Making Maternity an Enjoyable Time

Maternity photos... Either you love them or you despise them. It's a trend that is nothing new, but becoming more and more popular as looking pregnant is "in".
Just a few years ago, women tended to wear loose, baggy, and concealing clothes to disguise that bundle of joy maturing within them. Nowadays, I see more women wearing tighter fitting, almost what is deemed "fashionable" outfits to celebrate and show-off their current state.
Whether you feel it is appalling or amazing, I enjoy shooting maternity photos for these reasons:
-Just as any photograph does, it captures "that" moment in your life in "that" state.
-It gives me great joy watching the expectant mother and father react, pose, and share a special bond in front of the camera.
-Wouldn't be great to have the child see those memories of their parents once they are all grown and an adult?
-It allows the parents celebrate the miracle of birth in a different and fun way.

Let's face it, pregnancy is a challenge and trying time for any women. Even for us men acting in a support role, it has it's challenges. Create an enjoyable time during your 9 months of love, happiness, and hell and get some images taken.

One Light Can Work Wonders

A couple of weeks ago I set out to do some test shots of Emily, a lovely and outgoing local who is considering getting into modeling. I was asked to do some "test shots" too assist her in finding her own level of comfort while being in front of the lens as well as gauge what type of photography and modeling she would be most suited for.
We started the session in the studio with some simple head shots. We later ended up taking a short 10 minute drive to a small field and rural back-road for some more charismatic themed shots during the last minutes of daylight.
All that was used was a single speedlight coupled to an 43" relflective umbrella placed at various axis around the Emily and the camera. Once in post processing, I gave the images a bit of lomographic curve (which I tend to do lot) and crushed the blacks a tiny bit. Here are the results...

Getting Cultural

I recently did a collaboration with a fellow photographer and artist Kelsey Beacco of Kel Z photography. I met Kelsey last winter during a benefit for Haiti at a local art gallery. I became an instant fan of her work as well as her personality and abilities to exhibit creativity both in front of and behind the camera. We had been wanting to collaborate for a while and finally a day came where both our schedules were congruent enough to hit the streets of Ogden for an afternoon.

The concept and credit goes to her on this one, for she came up with the entire concept and theme of this shoot. All I did was pick the locations, capture the frames, and make the edits.

Kelsey was cool enough to help me step out of my comfort zone and go for a complete natural light setup... If you know me, I always drag my flashes and umbrellas around with me no matter where I shoot. The sky happened to be completely overcast, eliminating all harsh shadows and creating the perfect "natural softbox" to utilize at our discretion. Cloudy days are great for shooting natural light portraits, as long as we are careful not to show the gray sky itself, since it is so flat and boring.

I love the end images from this shoot and I am glad to have been able to collaborate with someone as talented as Kelsey.