Photographed My First Maternity Session… And Found A great Local Photo Space.

First I must say that good people make the difference. And I have been fortunate so far. This day was no different. Met the Mother while at a recent wedding…

Wedding Session Afterthoughts: FUJIFILM GF 80mm f/1.7 R WR.

…as she assisted the bridesmaids, bride,…

…and the bride’s mother…

…all get ready.

Good people.

The client was a person of their word. She mentioned that she wanted to take some maternity photos, took my card,… and contacted me. Nice.

The day was chosen and the only thing left was securing a location. The first site she suggested was no surprise.

Duke Gardens.

As stated in this space, it is a beautiful location that I regularly use to test out and compare gear.

But… I have yet to use it for a photo session. Why? I am glad I imagined that you asked.

The everyone and their mother issue. It is often very crowded. Can be a challenge to capture images when and where you want.
Samey pic issue. Many, many photographers use this space. Nothing wrong with that, but I would prefer something different.
Price. $150 for an hour on the weekend and for small groups. Prices go up from there.
- Compounding this is that current construction makes parking available only on the weekend, and you pay for parking at Duke Gardens. Not a great amount, but it is something to consider.

I am not saying that it is not worth the price. But I wanted to suggest a less expensive alternative. Then another location came to mind.

NC Botanical Garden.

A UNC-affiliated research-focused garden that I have visited before. Tested a film camera there once.

Scanner Files: Full first roll through the Pentax Asterisk… ist… star… ist? *ist. 36 images.

Right away there were advantages that came to mind.

Less crowded.
Tighter spaces and paths allows for easy subject isolation. Then, after a little research, a third advantage arose.
Price. $25 for two hours on a Saturday. And prices only increased slightly from there.
- And unlike Duke Gardens, parking is free.

Let me see… $150 for one hour vs. $25 for two hours. With no parking fees…

This was the mother of all no-brainers.

The mother and father were game to give it a try.

How did it go?

Great.

Just as I expected, the site was wonderful for photos. There are wonderful paths, bridges, gates, archways, chairs,…

…and of course, being a garden and all, flowers.

All perfect for framing photos.

The gear.

A years old GFX…

Week 1 WIth The GFX System: What I Have Learned So Far.

…and a wonderful lens.

Lens I Had Was Fine Until It Wasn’t: FUJIFILM GF 80mm f/1.7 R WR Preview.

And, as usual, they were wonderful. Necessary? Not at all. Given a site like this, one could make do with nearly any image-capturing implement, including a phone camera. Any camera and portrait lens would kill it here.

Inspiration.

This is my first maternity session, and I was keen to add this day to my portfolio.

Portfolio

I have seen plenty of maternity sessions so I reeled a bit at first. But the Mother provided both sample images and her Pinterest inspiration board. Perfect. Props would also be brought by them.

Even better. Outfits were matching and aesthetically perfect for the day. The Mother also had professional makeup and hair. This just gets better and better. Add in some ideas I had before and ones we all came up with during the session and poses were not a struggle. The Father has an interest in theater, so he was quite helpful. Oh, and they were a delightful family.

I am batting 100% so far.

A favorite part of the day involved their daughter. Was taking individual portraits. I asked the little girl to stand on a mound in the trail. Then when the Father stepped up she turned to him and repeated my instructions to him. This brought a smile to my face. What a great young person.

With this location, such a photogenic family, and perfect gear for the occasion this almost felt like cheating.

We did have a bit of a rain scare though. After checking the weather all week and getting a good report, rain appeared on the forecast the morning of. The most NC thing ever. Not long after relocating from NYC to NC I came up with the following motto.

“NC. Don’t like the weather right now? No problem. Just wait 30 minutes.”

And fortunately, the motto applied on this day. A drop of rain here and there but there was no issue.

Wait, before I continue the NC Botanical Garden has a another key photography advantage.

Canopy.

Aka open shade everywhere. Duke Gardens is beautiful, but most of the iconic photo sites are exposed to the sun. No problem at dusk or dawn, but careful planning would be required midday. Here? No problem at all. I brought means of screening out the sun and off camera flash, but none of that was necessary.

Open shade everywhere.

Even served to block the little bit of rain that fell during a brief shower. Nice.

On to the sample images.