What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of maternity pictures? It could be anything from maternity photos of famous celebrities on magazine covers in some dramatic pose or setting to something more simple that you saw on a Pinterest board of pregnancy photos. But if I stopped five pregnant women on the street and asked them what they think of when they think of maternity pics, I’m sure you’d get at least five different answers!
Why do I bring that up? Every woman is different, every family situation is different and your pregnancy pictures should reflect that. What appeals to the art director of that celebrity magazine may not be your style at all but maybe there are elements of the image that you like. You might have seen some lovely nudes from a maternity session that your friend did but you just know that you are not comfortable being completely naked but you like the idea of creating something similar, just not so revealing. Think of all the different maternity pictures that you like, try and pinpoint what it is about those images that really appeals to you and make note of it. You might start to see a pattern, maybe you will see that you gravitate towards black and white images, maybe all the images you have selected have an air of performance to them (think back to those celebrity magazines) or maybe, like me, you like a few different looks since there are days you feel like completely different people (those crazy hormones!)
Choose your maternity photographer based on samples of what they show on their website. If they show very beautiful outdoor maternity images in sunsets, on beaches, in the deep dark scary woods…they might not be comfortable or able to create the classic style of black and white nude maternity photos that you were also looking for. You might also need to be realistic. If you want that outdoor sunset beach session, how are you going to fit that in time wise with a studio session for the rest of the images (unless your photographer has a studio five minutes away from the beach) Sometimes the solution is to choose a photographer who is able to do the style of photography you like for the pregnancy photos that really speak to your heart and save the others for next time.