Congratulations! I am honored to be the photographer you chose to capture and record the beauty of your pregnancy. The following suggestions can help make the most of your maternity photo shoot, and enhance the quality of your pregnancy images. Please print these and follow them carefully to ensure success for your portraits:
*Please allow about 2 hours for your maternity photo session. Please do not schedule any other appointments or activities for right after your photo shoot, so that you can relax and enjoy your photo session, and not feel rushed.
*For an hour or two before your photo shoot, please do not wear any tight fitting clothes, or clothes with elastic, especially around your belly. This can leave marks or indentations on your skin that take hours to go away, and you won’t want those marks on your images!
*Please put a moisturizing lotion on your belly right before you come to your photo shoot, and on any other dry skin that you might have. Dry skin does not look well in photos. Please use a regular lotion, with no shimmer, glitter, or sparkle to it.
*Please have your hands and feet manicured, as they will show in many of your portraits. A french manicure or clear nail polish photographs MUCH better than colored polish, especially in black and white portraits. Many of your maternity portraits will be in black and white.
*You can wear your makeup as you normally would, while using only makeup with matte finishes. Please DO NOT wear any makeup that is sparkly, shimmery, or glittery, as this kind of makeup does NOT photograph well. You may want to add a little bit more mascara than you usually wear, to enhance the eyes in your portraits. Also, feel free to bring along your translucent powder for touch ups during your shoot. The bright lights used in photography can make even normal skin look shiny.
*If you can still wear your wedding ring, please bring it, and make sure it is clean and sparkly. You may also bring any jewelry that is special to you. You’ll want to keep your jewelry subtle, so that it doesn’t detract from the focus on the belly.
*Please bring any special toy or gift that you have for the new baby that you would like included in your portraits. Tiny newborn shoes are cute for this. Also, please bring one of your ultra sound photos of baby in utero, if you have one.
Clothes to bring for your maternity photo shoot:
*Please bring low cut (so that it doesn’t show on the belly) beige underwear, and a beige colored strapless bra. You will be wrapped in sheer fabrics for some of your images, and you don’t want your undergarments to stick out or show through.
*Please do NOT bring any baggy maternity clothes to wear in your portraits. The focus of maternity portraits is on the pregnant belly, therefore you need to bring clothes that fit well, and show off the beauty, shape and form of your expanding belly.
*Please only brings clothes and undergarments that are solid colored. Prints of any kind do not photograph well in maternity images.
*Please bring a pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. It’s ok if you can’t button them up, as long as they fit nicely everywhere except the belly.
*Please bring in a few pre-pregnancy camisoles and/or tank tops. Don’t worry that they do not cover your whole belly; we will be having you push up the bottom of your tank top or camisole in order to highlight the belly.
*If you happen to have a solid colored, strapless swimsuit top, please bring it.
*Tight fitting skirts or dresses may photograph well.
*You may bring a short jean jacket if you have one. Shrugs can also photograph well in pregnancy portraits.
*Please bring any other pretty, form fitting, solid colored shirts that you like. Texture or lace photographs well.
*Extra options- Feel free to bring lacy black underwear and matching bra, or other lingerie if you would like. These can photograph well if you’d like more intimate images. Lacy, boy shorts photograph best for many.
We may not use all of the clothes you bring, but it is good to have several options.
Please come to your photo shoot fed and well rested. How you feel shows up in your images. Relax, enjoy yourself, and bring your partner to the photo shoot to be in some of the portraits if you’d like. Make sure his or her hands and nails are clean and well groomed also, as they will show in the portraits. We may ask Dad to remove his shirt for some shots, but he can always say no! If you bring Dad, have him wear a pair of jeans, and a plain solid colored shirt.
We look forward to photographing you at this special time in your life!