Not Just a Travel Photographer
Over the last 9 months you may have noticed the lack of updates on my website, and for this I must apologise, however I have been rather busy growing my son; I have still been out and about shooting but mainly around the UK, and have created some fabulous images that no-one has been given the opportunity to see, until now! Over the next few weeks I have scheduled a number of blog posts to go live so that I can keep you entertained while I learn a very new skill; but for this post I thought I’d show you my maternity photoshoot images.
For many people who are at the end of their pregnancies the term “nesting” is thrown around, usually meaning tidying and preparing your home for your new arrival – well our home is always tidy (yes I am a total neat freak and everything must always be perfect and spotless) and my husband and I renovated it to our exact needs over the last two years – so my version of nesting is somewhat different, it’s getting all of my work done before my little boy makes his arrival into this beautiful world, which we are very excited to explore with him.
Other photographers will already know this, but as a general rule, photographers hate having their own picture taken and I am no exception to this rule. In fact I dislike it so much that I wouldn’t even consider letting someone else take a set of images of me as I know only too well how hard it can be to get the angle just right; so you may be wondering how I have maternity images – the simple answer is a tripod, a remote shutter control app and a lot of patience! After a significant amount of research I made the decision to do two set of images, one set at 7 months and one final set at 9 months; the logic being that at 7 months most women are still comfortable and energetic, but at 9 months you just don’t know – so leaving it all to the end was too big a gamble for me to take.
As this is a totally new style of photography for me it did take me a long time to imagine the shots I wanted, both personally and for a portfolio should I ever choose to go down this route when I am UK based, but I eventually got there. The next issue for me to overcome was lighting; I have no professional lighting gear and am very reluctant to purchase any due to my love of natural light – so weather prediction and monitoring the area where I planned to shoot over a few days was essential, but thankfully I found a good time of day for my shoot and sent myself off for a manicure and French polish (see earlier note about being a perfectionist!!!) for those close up belly shots!
seven months and the first shoot
In all honesty this shoot was nerve wracking as I just didn’t know how it was going to turn out having never done anything like it before; with travel photography I have a self-confidence that comes from years of experience, but this is very different and very personal which makes looking at the shots afterwards a total nightmare as I was much more critical than usual, although that could be because I don’t usually like images of myself – and these are very much just me with nothing on!
nine months and the final shoot
Thankfully at 9 months I was still full of energy and my bump was lovely and tidy, but after the stress of the last shoot I was dreading this one, I can’t put into words how tricky shooting yourself is – setting up the shot, getting in the right place, making sure the light is right, focal points – NIGHTMARE! But I persevered and I really do love this final set of images, and I hope that you do too:
Well there you have it, I bet you didn’t think you’d be seeing that much of me in this post but I figure that I should try not to be shy; I have shot tribal groups who show a considerable amount more on a daily basis with no “in-built” shame and all my “naughty bits” are tastefully covered – I keep telling myself it’s like a holiday picture in a bikini and that keeps me sane and stops me deleting the post, well for now anyway!
The reason for this blog post is not exhibitionism (I would much prefer the images to be of someone else but needs must, I am the only pregnant person I know…); it’s to showcase them in case I do decide to offer maternity and newborn portraiture while I am based in Lancaster this year, something I am seriously considering.
I will of course be taking millions of images of my son once he arrives and I promise not to make my Coole Photography blog a personal one, but I will showcase a selection of him as well for those who like to see my non-travel imagery – in fact I may just make a new area on my website so that you can view portraiture if that’s what you fancy, or travel if that’s what brought you here – it’s a good thing I’m married to a web designer, I feel a new design coming on!
