Maternity Photography Session
One of the most common questions that I ask clients is “Do you know how to pose?”.
In the last twenty-plus years, I’ve had an opportunity to work and/or learn from some of the world’s amazing photographers. One of the key elements in their workflow is the ability to pose their subjects. Here’s the reality, unless a person is an aspiring and/or professional model, (s)he doesn’t know how the pose. In fact, I can count on 2 hands, how many people/couples I’ve seen who were able to pose with respect to the light/camera, etc. Ok, I’m done ranting – so why is it important, why is posing important? It is because the slightest angle/curve can make all the difference in achieving a flattering image. Back to my question – Do you know how to pose? More often, when the answer is ‘No’ it means I’ll have a successful session.
When Patricia first reached out to us, one of the unique aspects of her session (besides that she knew all of the details of the maternity package she wanted) was the time frame – early in the morning, like 8:30am. Most clients prefer the evening time of 5pm and on, but her request was early morning. Unique & different, I had a feeling the session would be special. As we emailed back and forth and as we got closer to the day, once again – being an outdoor session, we had to make sure the weather was in our favor. The night before we confirmed the time/place and we were ready to go.
Meeting Milton and Patricia was a pleasure from the start. They were both very genuine people, full of kindness, love and admiration for each other.
I always start with simple classic high-school-prom poses, to see the comfort level of my clients and further guide them. Since my couple didn’t know how to pose, they followed and allowed every little adjustment and pose to take place. We went from pose to pose, location to location, to create a gallery of images for them, allowing Patricia and Milton to remember this moment for many many years to come.
There’s a school of thought where a session style shouldn’t intermingle, case in point, don’t mix high contrast wedding look with angelic maternity. I’ve been a believer of mixing styles. To incorporate different genres into one photograph. I’ve done similar poses before and fellow photographers often ask to describe them – I remember the day when I finally proposed to my wife and gave her the ring. It symbolized that she’s mine now and is in stock with me 🙂 . Here, in this image, this presence of our father-to-be is evident in the ring, she’s looking at it, deep in her happy thoughts while also acknowledging that a new life is growing inside her. A life that both parents are planning for…
I love connecting couples in from of the camera, my supermodels did an outstanding job doing so. As we progressed through the location, we found a beautiful ray of sun shining through and captured a few images at this location.
One of the advantages of working outdoors is the ability to utilize the current environment and architecture. The bond of this couple, surrounded by pillars of concrete, to me, represents the strong foundation of the family that this child will be growing.
This image is very special to me personally. First and foremost, working in tunnels allows for creating a very specific look. Second, the overall architecture of the location is unique in itself. Honestly, I felt bad for Pat and Milton, b/c this was a tough shot to get…. first I have sunlight in the background at the end of the tunnel, then I have sunlight in front of the tunnel and light behind them… all of these aspects needed to be carefully controlled on top of other limitation of physics 🙂 wide apertures and a couple who are a bit tired (wink wink). I give them a lot of credit for the patience they had to create these images.
Overall, I personally was happy with the way this session turned out, can’t wait to finish editing this session and delivering it to my couple who “Do not know how to pose” 🙂
