What I’ve learned while being in front of the camera | Our Maternity Photos

It’s been 6 years since our wedding and we’ve had our pictures taken professionally three times since then (3 year anniversary, 5 year anniversary, and now these maternity photos!). Every time I get in front of the camera, I try to take away a tip that I can bring to my own photo sessions. So here are a few things I’ve learned over the years while I was the subject in a photo shoot 🙂 

1. Pamper yourself! Get your makeup or hair done (or both!). I’m pretty terrible at doing my own hair in a fancy way, so for the last 2 shoots, that’s what I splurged on. My hair is long and tends to get frizzy, so it’s going to look 100x better (and I will FEEL 100x better) in photos if a professional does it instead of me.

2. If a pose feels weird or unnatural, tell your photographer. They’ll either change it up, or give you a good reason why they are asking you to do it. I remember during our Hawaii photo shoot, the photographer kept having me point my toe behind me and it felt funny, so I asked why. She said it added a bit of a whimsical vibe, which, when I looked at the photos, is totally true.

3. Pay attention to each other. That sounds obvious, but really, be present with your partner/family members and help each other feel their best and have a good time. Nate gets a funny fake smile every so often, and so when I notice it, I point it out. And doing that makes him real-smile. And he tells me when I need to wipe my brow sweat HA! 

4. Specifically maternity photo related: It’s OK if the photos are not “all about the bump” for every second of your shoot. These are your last pictures of just the two of you. Soak each other in and be in love. Be silly, make fun of each other, give each other bear hugs, be yourselves. And then resume bump photos 🙂 

OK, let’s get to OUR maternity photos. I originally didn’t want to do these. I haven’t been super body-confident during my pregnancy, and my original thought was that I didn’t want to have so many photos forever capturing this awkward time in my body’s life. But my friend Amy convinced me I should do it because it’s really a beautiful time in my life! And that’s a good point. We are so thankful for our rainbow baby, and we want to make sure Kiwi knows that. So I changed my mindset about maternity photos.

I asked my friend Ruthie, who is also pregnant, if she’d be up for a photo swap. She took my maternity photos and I will take her newborn photos later this fall! (I would’ve done her maternity pics, but the timing is right around when Kiwi is due!) And guess what? I’m so glad we have these photos. Ruthie was awesome and let us do our thing together. These photos are very us, with an emphasis on that tiny baby inside me (though I’m not looking so tiny these days :O !! ) So yeah!! Here they are!!

Thank you Ruthie for these photos! Thanks Mane + Mani for my cool hair. And thanks Nate for being cute. 😉