients something special to add onto their session and knew our videos were the direction we wanted to go. Our birth videos are so popular with our clients we knew this would be a great progression but we also knew we needed to practice! Thank goodness our friend, Emily Southerland, who is also a local St. Louis photographer, is pregnant! We are already booked to do her newborn photos so last weekend we grabbed her and her sweet family to practice this idea on. It took hours of phone chats between Emily and I to come up with the final idea but it was so so worth it! She used to teach high school English so writing (in journals and blogging) and reading is a huge passion for her. We wanted to take that passion and turn it into a maternity session+video! We also did other photos that day with them so they could have some that weren’t so set-up (really pre-set shoots isn’t usually our style so we wanted to do some more “normal” photos for them too) but we wanted to share this part of the session and the video. Doing planned sessions can seem daunting and definitely take a ton more time but we are finding that when you take that extra time to make it so personal for your clients they respond in a huge way! Emily emailed us this morning and said she couldn’t stop watching the video! SO happy she was so pleased and SO excited to do another one in April for a new family! I also need to mention that we ended up hiring a stylist, Katie Mohr, to work with us when we do sessions like this and she’s been invaluable! When I’m videotaping and Kim’s shooting Katie’s there to pose the clients, watch for stray hairs and really just watch for all the tiny details we may miss while we’re concentrating on our cameras. She’s been a huge blessing to our business and so fun to work with! We wanted to share this because it’s hard, I think, for photographers to branch out when business is good as is. But if you can find a friend, practice a new idea and just play, really fun stuff can happen!

// By Fresh Art Photography // Follow on Facebook //