What an exciting (and exhausting) time in your life! Your pregnancy probably is full of ups and downs and you are feeling super anxious about finally meeting your baby. If you are here is probably because you have decided to have a maternity session to document your pregnancy , such a unique time in your life. Let me give you some super useful info to help you prepare for your maternity session in Portland, OR
How to Prepare for your Maternity Session
I usually advise having your session around the 30 to 34 weeks mark. Because of that, I recommend reaching out to book your session as soon as you can. Depending on the time of year you are due, photographers may be booked months in advance. To avoid disappointment, book early!
After you secure your date with me, I will send you a questionnaire to fill out. As your maternity photographer I like to know as much as possible about you and anyone else participating in the shoot. After I receive your questionnaire I also like to schedule a video call so that we can meet “in person” and discuss styling, location and generally just get acquainted with each other. It helps to break the ice and makes you more relaxed when we finally meet for your pregnancy session.
For the styling selection you can make use of one of my fabulous dresses I keep in my client closet. The pieces I keep have flow, color and movement which are so important for pictures. I will also help style anyone else who is involved in the session.
Your Maternity Session Day
What I hear the most from people who book pregnancy photos with me is ” you are going to have to help me because I don’t know how to pose”. Well, I have two pieces of good news if you are thinking the same. One is that I will help you the entire way! Second is I don’t pose people in the traditional sense of posing. I will be giving you all a lot of direction, prompts and plenty of space and time to be comfortable and be yourselves. That tends to be a winning combination for my shoots and one that results in natural, love-infused photos.
When we talk about locations we will discuss what type of location will be more suitable for your session. Oregon and Washington are full of amazing places and I curate beautiful locations for my clients. The Oregon Coast and Columbia River Gorge are, of course, absolutely stunning. If you are looking to stay local, I have several locations around 30 minutes from Portland to show you.
When only adults are involved I will suggest locations with a romantic and adventurous feel. If you have other kids I will give you options of locations where we can keep them engaged with the scenery.
Have any covid-19 related concerns? Read this post about all the precautions I take during our session
After the session
Once our session is done I will start working on the most time consuming part of my work. Editing the photos. I take great pride in spending time making sure your pictures look beautifully edited. My editing process is very detailed because I love to add my artistic touch to your images. My lead time for delivering your edited images is a maximum of four weeks.
Once the images are ready I will upload them to a beautiful online gallery. You will be able to view, download and share them with anyone you like. I strongly recommend downloading your pictures to a computer and backing them up somewhere safe like a flash drive or external hard drive.
If you are planning on printing the pictures, I recommend you use a quality lab such as the ones available through your gallery or if you want to do it on your own I recommend Mpix.
What happens next….
Now, onto newborn pictures…we can book your newborn pictures at the same time as your pregnancy ( you will get $150 off if you do that) or anytime after.
