There’s this magical time near the end of pregnancy when you are still two, and your life as a couple is still full of so many of the things that have filled your days together since becoming a pair. So soon your life will change in the most beautiful and drastic of ways.
And even though decorating the Christmas Tree, baking cookies, playing the piano, playing board games, and living room dance parties will still be a part of your life, they’ll be oh-so-different with a babe on your hip or little fingers making their own kind of “music” and finding their way to all the delicate and messy things!
The classic maternity portrait is a beautiful tribute to the growing, stretching body, ripe with the promise of new life. But it forgets about the story that gets us there. I love maternity sessions that honor the life before baby arrives. The preparation, the anticipation, and the last weeks of life before a new chapter begins. So my documentary maternity sessions focus on telling that story.
Getting to capture that brief in-between of the two-almost-three moment in time is so fun. I love getting to know a pair before parenthood changes each individual, as well as the dynamics of the relationship itself, in a seismic shift. It’s especially fun for me to do a session like this for clients who’ve invited me to document their birth story and newborn phase, as was the case with this gorgeous couple.
In this case, it boiled down to “how do you spend a Sunday afternoon together?” So we started their session with them adding a super-sweet, framed ultrasound photo of their sweet baby to the Christmas tree.
After that, they headed to the kitchen to bake cookies. But not before giving their sweet doggos a treat first. Another fun thing about in-home sessions is getting to capture that special relationship with your furry babies who will always hold a certain place in your heart, but who — let’s face it — are about to get knocked down a peg once a tiny human needs you to keep them alive.
Baking cookies brought out genuine laughter and smiles. And led to some natural, intimate moments of sweet smooches and even a moment of admiring and appreciating that beautiful bump — the temporary home to their growing baby.
While the cookies had their time in the oven, the parents-to-be took a seat at the piano bench. When you’re a piano teacher, your husband does his best to learn and keep up. (And can’t you just picture them a few years from now with a kiddo between them learning “Hot Cross Buns?”)
The timer went off and the cookies came out. Add a couple glasses of milk, and it was the perfect accompaniment to one of their favorite games to play together (and one of my own personal favorites, too!) — Blokus!
We ended their session in the sweetest way. They put “their song” on and had the most tender living-room dance party I’ve ever witnessed. It was such a beautiful book-end on, not only to our documentary photo session, but also to that chapter of their family’s story… the one where it’s just the two of them.
