Boston Maternity Portraits
Whether you do it once, many times over or not at all – pregnancy is a time where the wonder and magic of the body is visible. Even though I’m a photographer, and have access to equipment and other photographers, I didn’t take many images of myself while I was pregnant. I didn’t do the monthly bump pictures. I didn’t show off my belly in candids. While it doesn’t feel like it goes by quickly – it does. I kept meaning to do it and finally around the 8th month I did – see my maternity portrait here. And I’m so glad I did.
Its a challenge to feel like getting your portrait made when you are uncomfortable and your feet are swollen and your body doesn’t feel like your own. At your maternity portrait session, you don’t have to channel some beatific and angelic ideal of motherhood. It can be about who you are, and how you are feeling right now.
Repeat Portrait Client
The last time I photographed this beautiful mom-to-be was two years ago at a mini boudoir shoot that we did for a bachelorette party. Seeing my own pregnancy announcement back in January caught her eye and she clicked through to the blog post. At 36 weeks pregnant, a lot of what I had written resonated with her. She told me that she had practically no photo evidence of her pregnancy, partly due to a lengthy struggle with infertility and partly because IVF and pregnancy itself has left her feeling not particularly photogenic. Her body had definitely changed and suddenly she was ready to document this change. To create a series of images that she can show her own daughter one day.
Her husband opted not to join in, and that was fine as this portrait session was really about embracing the new form that her body had taken. With her focus the last few years on getting pregnant and having a healthy pregnancy, she wanted documentation of it to share with her daughter – it’s part of their family story.
A New Perspective
I’ve joked in the recent sleep deprived months, that now that our son is here I can’t even remember what it was like to be pregnant. Ha! I was wrong. As soon as I saw that beautiful round belly, it all came flooding back. How different it was to have a child inside me than it is to wake up to his laughing face. I’m so thrilled for this mama to welcome the child for which she and her husband have wished.
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