A few years ago when we were living in Philadelphia, I did some head shots for Sheila for her job as a realtor.  Even after we moved, she stayed in touch with me and then a few months ago I got a very excited email from her – she was pregnant and she knew that she wanted me to do her maternity and newborn images!  I was, obviously, beyond flattered and also super excited.  Because I’ll let you in on a little secret – Sheila is gorgeous.  And she has great taste.  (If you didn’t see her maternity photos yesterday check them out HERE)   So, we started planning everything to come.  At first we were going to do a December session in time for cards, but then she asked me if I would come photograph her baby shower as well and we could do the maternity that weekend.  Although as a general rule I do not photograph parties, I will do them for former clients so I said sure and we made our plans.  A giant snowstorm, a few hours of sitting in a teeny propeller plane on the tarmac, a lost suitcase and a very late arrival later, I got to Philadelphia.  We ended up (due to my horrific day of travel) doing the maternity session the morning of her shower and then in the afternoon I arrived to shoot what turned out to be one of the most beautiful baby showers I have ever been to.  Surrounded by a ton of friends and family at a gorgeous home there was a lot of eating, talking, laughing and of course gift opening.  Even Sheila’s husband got in on it surprising her with flowers towards the end.  :)  It was so amazing to see all of these people gathered to celebrate this little baby (boy? girl? it’s a surprise!) and the mom and dad to be.  And I love that she had me there to capture it for her.

I can’t wait for April!!

Truly one of the most breathtakingly beautiful pregnant women ever, I think.  :)  And before we all hate how amazing she looks at 36 weeks it is very important to know that she is also a runner and very health conscious.  She has run (I believe) three half marathons this pregnancy or two halves and one full – including a half at 28 weeks!!    

And being the great friend that she is, we did some realllllly funny stuff.  Most of it is going to stay with just her in the fear that someone would think it was real and submit it to Awkward Family Photos.  But here’s just a little tiny hint.  This is just the tip of the iceberg  ;)

It’s scary to step outside the box.

When you stay inside the the box things don’t change.  You don’t mess up.  Your work stays the same.

It’s also pretty boring if you never step outside the box.  You never mess up.  Your work always stays the same.  Complacency sets in.

And when that happens over and over, you kind of get the “blahs.”  And the blahs are no good.  Especially when you’re looking at four sessions in 48 hours!!

Amy’s session was my breaking out of the box and banishing the “blahs”.  I had been pretty “eh” about myself and my work recently.  Her session helped me out of my funk and helped me love my camera again.  It definitely helped me love maternity all over again!!  We set up three gorgeous, fun outfits and two locations.  Add to that a beautiful momma-to-be who knows how to stand and who is an absolute natural as well as some yummy light and great backdrops and you have the cure for the blahs.  I didn’t do anything totally ground breaking here.  But for ME it was something different and outside of MY box.  I had total say on locations and a lot of say in the outfits.  The poses were about 50/50.  But I love love love what we came up with together and I hope you do, too.  :)

(John I know you hate this sweater but I actually really love this photo  )