A Peaceful Shoot with Baby on the Way

I love working with clients over the years and seeing how their lives evolve. I met this young woman when she needed headshots for work. Then a few years later, she wanted engagement photos for she and her fiance. And now I just had the privilege of celebrating her pregnancy by capturing images of this special time. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were many inspiring props and places to shoot at her house. At first, I had her sit on a tan rug with a very organic shape that mirrored her belly. The colors in her house are creams and whites and so the color was so soft and muted in the images. Then the shadows in one of the rooms captured the shape of her belly. Her husband went out to pick some tulips. They looked like a metaphor for my client's growing baby, as they were blooming so beautifully too. And then, as luck would have it, my client had pink pants that matched the tulips. I could never have planned this! And that's what makes these shoots so special.

New York Newborn

And this is why I love my job. It was a Sunday morning in July on a bright sunny day. A client that I had photographed over the years: first the daughters, then the engagement pictures and now the 4 day old baby. Watching the whole family grow and evolve. I was so honored to be there with the new baby and the support team (both sets of grandparents and the new aunt). All sorts of new roles and a new person to love. And over the course of it all, I was so reminded of the way that babies make you stop and pay attention. And there is no schedule. And all these emotions came up in the course of a couple hour shoot: happiness, wonder, exhaustion and frustration. A new baby creates an intense microcosm of life distilled down to its basics.

A lovely pregnant mom shoot

A fun shoot with Lydia, a pregnant mom, and her son, Lars. It was a lovely sunny day. Lars was full of energy and joy, and there was a great connection between mother and son. I shot while they played around in the beautiful light streaming through sheer window curtains. Then we went outside for some photos in their big, open yard. When Lars finally tired out, Lydia and I went back inside and captured some wonderful photos of her in the beauty of her pregnancy. We explored some yoga poses. I photographed her playing her cello. And she draped herself in fabric; dancing against a black backdrop. It was a really special session.

Sunday afternoon family shoot in Fairfield

Amy used a family get-together to create this family portrait session at her Fairfield home. We spent some time doing shots against a backdrop and then had some fun outdoors with her son, her brother, her parents and her brother's dog. This was meaningful to me because the last time I had worked with Amy, her son was a baby. Some images from that shoot to come.