Well some of you know that I work with moms and babies in my 'other life' and after seeing photos from Amber and others. I saw the opportunity to expand my relationship with some of the mothers and help them tell the story of their birth and the baby's first year. So with encouragement from Mike (and a few camera lessons - I know that I NEED many more, but I'm getting better) I have jumped in. Jenica is the first of the families that I will be following around with my camera over the next year.

Here are some of my favorites from Jenica's shoot. The hardest thing was that all these were shot in her bedroom after dark and in about 6 feet of space, I was on the bed and under it for some of the shots. It was great fun and I am looking forward to photographing her birth (which should be any day now!)

Click here for the slideshow

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love the last two!

Looks great to me! Much better than my first Maternity shoot!

Great job! The 2nd is FABULOUS and the 3rd is cool. I'm only a fan of the last picture pose IF the belly button looks decent Look forward to pics from the birth (not the ACTUAL birth, but you know).

Just curious, but why didn't you re-touch the stretch marks? Did the women not care? Did she request no-retouching?

Very cute family! Good job!

Those are great! I love A lot of the B&W's!

Thanks guys.

Aaron,

Well the reason why I didn't touch up her stretch marks...

While photographing her she was more interested in showing off who she is, a soon to be mom of 4 children. She wanted to remember everything about this pregnancy and how she is at the moment, flaws and all. This is baby #4 and the stretch marks are really part of who she is. Plus her husband asked me not to make her look like a 'fashion model' or 'posed' and to get her laughing more because that's who she really is.

I guess I really did not see them as a problem being a mom of 3 myself (stretch marks included). I also don't have Photoshop on my laptop and could not edit them more than I did in lightroom. I'll have to pry Mike off his computer and have a go at 'erasing' them and see what I can do.

Thanks for the critique, I did not see them as flaws or distractions so another perspective is helpful.

I like the feel of the slideshow and the realism of the images! Aaron brings up a good point however. I think as artists what we want for our portfolios may not be what the client wants. The good news is we can make as many versions of an image as one desires.

Love the shot of the family together, all surrounding Mom and tummy!
That's a nice way to incorporate everyone into a single shot, without losing the emotional energy of the moment. Stunning! can't wait to see more.

Rachel