Maternity Photoshoot

I’m not usually one for opting in to a photo shoot, but I decided to book one with a friend for some maternity shots!

I generally find being in front of a camera really awkward. When Tom and I got married, hiring a great photographer to capture the highlights of our day was really important to me – people always told me that your wedding day flies by so having photos to look back at is a great idea. Sure enough, we often look at our wedding photos and it does really bring back memories and details we would have forgotten – and we also see glimpses of the day that we missed!

As part of the wedding photography package our photographer took us for a pre-wedding shoot – to give us a chance to get to know him and his directions, and also to get comfortable in front of the camera. We decided to keep it very casual, not dressing up and just picking a Liverpool park as the backdrop – our best efforts to keep things natural. It was a good experience as it did get us more used to his personality and way of doing things. However, it still felt pretty awkward and you can see it our faces/body language in some of the shots. Same with some of the more “staged” shots from our wedding – don’t get me wrong, the photographer was amazing and I’d highly recommend him to anyone, I simply don’t understand how some people look so casual and natural in professional photographs…

So why on earth did I choose to book a maternity photo session? As you may have discovered from my Pregnancy Diaries so far, pregnancy hasn’t been the easiest or best experience for me – I thought some photos to look back on as a nice memory might be a good idea!

My friend Hannah is a great photographer and I’d seen photos she took with other friends so reached out to her to book a session. We decided to try and get shots with the spring blossoms, but I wanted to wait until I really looked pregnant. We had a date scheduled but a few days before I just didn’t feel like I looked round enough for the shoot, so we rescheduled for a couple weeks later and thankfully some trees at Queen Elizabeth Park were still in full bloom!

I had a bit of trouble choosing an outfit. The only maternity clothes I had were my overalls or ill-fitting jeans which didn’t seem right for this – I ordered a dress online but it didn’t arrive in time, so I tried on a few dresses in my wardrobe and a few still fit over my growing bump. I settled on this dress and my customised denim jacket. I bought these shoes in Target on our last trip to the US before the pandemic and hadn’t worn them yet, so I took them for the photos and wore my trusty Birks for walking around! I think it turned out ok!

Hannah said we should get to the park around an hour before sunset, we did and she absolutely gushed over the lighting, it really made me laugh – which was great for the photos! We had fun finding the good blossoms and then waiting for people walk by to continue shooting. Hannah was determined to get the shots she wanted, even lying down on the path at one point. Again – natural smiles can be seen in these photos! Overall we had a good time shooting the photos (despite one onlooker advising Hannah how to take a better photo…) and I loved what Hannah sent over a couple weeks later.

I’ve shared a selection of my favourite above!