A maternity session celebrates a time of anticipation and tenderness. For Cara and Alex’s session at home, I wanted to create images that reflect their lives as they are in this moment. Cara is my stepsister, and I always feel so comfortable working with her. That feeling made it easier to push myself creatively. I experimented with lighting, shadows, films, and blur. The result is maternity photos that feel like this sweet time in the family’s life.
An In-home Maternity Session
Having a maternity session at home gives a chance for the whole family to be involved. With young kids, this can be easier because they can do everyday activities that are familiar to them. There’s something special about documenting those moments, too. Because they fill our everyday lives, it’s easy to forget to photograph them.
We started off this maternity session with Cara and her older child Silas making lemonade for the family. Everyone was immediately at ease while Silas squeezed lemons into the glass pitcher. I took the chance to use a film for one photo of the whole family in the kitchen. It captures that dreamy feeling you get when you’re spending a weekend afternoon with your favorite people.
Making lemonade translated really well to Polaroid too. The image of Cara and Silas measuring out ingredients has such a vintage feeling. It looks like it could have been taken in 1972 instead of 2022. 35mm film and Polaroid portray a natural warmth in maternity sessions. (You can see more film maternity photos here.)
Creative Maternity Photos
When I do a parenthood or maternity session, I really want to encompass what it feels like to be in this stage of your family. Whether you’re expecting your first child or have one on the way with another attached to your leg, it’s important to document your family in its most genuine form.
That might be why my favorite maternity photos from this session are from the cuddle session in Alex and Cara’s room. This is what we all hope parenthood will feel like – warm, joyful, inviting. Plenty of laughter is ideal, too.
Even though I like to document everyday moments creatively, I also photograph a few portraits where everyone is looking at the camera. Most people want at least one image that would be beautifully framed or on a holiday card. Still the bulk of this maternity session focused on the tangible moments that evoke so much emotion.
For this session, that looked like slightly blurry images of Silas playing by his mom’s legs and jumping on the bed. The moments of him snuggling into Cara’s belly are so specific to this time for their family and so loving. I’m so glad that Cara and Alex wanted to preserve these gestures with photos.
Preserving This Moment
After the at-home portion of the maternity session, we headed down the road to a local farm. Alex and Cara live in Saline, Michigan. This town features a historic downtown and is only twenty minutes from Ann Arbor. Beautiful land and small farms surround the area. Cara happens to love horses, so I was so excited to learn that we would be visiting a horse farm for part of this session.
In the pasture, Cara and Alex posed with Silas for some more formal photos. Then they enjoyed being with the horses. The light really was exceptional this evening. So close to sunset, gold illuminated the horses and even transformed the dust around Cara’s boots into a dreamy haze. I love that we were able to do a mix of indoor and outdoor photos for this session. It gave a fuller sense of the family’s life as it is now.
Once we finished petting the horses, we headed back to Cara and Alex’s house. Silas wanted more snuggles. These images are contenders for my favorites in the gallery. I cropped some of the photos in close to draw the focus in on Silas and Cara’s sweet interactions. So much emotion radiates from these images.
Would you like me to photograph your parenthood or maternity session? Let’s preserve this moment in your family’s life with creative photos that feel true. Reach out to me today!
