A Maternity Session: Meet the Phillips

Over the course of the year I've had small families, cousins, new borns, and 3 month olds. I had an engagement shoot scheduled. The only thing missing to practice on was a pregnant mama. Before I had a client ask me to do it, I wanted to practice. Baby bellies can be tricky, but oh-so-lovely.  I called Rebecca and asked if I could use her family for a practice shoot. 

I'm so glad she said yes!

We did the shoot on a Saturday morning in downtown Norcross, Georgia.  I've learned the importance of open shade and had recently scoped out the treelined area as a good starting point.  It was also an in between meeting place for us.  To our surprise was this great red wall and the brick wall just across the street.

The other photo Rebecca desperately wanted was a silhouette shot, but not a super black/white one, but one with enough some shadowing.  I had a ton of fun reading about how to set up the shot, and then how to follow up in Lightroom to really make it pop. Rebecca had no hesitation in popping in every shop in the town to talk to folks about using their doorway.

The Phillips are always fun to be around, but Rebecca has an eye for design and photography so she knew a good bit of what she wanted, as well as cheerfully let me try some shots. Some of which worked, and others just, well, didn't.

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING:

• I used the Canon 35mm 1.4L professional portrait lens.  I rented from aperturent. I wish I had a money tree to buy that lens.
• We had pretty decent lighting and worked early enough in the morning.

SUBJECT MATTER:

• The family was super laid back and cooperative especially for a 4 and 2 year old.
• The only thing Rebecca and I laugh about is Zoe's "cheese" face.  It's such an unfortunately stage of 2-4 year olds, but at least we've all had a kid go through it. My own daughter did it this last weekend at our family shoot. Ha!

ME:

• I'm feeling more comfortable with out-of-the-box shots and taking some risky ones just to experiment
• I felt confident with the lighting for the first time in a while
• I still take super crooked pictures
• I am still cropping off a hair line, toe, finger, etc because I'm not careful to check the entirety of the frame before shooting.

Update:  Baby Henry arrived on Sunday morning!  I can't wait to meet him.  Congratulations Rebecca, Zach, Zoe and Evan.