I haven’t done a lot of maternity sessions before because whenever I look up maternity pictures on Pinterest or anywhere else, I’m always disappointed in what I find. I have found that there are two main ways people photograph pregnant women: 1) They cheese it up with lots of cutesy props. blocks, spelling the baby’s name, laid out across a bare belly. baby shoes, crowns… or the worst one I’ve seen was, red stitching drawn on the woman to make her belly look like a giant baseball. YIKES!  and 2) seems to be the exact opposite. they eliminate all props and in fact take it a step further and eliminate all clothing and wrap the woman is some strange sheer fabric. Don’t get me wrong, I think pregnancy is beautiful! My philosophy on maternity pictures, and well on any pictures really- is that if you wouldn’t normally do it, why would you do it in front of a camera? Do you normally draw on your round pregnant belly? Do you normally walk around wearing nothing but shear fabric? So why would you for a picture?

I studied art in college, so I get the need to be creative and adventurous with your work. However, I feel that there are times in life that are beautiful just as they are. These times require no extras, no props, no artistic measures. They just need to be captured, as is.

Arin is my beautiful little sister and has been my model many times. We took these pictures at our parents house on one of our regular visits there. As you can see we didn’t do anything fancy, a plain wall, a chair and a couch were the only props we used and yet I think these pictures capture Arin’s little, round, 9 month belly, perfectly.